Technical writing

Technical writing is a specialized form of communication used in many of today's manufacturing, medical and research organizations. Organizations, such as these, rely on technical writing to communicate complex information to customers/clients, co-workers or engineers/scientists using a mix of simplified grammar and easy-to-understand visual communication.

The work of technical writing requires an ability to accurately research and interpret complex technical content and explain it in a format, style, and reading level the audience will either easily understand or connect with. There are two main forms of technical writing. By far, the most common form of technical writing is procedural documentation written for the general public (e.g., standardized step-by-step guides and standard operating procedures (SOPs)). Procedural technical writing is used in all types of manufacturing to explain user operation, assembly, installation instructions and personnel work/safety steps. The software industry has grown into one of the largest users of technical writing and relies on procedural documents to describe a program's user operation and installation instructions.

In some applications, technical writing may be written for experts or fellow scientists within a field of work or study. In these applications, a "white paper" technical writing format is used to describe a specialized topic and market a product/service or opinion/discovery to select readers. Organizations normally use the white paper format to publish technical writing as industry journal articles or academic papers. The white paper format is written to appeal to readers familiar with a technical topic. Unlike procedural technical writing, white papers often include unique industry terms and data. Sometimes called scientific technical writing, this secondary form of technical writing must show a deep knowledge of a subject and the field of work with the sole purpose of persuading readers to agree with a paper's conclusion. ^[1] The majority of technical documents written for this application are ghost written by a technical writer for an organization's industry expert.

In most cases, however, technical writing is used to help convey complex scientific or niche subjects to end users in "laymen's" terms and includes purely factual content. Modern procedural technical writing relies on simple terms and short sentences, rather than detailed explanations with unnecessary information like pronouns, abstract words and/or unfamiliar acronyms.^[2] Although technical writing plays an integral role in the work of engineering, health care, and science; it does not require a degree in any of these fields. Instead, the document's author must be an expert in technical writing. An organization's Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), internal specifications, and a formal engineering review process are relied upon to ensure a document's information is accurate. A necessary division of labor can then be created within organizations, in which technical writers focus on documentation format, grammar, and style; while engineers and scientists focus on documentation accuracy. Most technical writers hold a degree in a liberal art writing discipline, such as: technical communication, journalism, English, technical journalism, communication, etc. Technical writing is recognized as the largest segment of the technical communication field.^[3]

Examples of fields requiring technical writing include computer hardware and software, architecture, engineering, chemistry, aeronautics, robotics, manufacturing, finance, medical, patent law, consumer electronics, biotechnology, and forestry.