Elements of Technical Writing
Style
Lecture No. ___
Date: 14 November 2019
•The most important part of technical report is
the way you write your report
•The ability to communicate clearly is important
in research
•The significance of your study will be lost if it
is not communicated effectively
•What are the elements of technical writing
style?
•Clarity & economy required at the levels of
word, phrase, and sentence
Hallmarks of a Good Technical Report
•Language should be clear and readable-
precise and concrete- direct and informative
•No place for literary figures of speech and
emotive words
•Mathematical plainness : scientific
objectivity
•Reader is interested in the message rather
than flowery language
•A technical report should be concise:
unnecessary words & phrases obscure
meaning
‘Do we have any mail today?’
•“I got up out of my chair and sauntered out
to the mailbox. I looked up before opening
the box and saw the mailman going down
the street past our house. When I opened
the mailbox there was nothing in it, so I don’t
think we’ll have any mail today.”
Or
•“No, we won’t have mail today. The mailbox
is empty and the mailman has passed our
house.”
To achieve clarity & economy
• Use simple, familiar words to obscure, unfamiliar
words
• Use concrete & specific words to abstract & general
words
• Use acronyms carefully
• Avoid clichés
• Avoid excessive use of jargon
• Avoid foreign words & phrases
• Avoid redundancy and circumlocution
• Avoid discriminatory writing
Obscure/unfamiliar words
•Use words that are simple and familiar
Antiquated machinery was utilized for
experimentation
• Revision: Old machinery was used for testing
It is difficult to make an approximation of how much
money it would cost
• Revision : It is difficult to estimate its cost
Don’t use high sounding pompous words: use words
that are commonly used in daily language
Annihilate - Destroy
Corroborate - Verify
Abstract/general words
•Don’t give abstract or general information.
Use concrete and specific words for clarity
▪Goa recorded good polling percentage for
the assembly elections of 2017
▪The majority opinion among students favor
the removal of curfew hours in hostels
▪I will write to you in the near future
Be more specific
•Goa recorded 90% voting for the assembly
elections of 2017
•73% students favor the lifting of curfew hours
in hostels
•I will write to you by Monday morning
Provide specific information
• Keep information specific rather than general:
GENERAL SPECIFIC
Heavy precipitation during Four inches of rain in 48
the period hours
Excessive heat 46 degrees Celsius
Select appropriate key Ctrl + Alt + B
Abbreviations & Acronyms: use them
sparingly
• idk FICA rules chngd recently btw
• cm
• cul
• dur?
• 1979 mountbatten rip by IRA bomb
• I do not know. The Federal Insurance Contributions
Act rules changed recently.
• Call me.
• See you later.
• Do you remember? In 1979 Mountbatten was ripped
by an Irish Republican Army bomb.
Clichés
• The teeming millions of India will not buy cheap
Chinese goods
• I have to get this report finished by tomorrow, so I
guess I will be burning the midnight oil tonight
• The engineers left no stone unturned to construct
the bridge in time
Without clichés
•The people of India will not buy cheap
Chinese goods
•I have to get this report finished by
tomorrow, so I guess I will be working late
into the night
•The engineers worked very hard to construct
the bridge in time
Jargons
•The political chaos in nineteenth-century
India catalyzed the downfall of the Mughal
Empire
•I wish I could invent a flying object that
would travel at Mach-2
Without jargons
•The political chaos in nineteenth-century
India led to the downfall of the Mughal
Empire
•I wish I could invent a flying object that
would travel at twice the speed of sound
Foreign Words & Phrases
•Please arrange a teté-a-teté with this famous
personality
•The directors of the company sub rosa
agreed to make it difficult for the Chairman
to function
Without foreign words
•Please arrange a personal interview with this
famous personality
•The directors of the company secretly agreed
to make it difficult for the Chairman to
function
Redundancy & circumlocution
• After paying tributes to the dead leader in
Hyderabad, the Prime Minister returned back to
Delhi
After paying tributes to the dead leader in
Hyderabad, the Prime Minister returned to Delhi
• The stick is limited in length
The stick is short
Redundancy & Circumlocution
•Unemployment decline, which has continued
over the past few months, indicates that the
recession has bottomed and the upturn in
the economy is a fact
• The recent reversal of unemployment
trends indicate an improvement in the
economy
Redundancy - Common Expressions
•Basic fundamentals
•Repeated again
•Returned back
•True fact
•Make a mention of
•Few in number
•Adequate enough
Discriminatory writing
It is important to take care that your writing is
free of any kind of discriminatory language or
phrasing that is negative towards any race,
gender, age group, sexual orientation, beliefs
or religion
Avoid: Jews are miserly, Muslims are jihadis,
Hindus are vegetarians
Avoid: physically handicapped
(use differently-abled instead)
chairman (use chairperson)
Discriminatory writing
A student in BITS does the homework
assigned to him well before coming to class.
