The Process of Technical Writing: Part 1 (of 2)

1. Think and prepare before writing

2. Organise and develop your thinking

3. Develop an outline

4. Do a rough draft

5. Revise

6. Do the final draft

7. Do the final presentation

Step 1: Think and prepare before writing

1. Establish your writing objectives

2. Identify your readers

3. Determine the scope of the writing

4. Research

1.1 Establish your technical writing objectives

Three categories of objectives:

1. Instructive technical procedures

2. Descriptive technical information

3. General conveyance of technical information for managerial purposes

The 3 categories are often not separated.

Once the general objective is clear, develop it into a specific objective. If this is not done, the writing will be vague.

For example, `To determine the best accounting package for XYZ Industries.' is too general, whereas `To determine the accounting package which best suits XYZ Industries specific requirements. The choice is between ABC, DFG or HIJ accounting packages.' is more specific.

1.2 Identify your readers

What does the reader need to know? How deep to go. Is it an in-depth study or a brief, simple memo/report? This deter- mines how much to write, and about what.

What do the reader(s) already know? Is it about an on-going project that everyone is familiar with, or is it a new project about which little is known?

Will jargon be understood? Must know and understand the reader to effectively use jargon. If you don't know the reader, use commonly understood and defined statements. For example, `as yet, there are still several glitches in the software' as opposed to `as yet, the software is still giving out several wrong responses'.

How much definition of terms will be required? Technical terms must be defined (while jargon is replaced by common words) based on reader's level of understanding.

Are the primary readers technical?

If so, are they theoreticians or technicians?

Are the primary readers managerial?

If so, keep it general, including essentials.

Are the primary readers general?

Can span many levels of understanding.

1.3 Determine the scope of the writing

You must know how deep you need to go before beginning writing. Depth is determined by your writing objective and the mix of reader types.

1.4 Research

Gather factual information.

Primary research - done by yourself. Includes: experiments mail questionnaires, personal interviews, personal interviews, telephone interviews, personal observation and experience.

Secondary research - done by someone else. Sources include: books, periodicals, newspapers, government documents, industrial and trade directories, and the published results of experiments.

2 Organise and develop your thinking

Understandable writing must be organised and then developed if it is not to fail.

1. General to specific development

2. Specific to general development

3. Chronological development

4. Sequential development

5. Cause and effect

6. Comparison

7. Spatial development

2.1 General to specific development

Takes a general statement, concept or position and then moves towards the specific elements that support this general position.

2.2 Specific to general development

Takes specific statements, concepts or positions and combines them to form a whole.

2.3 Chronological development

Used where events or procedures must be shown in the time order in which they occur. (i.e. historical account)

Sequence is either past, present, future, or future, present, past.

2.4 Sequential development

Order of events determines the structure. The order is determined by the criteria used to order the sequence of events.

Order of importance or necessity are two such criteria.

2.5 Cause and effect

Process in which one element causes the next. Can use cause/effect, or effect/cause.

Can deal with either single or multiple cause(s) and effect(s).

2.6 Comparison

Shows how things are similar to and different from each other.

Useful in explaining unfamiliar concepts by comparing them with familiar ones.

Need a basis for comparison: cost, strength, reliability, or cost versus reliability for example.

2.7 Spatial development

Relates the position and space that the physical elements occupy.

Used to describes machines, buildings and other 3 dimensional objects.

3 Develop an outline

1. The value of outlining

2. Outline formats

3. The three basic outline styles

3.1 The value of outlining

The outline is like a roadmap - it displays the route you will take from the start to the finish of the document.

You need a route to get where you are going in your writing. The method of development defines the route, the outline is the map that shows the route.

1. Allows for easy evaluation of your organisation and development. Allows you and others to evaluate overall approach.

2. It shows you completeness. Can see whether anything has been left out.

3. It saves you time by avoiding re-writes.

3.2 Outline formats

1. Simple list. Good for brief, simple documents like memos, letters. Does not allow for expression of complex ideas.

2. Decimal outline. Nested headings using decimal notation (eg. 1., 1.1, 2., 2.1 etc.)

3.3 The three basic outline styles

1. Topical outline. Uses only topic headings or short phrases.

2. Sentence outline. Each topic uses a complete sentence. This forces you to think in greater detail. Its tempting to string the sentences together to form a choppy prose.

3. Paragraph outline. All main topics are summed up with a complete paragraph. All subordinate entries are then structures as complete sentences.