Technical Writing Worksheets

What is Technical Writing?

Technical writing refers to the processing of documentation, such as instructional material or software, etc. The traditional restriction of this writing aspect relates to the user manuals. It describes a writer’s specific subject that needs explanation, direction, and the topic's instruction. There are unique hallmarks of this writing style with different purposes than the business, creative, or academic writing. You can handle any specific topic or subject with technical writing as it is the easiest, straightforward, and intuitive explanations or instructions. The theme of this writing style can be tangible and intangible. You will write in the context of something that anyone can touch or see, as the details or information of assembling the piece of furniture, software program, computer, etc. Examples of technical writing include policy, users, process, instruction manuals. Analysis report, assembling the product instructions, summarizing a lengthy statement as it decreases and highlights the significant elements. After getting significant technical writing is to learn the techniques to highlight the best technical paper in your writing material. In case of such writing style, you will have to write according to your targeted audience's characteristics with clear understanding. It also refers to the extensive research and non-personal manner.

The 5 Principles

Consider the writing assignment you have been given. Complete the organizer below to guide you as you complete the assignment. If you aren't sure about any of the answers, ask!

Basic Considerations

What situation resulted in the requirement to produce this document?


Arranging Content

The first step in any technical writing project is to analyze your task. The way that you choose and arrange your content will depend on conventions for the type of document you are writing, the needs of the document’s end users, and the objective(s) of the document.

Writing Terms

Match the key technical writing terms to their definitions.


Ethical Principles

Technical writing is the practice of creating written instructional material. The purpose of technical writing is to explain a process or complex concept so that a particular audience can understand it.


Information Gathering

For the technical writing assignment you have been given, answer the following questions. For yes/no questions, explain your answer.


Headings

A heading is a title at the beginning of a section of text. It like a mini chapter title. Taken together, headings, which constitute your table of contents, give the reader a map to your document. They tell the reader what key topics will be covered and indicate the overall direction that the document is going to take.

Deciding What Goes Where

An important aspect of technical writing is determining how you are going to group the information you need to present.

Reports: Abstracts, Summaries, Discussion

What is the difference between an informative abstract and a descriptive abstract?


Choosing Graphics

Graphics can be useful in technical writing because they allow you to quickly present complex ideas in a way that can be easier for your reader to grasp than if you were to present the ideas using written text alone.

Preparing for Collaboration

Collaboration means that more than one person contributes equally to the writing of a document. Collaboration can have accountability and legal repercussions. Collaborative groups can take place face-to-face or virtually using online meeting applications.

Preparing for Conducting Interviews

What qualifies the person you are going to interview to provide you information in this subject area?

Techniques

Technical writing uses many different techniques to present information. Consider each of the following. Explain whether or not each technique would be appropriate for your project or not, and why.

Citing Sources

When you conduct research, it is important to collect certain kinds of information about your sources so that you can properly cite them in a bibliography. Use the following templates when you collect information about your source.


Final Revision

Have you taken opportunities to use graphics to help make the material easier to grasp?