Principles of technical writing
- 3. Who’s reporting? BSED-ENGLISH Catherine Esteban Nolyn Angelique Manalo Mary Divine Samoy Mojarri Villacencio
- 4. Principles of Technical Writing DESCRIPTION 1 2 3 4 5
- 5. principles of Technical writing WHAT IS TECHNICAL WRITING Technical Writing, sometimes called business writing, is writing for a specific purpose and with a specific goal. Usually its goal is to inform/instruct or persuade/argue. Technical writing can really be considered transactional writing because there are two people or groups involved in the communication.
- 6. Why is Technical Writing Important?
- 8. 1. USE GOOD GRAMMAR
- 9. 1. Use Good Grammar Your readers expect technical documents to be written in standard English. Certain grammatical errors can actually cause your reader to misinterpret the information. However, because technical documents must be precise and accurate, readers expect documents to be professional, polished, and flawless.
- 10. One grammatical rule to adhere to is subject-verb agreement. One employee is absent. Two employee’s are absent This subject-verb agreement is easy to make because in each sentence, the subject is obvious employee in the first sentence agrees with is and employees in the second sentence agrees with are. The real challenge is when the subject is not as obvious
- 12. 2.Writing Concisely In technical writing, clarity and brevity is your goal. Why take 32 words to express what could be stated in 14 or 15? The dictates of effective technical writing suggest that the average length for a sentence is 15-20 words.
- 13. 3. USING THE ACTIVE VOICE
- 14. 3.Using the Active Voice Imperative sentences, or command sentences, are written in the active voice. The active voice is more natural to people when they speak, but technical writers often turn to the passive voice when writing technical documents. One of the main reasons you should use the active voice rather than the passive in technical writing is the active voice more closely resembles the way people remember and process information
- 15. Compare the following sentences: Staff hours are calculated by the manager on the actual work load. The manager calculates staff hours on the actual work load. In the active voice sentence,the subject acts. In the passive voice sentence, something is done to the subject. Another reason to avoid the passive voice sentence is you run the risk of omitting the doer of the action.
- 16. Another reason to avoid the passive voice sentence is you run the risk of omitting the doer of the action. Note the absence of the "doer" in the following sentence: Documented practical examinations will be given for backhoes of the same type with different operating characteristics. Your reader will probably wonder who will give the practical examinations. If the technical writer had used the active voice, the "doer" would be clear.
- 18. 4.Using Positive Statements Technical writers should word instructions as positive statements. Whenever possible, phrase commands in a positive manner.
- 20. 5. Avoiding Long Sentences Short sentences are easier to understand than long sentences. For this reason, it is best to write your technical documents in short sentences. If you are asking your readers to perform several actions, begin the step with an active verb.
- 21. When separating steps into distinct bullet points is to make sure that the action verbs in each bulleted item are in the same tense. For example, if the first step was worded, "Creating an empty workspace ," then the next bullet would be, "Populating it with application source code ," and the third bullet point would be, "Compiling the workspace ."
- 23. 5. Using Standard Punctuation Your readers expect standard punctuation when they read your documents. Complicated or "creative" punctuation will confuse them. One suggestion is to select syntax that minimizes the need for punctuation. You may wish to divide compound or complex sentences into shorter sentences to avoid excessive or confusing punctuation. One example of this is deciding where to place your commas, periods, colons, and semicolons when using quotation marks. Commas and periods always go inside the closing quotation mark.
- 24. EXAMPLES 1. We are "struggling young artists," but we hope to become successful. 2. Most corporations adopt the belief, "the customer is always right." 3. On the other hand, semicolons and colons are always placed outside the quotation marks. EXAMPLES 1. These actors can deliver "box office hits": Tom Cruise, Tom Hanks, Johnny Depp. 2. Look in the manual under "text messaging"; the directions are very clear.
- 25. CONCLUSION