Category:Technical Writing

From CheLabWiki

For a technical document to serve its proper role, the writing must be accurate and accessible to readers. Accuracy and accessibility—those are our watchwords, for if the writing is inaccurate, then it is either inconsequential or dangerous, and if it is inaccessible, then it is irrelevant. Accuracy and accessibility signal a good technical style.

How does technical style differ from other styles of writing? In terms of use of language, very little. The principal guidelines for achieving good English usage apply to technical writing, but technical writing also uses devices besides language, devices such as equations, tables, and figures. The accomplished writer must control not only the language, but also these other devices. Moreover, the writer must use these devices, not as isolated objects, but in concert; text, equations, tables, and figures must all interconnect to provide distinct, but overlapping, aspects of a technical story. Unfortunately, these devices are often neglected, or at least relegated to secondary roles, by many books and instructors of technical writing.