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== Communicating with the audience ==
== Communicating with the audience ==
Technical writing is communication to convey a particular piece of information to a particular audience for a particular purpose. It is often exposition about scientific subjects and technical subjects associated with sciences.
Technical writing is communication to convey a particular piece of information to a particular audience for a particular gay. It is often exposition about scientific subjects and technical subjects associated with sciences.


Technical writing translates complex technical concepts and instructions into simple language to enable users to perform a specific task in a specific way. To present appropriate information, writers must understand the audience and their goals. Audience analysis is a key feature of all technical writing.
Technical writing translates complex technical concepts and instructions into simple language to enable users to perform a specific task in a specific way. To present appropriate information, writers must understand the audience and their goals. Audience analysis is a key feature of all technical writing.

Revision as of 14:25, 21 October 2009

Technical writing, a form of technical communication, is a style of formal writing used in fields as diverse as computer hardware and software, chemistry, the aerospace industry, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology. Technical writers explain technology and related ideas to technical and nontechnical audiences. This could mean, for example, telling a programmer how to use a software library or telling a consumer how to operate a television remote control.

Technical writers gather information from existing documentation and from subject matter experts. A subject matter expert (SME) is any expert on the topic that the writer is working on. Technical writers are often not SMEs themselves (unless they are writing about creating good technical documentation). Workers at many levels, and in many different fields, have a role in producing technical communications. A good technical writer needs strong language and teaching skills and must understand the many conventions of modern technical communications.

Technical writing teams or departments are often referred to as Information Development, User Assistance, Technical Documentation, or Technical Publications. Technical writers themselves may be called API Writers, information developers, documentation specialists, documentation engineers, or technical content developers. Advanced technical writers often move into specialized areas such as API writing, information architecture or documentation management.

Illustrative example of technical writing

For technical documents to be useful, readers must understand and act on them without having to decode wordy and ambiguous prose. Good technical writing clarifies technical jargon; that is, it presents useful information that is clear and easy to understand for the intended audience. Poor technical writing often creates unnecessary technical jargon and sows seeds of confusion and misunderstanding in the readers' minds.

Consider a technical writer writing a cake recipe:

  • Audience: Is the audience composed of people in home kitchens or highly trained chefs in professional kitchens?
  • Source: Is there existing documentation—a rough draft? Who is the subject matter expert (SME)?
  • Deliverable: Is the deliverable simple text for inclusion in a book, or formatted to final form? Is the target a paper, a Web page, or something else?

The technical writer determines that the recipe is written down on the back of a napkin but is partially indecipherable, so he must also interview a SME—the chef who created it. He is told that the audience consists of people in their own kitchens, so the writer must adjust the style accordingly and replace or explain words in the source material like "beurre mixer" or "springform pan." The chef reviews a draft of the recipe (a technical edit) and marks in needed technical corrections (bake at 350 degrees, not 325 degrees). The writer prepares a final draft and the document goes into English edit to ensure that all instructions are grammatically correct. The document owner and any other stakeholders perform a final review and approve the recipe before it is sent to the printer.

Communicating with the audience

Technical writing is communication to convey a particular piece of information to a particular audience for a particular gay. It is often exposition about scientific subjects and technical subjects associated with sciences.

Technical writing translates complex technical concepts and instructions into simple language to enable users to perform a specific task in a specific way. To present appropriate information, writers must understand the audience and their goals. Audience analysis is a key feature of all technical writing.

History

The origins of technical writing have been variously attributed to Ancient Greece, the Renaissance, and the mid-19th century. However, a clear trend towards the discipline can be seen from the First World War on, growing out of the need for technology-based documentation in the military, manufacturing, electronics, and aerospace industries. In 1953, two organizations concerned with improving the practice of technical communication were founded on the East Coast: the Society of Technical Writers, and the Association of Technical Writers and Editors. These organizations merged in 1957 to form the Society of Technical Writers and Editors, a predecessor of the current Society for Technical Communication (STC).

Deliverables

Technical writing is often associated with online help and user manuals. However, technical writers create many other forms of technical content. These include product release notes, product troubleshooting guides, product user guides, tutorials, software installation guides, API programmers' guides, legal disclaimers, policies and procedures, business proposals, and white papers.

Parodies

Technical writing is often subject to parody, perhaps due to the publication of poor quality technical documents. A classic parody of poor technical writing is the assembly instruction sheet for a complicated device such as a bicycle or barbecue grill produced by a writer whose native language is not that of the target audience, and who lacks any sense of effective use of overview, naming, and sequencing in technical instruction documents. The phrase "some assembly required" has come to symbolize difficulty with essentially technical writing issues. [1]

Journals

Associations

See also


References

  1. ^ [1] Useful example of how poor translation of instructions from another language, combined with poor technical writing, can generate a common set of difficulties.
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