If you’re looking at a career in technical writing, you should familiarize yourself with these types of documents, just as you do with more identified technical material.   What types of documents will you be writing under this category?  A lot, actually, including client proposals, service-level agreements, white papers, standard operating procedures, policies, legal disclaimers and many others.

Technical writing encompasses both procedural (instruction manuals, troubleshooting guides) and persuasive (white papers, product catalogs), so you need to brush up your skills in both.  It’s important for technical writers to be well-versed  not just in the technical aspects of the company’s products and services, but in the technical language of business and marketing, as well.

What if you want to specialize?  There are definitely opportunities.  If you’re starting, though, you’ll find it difficult to pick and choose your projects.  As you advance in your technical writing career, your background in a particular type of documentation might make you attractive to hire as a specialized freelancer.

• Procedures.  This explains the work that was carried out in order to come to the results, including a description of each task and the equipment used.  Any problems that needed to be overcome will also be covered here.
• Results.  This part offers a brief explanation of the results you got off the procedures, often bearing tables and graphs that show them in detail.
• Interpretation.  Results are often made up of exact numbers or hard facts.  For that data to carry any relevance, it has to be interpreted.  You do that here, giving your reasoning for each interpretation you offer.
• Conclusion.  This section gives the reader the overall findings based on all the work previously done.
• Recommendations.  Normally, readers will peruse a document to be enlightened about a matter that requires their decision.  This section allows you to recommend a course of action for them.
• References.  This section lists the publications referred to, whether in general or particular, in both your technical document and in the work carried out for it.  You can also add a list of materials for further reading to those members of the audience who would like to follow up on the topic.
• Appendix.  Here, you include any additional supporting materials, such as examples, a glossary of technical terms and the like.

The standard technical writing model uses multiple sections, one or more of which will appear in every technical paper.  In these series of articles, we’ll cover the different sections that comprise this model.  Here are the first five:

• Abstract.  This is a brief summary of the document, giving readers an overview of the its contents, including any conclusions or recommendations.   The recommended length for abstracts is 300 words, although this could vary depending on the requirements of the organization or publication you’re writing for.
• Acknowledgment.  Here, you cite all the individuals that directly helped in the work described in the document.
• Introduction.  This section explains the main subject of the document, its goals, and how it fits in with the other work done in that field.
• Objectives.  What results are the document expected to accomplish?  You list those down in this section, elaborating on the reasons for these objectives and who each is aimed for.
• Theory.  Here, you describe and explain any background theory that’s required for the reader to understand your document, ensuring that all your readers are adequately informed of the basic technical details they need.

Learning to put together white papers can prove a useful skill for anyone aspiring to a career in technical writing.  If you’re getting started on the path, here are five things to get used to avoiding when writing your own white papers.

• Proper writing structure.  When you write a white paper, make sure to provide adequate background information before delving into the details.  Also, give each concept adequate elaboration (e.g. don’t jump from one implementation to another in a jerky manner the way many white papers online seem to).
• Getting too technical.  While white papers are technical documents, a good portion of your audience will be non-technical folks.  Provide adequate explanation for technical elements that you suspect might go over some of your readers’ heads.
• Using unclear terms.  Acronyms, terminology and jargon can be useful for simplifying communication among peers, but it can lead to confusion if not properly defined and explained.  Make sure you do.
• Being visually unappealing.  Stop thinking of a white paper as a report people will read for their content alone.  Make it visually interesting, with pictures, diagrams and spacious formatting.  Basically, make it easier to read.
• No summary.   Always have a summary.  That way, busy professionals will have a quick place to check key points before reading your piece in detail.

Here are some things to bear in mind when crafting technical documents:

Know the reader well.  Depending on who the document is for, you need to temper the technical complexities to a level they can understand.  A document prepared for engineers should not be written in a similar language than one aimed at end users.

Organize the material.  Always look for a logical way to arrange your materials, developing the presentation so there’s a discernible sequence.    Even if readers will take to your work for the technical information, an organized structure will help make the entire document easier to follow.

Clearly state your purpose in each section.  Don’t just dive into the details.  Instead, clearly state what each section is supposed to do.   Dropping into complex and challenging material with no pretext as to what it’s all about can make the reader’s job especially challenging.

Keep sentences shorter to compensate for the complexity of the material.  The more complex your material is, the shorter and simpler your sentences should be.  Make sure to vary it up with longer constructions, though, when conveying simpler ideas.

Use an objective tone.  Technical writing focuses on facts and precision.  Both of those things are served well by taking an objective tone.

