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Technical Writing Characteristics

It is targeted to readers who are looking for information on a particular topic, such as how to operate a computer or to
provide detailed specifications on a new drug.

Technical writing must be clear, concise and easy for readers in the target audience to follow, understand and act
upon. These are key components of effective technical writing.

What do you mean by characteristics of Technical Writing?

It distinguishes from other types of writing.

It is very different from writing opinion pieces, essays, prose, non-fiction, or fiction.

Technical documents are written in a business writing style rather than one that is academic or creative in nature.

Main Characteristics of Technical Writing

1. Accuracy - refers to the way sentences are put together, the way paragraphs are developed, and the way the report
as a whole is balanced, not just only on the exact usage of individual words.

2. Brevity - emphasizes the highlights of ones work, cuts out irrelevant comments and meaningless statements.

3. Coherence - the implicit and explicit logical togetherness of units, not just a random collection of sentences. It is the
connectivity of the elements of a text.

4. Confidence - knowing more about the subject than anyone else; modest sureness on the part of the report writer, an
authority of every page of the report or research.

5. Directness - achieved through straightforward expressions, with summarized, simplified and well-organized
information.

6. Emphasis - gives the reader what is significant that leads him from point to point by using a straightforward style,
plenty of guideposts and transitional aids.

7. Facility - making the report easy to understand and follow. It is achieved by using short sentences and paragraphs.

8. Grammarly - following the basic rules of grammar. It is making the writing straightforward, logical and clear and
checking the statement for sound as well as sense.

9. Honesty - acknowledging the use of people’s information or works either in footnotes or in text.

10. Illustration - refers to the graphics or visuals such as charts, graph, diagrams or photographs.

11. Judiciousness - the judicious weighing of evidence which is the body of facts or data gathered and used by the writer
to develop a report.

Technical Writing Characteristics 1

13. Logical Order - a process of classification, putting things in their proper places.

14. Mechanical Neatness - involves putting the report in perfect shapes that is, free from typographical errors, crossing-
out, smudges and the like.

15. Normal Procedures - conformity to standard practices, thus making the report easy to understand and follow.

16. Objectivity - avoids the use of the first person (I, me, my) except in short informal reports, in order to give the
impression that there is no one standing between him and the work being reported.

17. Personality - explaining the circumstances surrounding ones work because they might have affected the results one
is reporting.

18. Qualification - carries the full weight of meaning in a report.

19. Responsibility - treating the subject fully for the report to have a lasting value; however, a report writer should not
overwrite.

20. Specifications - tells that all the details and facts in the report are clearly relevant to the main point under discussion;
the subjects are tied together.

21. Thoroughness - concerned with reporting the facts. It does not indulge in evasion, equivocation or shifting the issue.

22. Unity - written from a consistent and certain viewpoint - that of a report, professor, or teacher and researcher.

23. Veracity - researchers should tell the truth and pass on information in a comprehensive and objective way.

24. Word Choice - the use of technical words, but one has to avoid pompous, ornate words, and especially vague words.

25. You Point - presenting the information in segments appropriate to the reader’s knowledge and needs.

26. Zest - writing with hearty enjoyment or writing something worth saying.

💡 Reference:

MODULE 2- TECHNICAL WRITING AN OVERVIEW (DEFINITION, CHARACTERISTICS, ABCs)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqpeq9RJxXY

Technical Writing Characteristics 2