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How to Get Started in Technical Writing
By Kalina Lima
Technical communications—or technical writing, refers to knowledge that is not widespread, that is more the territory of experts and specialists. So, no matter the major, if the writing is produced within a specific and limited or particular area, it is engaged in the whole idea of technical communications. Considering this approach, some academic ‘hands-on’ experiences are considered to be technical, since they are specialized in one field.
Academic papers about novels or any literary interpretation, portfolio, reports, reader-response journals or any of the many different formats of writing required at school are examples of technical writing, as they all must fit in one specialized field, and serve specific purposes.
Also part of this professional writing here stated is the
job performed at the writing center of a university. The Writing Center at ETSU
provides the University students and the community in general with support in
all types of writings, ranging from the academic ones mentioned above, to
applications to jobs or schools, personal statements, and resumes. The center,
which provides one-to-one sessions, also offers technological support in terms
of video camera and tape recorder, and has equipped practice rooms where its
tutors prepare the persons who come there for help for oral presentations. The
tutors who work there receive on-the-job training within a group of tech
writers, which enables them to tutor peer students/customers, and also produce
themselves better papers.
SPJ - The Society of Professional
Journalists is the nation’s largest and most broad-based journalism
organization, dedicated to encouraging the free practice of journalism and
stimulating high standards of ethical behavior. Founded in 1909 as Sigma Delta
Chi, SPJ also promotes the free flow of information vital to a well-informed
citizenry; works to inspire and educate the next generation of journalists; and
protects First Amendment guarantees of freedom of speech and press. Journalism
can provide good tech writing experience, too. It teaches editing,
deadline/discipline, and layout skills that are essential to the successful
tech writer. The writer/editor partnership is an important aspect of this
process.
The IEEE – The Institute of
Electrical and Electronic Engineers, INC serves the purpose of promoting the
engineering process of creating, developing, integrating, sharing, and applying
knowledge about electrical and information technologies and sciences. The IEEE
is in New York. Though IEEE is an influential organization, it benefits
engineers more than writers, and favors those writers who are in engineering
fields (i.e., computer documentation writers).
What about other publications, journals, and organizations for tech writers?
The mission of its History Center is to preserve, research and promote
the history of information and electrical technologies. The History Center
is a research facility, not a museum. It is part of the Educational Activities
area, and it is co-sponsored by Rutgers University.
This
facility benefits academicians more than it does the "hands-on" tech
writers; however, the History Ctr. also provides a sense of continuity in the
field.
March is Women’s History Month. The IEEE had a special space this past
March in it web page to celebrate some of the women electrical and computer
engineers who have given significant contributions to their fields. One example
of these engineers is Edith Clarke (1883 – 1959), who was an electrical
engineer, and the first woman to present a technical paper before the American
Institute of Electrical Engineers (AIEE), a predecessor society of the IEEE. In
the past the only qualified technical writers were, in their majority, former
composition teachers. Nowadays there is a larger number of men working in such
a field, which is no longer limited to former composition teacher, as it proved
a profitable activity.
“Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You
need to start somewhere. Start by getting something – anything – down on
paper.” Anne Lamott
Largely related to academic writing, which differently from the writing
in the workplace, is more flexible in terms of time to elaborate, a technical
but more academic writing should follow some steps in the process. Tips that
are useful for both research and or technical writing.
Brainstorming – put
down whatever ideas comes into one’s head, no censor. Some may not even be
clearly connected to the paper subject.
Listing – tentative
list of possible points, ideas, or aspects of the topic. It helps lower the
stress of the beginning, because it appears the writer have something.
Free writing – it is
an exercise of nonstop writing. Similar to the brainstorm, but already
connected to the topic, one writes all ideas one can think of without worrying
about grammatical correctness.
Make an outline – a
good activity to do after having listed and brainstormed, outlining can help
the writer concentrate on his or her intended topic.
Experiment with Thesis Statements – trying out possible thesis statements can lead the writer to find out about which approach is best for him to be used in the project. All the skills that make for a good research writer apply to tech writers, too. Sometimes the academic writer has more time to elaborate his or her piece of paper and the technical has urgent needs that prevent him from producing a more personal job.
Power up: Rules
for Writing – It is having a
writing system – one that works. It has different steps, which may be utilized
to different types of writing, from college-application essays to reports. Some
people make use of Writing Power, perhaps without even realizing it.
Successful
tech writers, along the years and the experience, develop a system for producing a draft, and they use that system
consistently. Such writers find it easier to adapt to corporate requirements
for technical documentation than, say, creative writers. In this respect,
technical writers are much less flexible, systemically, than creative writers;
however, the milieu in whichthe technical writing is performed is quite
different.
Writing Power helps the
writer focus on specific areas where he or she is having trouble. One may feel
confident as a writer of one kind of material or topic, but is not sure about
how to apply his skills to complete a particular task at work or school. Writing
Power helps one master the kind of writing he is not sure about, whether it
is a school essay or a report for a boss about a new management plan. The do’s
and don’ts section should be followed to help understand what the
purpose and style of a piece of writing ought to be and then be able to
complete the tasks easily and effectively.
“Who casts to write a living line, must
sweat.” Ben Johnson
Effective writing on the job is carefully planned, thoroughly researched, and clearly presented. Whether being about a routine memo to a co-worker or a special report to the president of the company, for the writing to be effective, it should take into consideration the following questions.