This is in stark contrast to fiction writing (where a lot is implied) and features writing (where some things are implied).  When you write explicitly, everything is laid out nice and clear for the reader’s benefit.  You avoid putting the reader in a position where they need to read between the lines.

Explicitness can be accomplished in many ways.  Here are the most important things to remember.

1. Be explicit in the organization of ideas.   You make it clear to the reader how various parts of the text are related, using keywords and transition signals to indicate an explicit relationship among them.
2. Tell the reader when you see similarities between ideas.  Don’t just state your interpretations and let the reader make the connection.  Explicitly state it — it will help lessen the potential for misunderstanding.
3. If you’re citing an example, say so.  Don’t just dive into an anecdote without setting up a transition, as the reader can easily mistake that for a whole host of other things (especially in technical writing, where readers are looking for explicit information).
4. Acknowledge your sources explicitly.  Make sure it’s clear who the sources are for any information you quote, summarize or paraphrase.

Key Terms

When you use key terms in a technical document, stick with them throughout.   Forget about varying word use with synonyms — key terms are best spoken of the same way throughout the material.

This is especially true for technical terms that you’ve introduced early in the document.  Chances are, you’ve introduced and defined them because you worry that the reader isn’t too familiar with the terms.   Using alternative phrases later on will only muddle the messages you’re attempting to convey.

Voice

Use the same voice throughout the document.  If you write “we” as the actor, stay within the same frame throughout its entirety.  Changing voice and plurality at any point in a technical document is bound to lead the reader astray.

Facts

Make sure your facts are straight and precise.  If you say that one action leads to a specific result, then don’t give it a different outcome later in the document.  Stay consistent with your facts and avoid leading the reader down the wrong path.

When most people hear about technical writing, they immediately think of user guides and reference manuals.  While those are two common types of technical documents, so are business plans, organizational policies, white papers,  legal disclaimers and many more.

As a form of communication, technical writing can be found in diverse fields.   From engineering to computers to sciences to aerospace to finance to agriculture, there’s always a need for this specialized writing skill.

Since they’ll compose documents with plenty of details and user-level stuff, technical writers have to be somewhat learned in the fields they write for.   While someone write a user manual for a factory machine need not be an expert on it, they’ll have to know enough to competently interview actual experts (such as the engineers who designed it) and understand existing documentation.

Good technical writing clarifies jargon and simplifies procedures, such that the target audience can comprehend the ins-and-outs of a particular topic without needing either the writer’s or the expert’s level of knowledge.  In its current form, many technical documents have gone beyond just the written word — instead, they combine text, images and other multimedia components in order to create effective and engaging end results.

1. Never start sentences with numbers.  If you must use a figure to begin a sentence, write it out in words.
2. If a number is less than 1, then add a zero before the decimal point.
3. If you’re going to deal with binary in the document, decide beforehand how you will write them (either as numerals or as words) and stick to that.  There’s no standard rule in technical writing for its use, but it helps the reader if you stay consistent throughout a text.
4. Use numerals for exact values when they are of notable importance (e.g. The data showed a 5.3% disparity…).
5. Use words when the values are of no particular importance (e.g. There are over four hundred different things to consider in this…).
6. Avoid fractions.  If necessary, write them like this: 4-1/8.
7. Be precise.  If a number is rounded, don’t add “00″ after the decimal for notation’s sake — it suggests exactness where it isn’t supposed to be.

Here’s the deal.  If you use one of the more advanced writing software out there, they usually include a style checker that goes through your text and suggests corrections depending on the style standard you want to follow.  In such cases, your use of numbers will likely be included in the corrections, so don’t worry too much about it.

User-centered technical writing focuses on key aspects that will improve the reader’s experience, such as:

1. Fulfilling their expectations.  Every reader takes to a technical document with some form of expectation.  Know what those are and make sure you serve them.
2. Learning their characteristics and playing to that.   What qualities define your audience?   Learn them and appeal to those characteristics in your writing.
3. Helping them meet their goals.  Most people will use a product to get specific results.  What will those be for your users?  Make sure you technical document helps pave the way to achieving them.
4. Identifying ways to make the information accessible and easily understandable.   Most technical documents are bogged down by indecipherable language.  Knowing who your audience is beforehand allows you to simplify your choice of words so that the actual users will be able to follow.

An English software for grammar will, naturally, be very beneficial to user-centered technical writing.  Apart from the corrections it can provide to your grammar and spelling, it can help you choose words that are more likely to appeal to your target readers.