Technical and Bussiness Writing

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Communication in written includes documents like memos, letters, reports, summaries to communicate with office staff and customers, and fliers, brochures, technical descriptions, user manuals, websites to market your products. All of these technical writing media of communication, if mastered effectively, help to sell the business.

Well-presented information always grabs attention of its reader. All scientific theories, inventions and researches need to be shared for their real success. Information free of errors presented in proper manner surely increases its value. Professionals need to write user manuals, develop websites, document technical descriptions; similarly, students need to write their thesis and research reports. All what is needed is proficiency in technical writing skills to achieve success wherever you stand. Hence ignorance about writing skills and lack of its implementation in professional life is like living in Dark Age, with no future in modern organized world.

1.5 Characteristics of Technical Writing

Technical writing, just as any other form of writing, has certain characteristics which distinguish it from other types of writing. It is very different from writing opinion pieces, essays, prose, non-fiction or fiction. It has following distinct characteristics.

- Subject

Since technical writing is expository writing meant to inform or explain something to reader, it has a clearly mentioned subject. The subject also reflects the subject matter clearly.

- Audience

The audience of a technical writing—or any piece of writing for that matter—is the intended or potential reader or readers. Technical writing is meant for communication with a very specific audience. To communicate successfully, you must speak the language of your audience. In technical writing the needs of the audience (readers) dictate every decision the writer makes. Failure to draft the writing, in terms your reader expects will slow down or inhibit communication.

- Organization

Technical writing is very structured. This type of writing has a very obvious organization that makes it easy for the reader to follow along and perceive in a single glance before reading. The use of headings, subheadings and numbering etc allows the audience to easily access the information as needed.

- Style

The technical document uses a simple, concise & straightforward style that is easily understood. Besides, it also uses jargons (specialized vocabulary). If you are interested in technical writing for professional purposes, it is very important to know that this type of writing requires the writer to stick to the subject matter and relay information in a clear and concise manner.

- Tone

Emotion creates tone. We don’t expect technical documents to convey emotion. In fact, emotion can get in the way of a technical document. Readers of technical document read for information, not for entertainment. The tone in technical writing is best described as objective or businesslike.

- Special Features

The only writing to rely upon special features is technical writing. It uses special features such as boldfacing, italic, underlining and bulleted lists to draw attention to certain words. The use of visual aids such as tables, graphs and diagrams also help to relay complex information instantaneously.

1.6 Difference between Technical Writing & Academic Writing

Academic writing- such as a personal essay, research paper, analysis and argument- must be unified, coherent and well organized. Technical writing must also be unified, coherent and well organized. Matters of style and standard usage are important to both academic and technical writing. Certainly both types rely on complex writing process. They are written in stages from pre-writing to writing to editing and revising. The purpose is often the same- to inform or to persuade.

The difference between the two is in the presentation, audience and approach. Academic writing presents itself in a succession of paragraph- usually an introductory paragraph, a number of paragraphs that develop a thesis and a concluding paragraph. Academic writing is written for an academic audience- a teacher, your classmates or a group of interested scholars. Its approach is to expand on thought or to make observation about human experience. As a result the subject matter, style and tone are more varied.

Technical writing also presents itself in paragraphs and often begins with an introduction and closes with a conclusion, but technical writing (with its headings, itemized lists, boldfacing and visual aids) looks different from academic writing. Written for a specific audience, the subject is treated in a more technical, business or a scientific way with less flexibility in the subject matter, style and tone.