Principles Of Technical Writing 1l7050

THE BASIC PRINCIPLES OF TECHNICAL WRITING

SUBMITTED TO: Ms. Catherine Mercado

SUBMITTED BY: Agnas, Shaira Mae Anyayahan, Angela Joy Bandula, Froilan Diaz, Emilyn Ann Dugay, Karl Justine Tanggo, Hanady Vinluan, Denmark

Technical Writing

Technical Writing is basically simplifying complex instructions that can be understood by the variety of s. In which, writers ensure that the provided instructions are paralleled with the subject, factual and defined. They eliminate excessive use of jargons and vague information, but instead provide simple instructions that can be easily understood and followed in layman’s term. Technical writing is commonly used in manuals, reports, guides and others. It can also be considered as the conduit between the creators and s.

Principles of Technical Writing To ensure that the ideas are organized and presented in a manner that the audience will easily understand, these are the following principles that should be delivered in technical writing:

a. Content The writer should fully understand the material that is to be communicated. He should have knowledge with the manuscript, concept and application, in order for him to explain well the instruction. With his familiarity with the subject, the writer will be able to deliver the information and instruction effectively. They can able to clarify complicated concepts in simple manner. There are basic questions that should consider in planning for the content of the technical writing: who, why, what, how and when. For example, the technical writer has to prepare a manuals for the new appliance. These are the following questions for him to be guided: 1. Who will read the manual? 2. Why do need to create the manual? 3. What is this manual going to offer in its intended ?

4. How is the manual going to be delivered? 5. When does the manual have to be ready?

b. Audience and Purpose Primarily, the technical writer consider the or respondent and purpose of his writing. He needs to be aware to his respondent’s knowledge or level of understanding about the subject material, so then he will able to determine the content and focus of his document. Moreover, he will able to deliver the information effectively to his intended respondent. These are the following questions to consider in technical writing with regards to the respondents: 1. Who will read the document? 2. What are their biases? 3. What are technical writer’s ethical responsibilities when communication this to their audiences? In example, more of the manuals and product guides provided when you purchased an appliances or devices are written in various languages. The writer included foreign languages in the manuals, since the product is also available worldwide. With regards to the purpose, the writer primarily determine the motive of the document. He may be able to convey and establish the following objectives: to inform, request, instruct, suggest, order, report, reply, analyze or critique and compare.

c. Style Guide The writer should also consider the ideal structure and style of presentation of his document. It is the essential part of development of documentation as it established the disposition of the entire writing.

Preferably, writers construct a storyboard as organizational pattern in presenting the information. They need to expound the information on step by step in logical sequence or continuity manner so the respondents will able to understand the instruction. They also include illustrations, graphs, charts, tables and images to balance to further explain complex information.

d. Writing Style The writer’s style in constructing a technical writing should be based on its respondents and purpose of the documentation. And there are some strategies in making an effective writing style of technical writing that makes it contents easily understand by its respondents. 

The technical writing can be formal or informal depends to whom the document should be delivered. When writing a formal document, it should be objective, no emotions attached by the writer and uses third-person pronoun while informal writing can be just casual and subjective, usually uses first-person pronoun as it directly addresses the reader.



Information in technical writing should be explained briefly and concisely. As much as possible make the details short and direct to the point. Long sentences can be replace for short phrases or phrases can be replace with just one word. Writer should determine the level of detail necessary presented for the document. In this way, reader would easily digest what was implied in the document.



It is effective to use positive statements in constructing the technical information. Writers should established the mood of his information positively by limiting the use of negative tone: refrain from using harsh and DON’T’s statements. In this, readers would not roughly misunderstood the intended information.



Technical document preferably use active voice in providing information. In which, it is written directly to the point, formal and focused on the subject. The reader are able to follow and understand well since the subject information are determined and clear. The wordiness and misleading the subject of ive voice contributes to the ambiguity of information. Thus, readers pay closer attention to shorter than the longer sentences and paragraphs.

e. Accessing the Information Technical writing should conveys easy access to the information for the s. Providing table of contents, headers, footers, page numbers, headings and sub headings help make the document more accessible for the intended s. This will easily make the s find their desired information. Moreover, illustrations, graphs and figures will help the readers to better understand the information that the writer wanted to impart.

f. Grammar The writer must have a comprehensive knowledge in the English grammar. Simple mistake of misplacing punctuations, misused words and incorrect format will add to the confusion and ambiguity of the subject information. It is also advisable to the writers to proofread the document before presenting it to the s. It is unnecessary for the writer to use technical in providing information, he should level his writing to the knowledge understood by the s. Poor writing skill of the writer depicts poor attention to the details and inadequate critical thinking. Overlook mistakes compromise the intended meaning and degrade the over-all quality of information.

Technical writing is a hard work, writers should think and strategize their document in a manner that readers will easily adapt, absorb and understand the information they needed in the document. Learn also from other writings, getting their ideas on how they make their technical writings will enhance your knowledge on how you will make your writings simple yet knowledgeable and understandable for your readers. Following these principles in technical writing, writers not only will become a better writer but also their technical writings will be appreciated by their readers and also co-writers.

References: https://mooreti.com/the-principles-of-technical-writing.html https://cypressmedia.net/articles/article/26/six_principles_of_technical_writing https://www.hurleywrite.com/blog/61499/simple-positive-language-in-technicalwriting https://www.datacenterjournal.com https://techwhirl.com/what-is-technical-writing/ https://www.ross.ws/content/principles-effective-technical-writing https://www.slideshare.net/mobile/RaissaGuldam/technical-writing-14880642