1 – Who will read what is going to be written?
Identify the audience and its specific features and needs. Once identified the audience, the writing should be significant, relevant, not redundant or too obvious. For example, if it is an article about a movie, to a specialized magazine. According to the profile of the readers this magazine has the article will need to bring some extra information, or not. If the audience is another branch of an international company, special attention should be given not to experience any misunderstanding, since business is the point here. One example of this is the units of measurements to be used, and also things that appear to be simple, but are different in different cultures, such the way documents are dated. In the United States the month comes first, then the day. In many different cultures, the day comes first, and then the month, and this is in some occasions what is preferred, in order to have the information clearly understood by the reader.
2 – Why should the readers read what is stated?
Establish a purpose, clearly defined. This way, the reader will have a reason for reading and considering what is being proposed.
3 – What does the writer have to say to his or her readers?
Formulate the message in a way that the readers should easily understand it. Closely related to n. 2, what is the essence of the text itself.
4 – How can the writer best communicate?
Select the style and tone, and the appropriate language for each particular occasion. Some academic papers are more flexible in terms of word choice and formality, since some of them are basically reader-response, are mostly writer-oriented. The technical writing that takes place in the business world, ought to be sometimes neutral in terms of point of view, strictly expressing the object of the correspondence, or report.
The first secret:
Everyone worries about writing!
Even Nobel prize winning novelists experience a sense of dread when confronted by a blank page, as they feel exposed. So, the fact that one also worries means that he or she is a writer. Join the club!
This fear appears to be even more terrifying among technical writing students, because besides all the fear of exposing themselves in their writings, they sometimes do not have the maturity to produce professional papers. The price of getting a good job, if one decides to go into the business of professional writing, is to be confident about his or her abilities, specially when having a job interview. Without that confidence, potential employers may consider this candidate a "light-weight" writer.
The second secret: Anyone can do it well.
It just takes practice, and time. Writing is a learning skill, just like any other one. It may be compared to when one starts driving and cannot talk on the cell phone at the same time. With the practice, all the first difficulties and fears disappear.
“Word carpentry is like any other kind of carpentry: you must join your
sentences smoothly.” Anatole
France
1 – Be concise – keep your information/writing short and simple, so as make it understandable by anybody. Not a several words are necessary when one will do. In some cases the use of sentence fragments and bold headlines are useful, especially if it is to be posted on the web, where readers only scan information.
Use tables, bullets and graphs. A picture is worth a thousand words.
|
Wordy |
Concise now |
“Beginners lacking experience” is redundant.
| Redundant the unfortunate problem advance warning helpful cooperation a brilliant genius |
Concise the problem warning cooperation a genius |
2 – Be forceful - Take a stand. The sense of being exposed, or revealed, to the reader, is very scary/intimidating, because it is the writer’s ideas which fill in the blanks of a page, or bright computer screen.
Sometimes the writer tries to find a refuge someplace else, in White’s words, “even an experienced writer has to fight the tendency to run screaming from the room, looking for an errand to run, a phone call to make, an oven to clean, but really, a place to hide” (15). For others, cleaning the place may be exactly where they start from, as seeing the house in order it represents the stage of getting ideas for the topic and the writing itself.
In order to be forceful, the writer should:
3. Be correct – the fear of not being grammatically correct keeps many people away from writing. One should be aware of grammar for structure. The proper use of grammar gives the writer more authority. Special aspects ought to be considered, such as subject verb agreement, YOU used appropriately, correct use of pronouns, avoiding the misunderstanding between he/she, the effective use of parallel construction, and having the modifiers in the right place.
4. Be polished – it is the last phase of the process. After having been concise, forceful, and correct, it is time to be polished and use the adequate vocabulary to the audience. The writer needs to communicate with the audience at the audience’s level, not his.
Once in a job, either in a big corporation or in a small company, the necessity of doing collaborative writing at work happens frequently. In fact, the teamwork is one of the most important aspects of the business. The teamwork gives the company a standard in terms of quality and ideas, and it is fundamental in the market.
Collaborative writing brings benefits for the team involved in it. According to Kolin, the specific advantages are, 1. Builds on collective talents, 2. Provides productive feedback. 3. Increases productivity and saving time. 4. Assures overall writing effectiveness, 5. Offers psychological benefits, and 6. Contributes to customer service and satisfaction. (74-5)
Collaborative writing and writing process use the same strategies and experience the same difficulties individual writers do. The good aspect of working as a team is that the solutions are more likely to come earlier. The group formed with a specific purpose or working in a project should bear in mind some aspects of the writing process, such as they should plan before write; do research; prepare drafts; and revise and edit.
Kalina Lima is a graduate student at ETSU – East Tennessee
State University. She is from Brazil, where she worked as teacher of English as
a Second Language, Scientific Reading Strategies and International Culture. She also works for the State Court of
Justice in her the state of Piaui – Brazil, where she is from. She is a
hard-working student, fun-loving, and easy-going person. Kalina writing,
reading, watching good movies, traveling, and is appreciative of the cultural
differences she has been coming across with since she arrived in Johnson City,
TN, for she believes we do grow from such a rich atmosphere.
Works Cited
Kolin, Philip C. Successful Writing at Work. Houghton Mifflin Company. New York. 1998.
The Society of Professional Journalists. http://spj.org/spjhome.htm Mar 18, 01