HS 201 Technical
Writing
Dr. Alya Badawi
Department of Nuclear and Radiation
Engineering
Alexandria University
Why study technical
writing
If you plan to work as an engineer, you will
use technical writing in your life:
Write reports as a student
Write graduation project
Write your CV and cover letter to apply for a job
Write memos to interact with your colleagues
Write work emails
Write progress report, proposals, feasibility
studies,
Write different letters to your boss, colleagues,
clients,
Course outline
Wee Topic
k
Wee
k
Topic
Introduction
Proposals
Ethical
considerations
Progress reports
Technical definition
10
Feasibility and
recommendation
reports
Description of
mechanism
11
Midterm 2
Description of a
process
12
Laboratory and project
reports
Midterm 1
13
Instructions and
manuals
Proposals
14
Open discussion
Assessment
Midterm 1
Midterm2
Attendance
Homework
Final exam
Week
Percentage
6
11
16%
16%
12%
16%
40%
15
Course information
Lectures
Textbook: Pocket
Book of Technical
Writing for Engineers
and Scientists, Leo
Finkelstein, Jr, 3rd ed,
McGraw-Hill
International edition,
Singapore, 2008
Introduction
What is technical writing:
It is communication writing for and about
business and industry. It focuses on
products and services.
All scientists and engineers use technical
writing.
It is also used by many people other than
engineers.
Technical writing is precise, objective,
direct, and clearly defined.
Difference between technical and
creative writing
Technical
Content
Audience
Purpose
Factual, straight
forward
Specific
Inform, instruct,
persuade
Style
Standard
Vocabulary Specialized
Organizatio Systematic
n
Creative
Imaginative,
metaphoric or
symbolic
General
Entertain, provoke,
captivate
Artistic
General
Arbitrary, artistic
Some characteristics of technical
writing
1. Everybody hates to write it,
2. Everybody hates to read it,
3. Almost nobody does read it(except if
you do a bad job at it),
4. It takes a HUGE amount of time to write,
5. It are absolutely CRUCIAL to YOUR
success in engineering!
Report writing
Report writing is basically technical report writing
Technical reports are reports on technical subjects
Types of technical reports:
Progress Report
Annual Report
Recommendation Report
Feasibility Study
Damage Report
Project Report
Proposal
Abstraction
In technical writing we want to:
use a low level of abstraction.
be as specific as possible
But dont be too specific you lose the
meaning in details
This man is having an unpleasant feeling that
is conveyed to the brain by sensory neurons.
This feeling is a result of tissue damage and
is from pain-sensing neurons are called
nociceptors, and virtually every surface and
organ of the body is wired with them.
I am
in
pain!
Abstraction Ladder
Mechanical device
Business/academic office supplies
Paper-fastening device
Stapler
Swingline Collectors Edition 747
Rio Red Business Stapler
Example: Batman's Grappling Gun
Batman's Grappling
Gun: Abstraction
Ladder
abstract
Climbing device
Superhero tools/devices
Batman's utility belt items
Batman's Grappling Gun
specific
The writing process
The writing process approach to writing
requires the following sequence:
Prewrite
Write
Rewrite
Prewriting
Writing
Rewriting
Prewriting
Prewriting is the first stage of the process.
It allows you to plan your communication.
The objectives of prewriting are:
Examine your purposes and goals
Consider your audience
Gather your data
Determine how the content will be provided
Audience and purpose
How well you write a technical document
can be measured by:
How well the reader understands, precisely,
your intended meaning
How well the understanding fulfills the purpose
of the need at hand
Technical writing must be geared directly
towards audience and purpose
Consider your audience
What you say and how you say it is greatly
determined by your audience.
You have to consider the readers
knowledge, skill level, and specialization.
You must provide different information to
different audience.
Examine your purposes
and goals
Set the reasons for communications:
Persuading an audience to accept your
point of view.
Informing an audience of facts, concerns,
or questions you might have.
Build relations between teams.
Characteristics of
technical writing
Deals with technical information
Relies heavily on visuals
Uses numerical data to precisely describe
quantity and direction
Is accurate and well documented
Is grammatically and stylistically correct
Deals with technical information
Example
A computer is a machine which can take
instructions and perform computations based on
those instructions.
Example X
Oh, how could this be?!
Never thought it would happen to me!
My life has been smashed ...
this dang computer crashed!
Relies heavily on visuals
A visual is any pictorial representation that is
used by the writer to clarify, explain, and
support an idea.
They include:
Pictures
Graphs
Charts
Diagrams
Illustrations
Tables
Uses numerical data to precisely
describe quantity and direction
Example
The pressure of steam in a nuclear power
plant can reach 155 bar. The temperature is
about 320C
Example X
The pressure and temperature in a nuclear
power plant is very high, much higher than
that of air.
Is accurate and well documented
Conclusions and judgments must be based
on evidence or established expertise.
References, facts, laws and theories are
used and mentioned to support the
document.
Is grammatically and stylistically
correct
Avoid grammar mistake.
By style we mean:
Using words efficiently
Do not use more words than you have to
Remove redundancies
Do not go overboard with details
Do not use complex words
Avoid ambiguity
Effective Technical
Writing
The four Cs:
Clarity -- it is easily understood by your
intended audience
Comprehensiveness -- all of the
necessary information is present
Conciseness -- it is clear without excess
verbiage
Correctness -- it is grammatical and
follows conventions
Clarity and Conciseness
1. Provide specific details
Use Instead of
A 5 gm sample was used a small sample was
used We want three computers we want
computers
Last Thursday
recently, before
2. Answer reporter questions
Make sure you answer all the relevant questions:
who, what, where, why, when.
Clarity and Conciseness (2)
3. Use easy understandable words
Avoid obscure words (e.g., later instead of
subsequently)
Do not use unknown abbreviations
4. Limit paragraph length
A paragraph in a technical document should
consist of:
(a) no more than 4 6 typed lines, or
(b) no more than 50 words
Clarity and Conciseness (3)
5. Limit word and sentence length
Limit words to about 15 - 20 words per
sentence
6. Omit redundancies
During the year of 2007
In the month of June
The results so far achieved are
Needless to say
Comprehensiveness
All the information should be provided,
Background must be described
Clear description of any process, or
method of carrying out a specific work.
Include results, conclusions and
recommendations.
Correctness
No grammatical errors,
No punctuation mistakes
Appropriate format standard.
If a report contains grammatical errors, the reader
will doubt the accuracy of the information in the
report.
Example:
The three persons: person 1, person 2 and person 3
attended a session
The three persons, person 1, person 2 and person 3
attended a session
Question ?