•Gender-biased (masculine) pronoun can be
eliminated in 3 ways:
•Rewording the sentence: ‘A student in BITS
does the assigned homework well before
coming to class.’
•By making a dual reference: ‘A student in
BITS does his or her homework….’
•By making the reference plural: ‘Students in
BITS do their homework….’
Sentence construction
• Clarity of thought – plan your writing, check
spelling, use proper punctuation
• Avoid long sentences
• Use short sentences
• Avoid cluttering phrases
• Use of emphasis
• Right ordering of words
Woman! Without her, man is nothing!
Woman, without her man, is nothing.
Long & breathless sentences
Due to the fact that the production of reports
involves considerable cost to our organization, it can
easily be seen that the reduction of the time spent
in writing and reading them, a shortening of the
reports themselves, would represent an appreciable
gain in reducing our general operating expenses,
although the matter of the length of the report
should naturally be considered in relation to the
complexity of the material and its adequate
coverage keeping in mind the requirements of the
specific situation.
Short & clear sentences
The production of reports involves a large cost
to our organization. If we shorten the reports
keeping in mind the complexity, adequate
coverage relevant to specification and
contents, we can reduce the time spent on
reading and writing them. By doing so, we
can reduce the operating expenses.
Circuitous sentence
•The tinder must be some soft, inflammable
material. This may be dry grass, leaves, or
wood shavings.
•The tinder must be soft, inflammable
material such as dry grass, leaves, or wood
shavings.
Cluttering Phrases
•In the event of procrastination and dilatory
action, the operations will be shunned.
If there is delay in action, the operations will
be cancelled.
•The company is not prepared to expand at
this point of time.
The company is not prepared to expand now.
Cluttering Phrases
•It is essential that there be no construction of
houses in the area designated as the sanctuary
for wildlife.
There should be no construction of houses in the
area designated as the wildlife sanctuary.
•The summary is intended only to highlight
certain information contained elsewhere in the
prospectus.
The summary highlights some information
already included in the prospectus
Use of emphasis
•Less emphatic: We feel we are missing some
customers and therefore losing revenue by
using this system.
•More emphatic: By using this system, we are
missing some customers, and therefore losing
revenue.
Passive & active voice
Direct statements in active voice make the
writing lively and less wordy
•Our implementation of this new procedure is
required by the board of directors.
The board of directors requires us to
implement this new procedure.
Passive & Active Voice
•My first visit to your organization will always
be remembered.
I will always remember my first visit to your
organization.
•There are many positive aspects of cheque
collection that are not brought out in this
report.
This report does not bring out many positive
aspects of cheque collection.
Ambiguous Sentences
Technical writing should be unambiguous:
• He noticed a large stain in the rug that was right in
the centre.
He noticed a large stain in the centre of the rug.
• Quick Information Systems has bought new
computer chairs for the programmers with more
comfortable seats.
Quick Information Systems has bought new
computer chairs with more comfortable seats for
the programmers.
Improve the following:
•From any page of a site, links can be found
which point to other pages in the same site
or to other sites, wherever they may be.
Specifically, these links are addresses which
are called URLs. However, what is interesting
for the visitor is not the address itself, but
what can be found there, and so generally
the address is not displayed. Instead, what
you find there is highlighted in the text (by
underlining it and displaying it in another
color, often blue).
•You can link any page to other pages on the
same site or different sites. These URL
addresses, usually hidden from view, guide
the user to the right page. The user can then
click on any underlined text, often shown in
blue, and more information pops up.
THANK YOU
•To understand and interpret an applet, the
browser must have a Java virtual machine at its
disposal. This is the case, in particular with
Netscape Navigator and Internet Explorer, as well
as Sun's HotJava. However, we have already
mentioned several times that many Web surfers
are attached to older browsers with which they
feel comfortable. This being the case, if you use
Java you will limit the number of visitors who will
be able to wonder at what your applets do. In
addition, browsers have a configuration option
which allows (for security reasons, for example)
the Java virtual machine to be turned off. Cautious
people make frequent use of this option.
•Browsers such as Netscape Navigator,
Internet Explorer and Sun's HotJava can only
use applets with Java virtual machines. If
Web surfers use older browsers, which do
not understand Java, or switch the Java
option off for security reasons, you will have
fewer visitors to your site.
