Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists

I was talking to my friend and colleague Sarah Anderson, who teaches technical communications at Carleton University, this week. In a lively class discussion, one of her students said that "everybody" his age would know what Twitch was, and offered to explain to her offline instead, since he was sure everyone in the class would be bored by the explanation. But was he right? I checked in with my 17-year-old son. Did he agree with the university student's idea that "everybody" would know? Or would he be leaving behind some people who were too shy to ask or admit they didn't already know? After discussing gamers and online communities and populations of young people, my son said "No, he should not assume everyone is in his knowledge bubble if he is trying to communicate to be understood." We discussed various peers who might not be hooked into Twitch. Not all teens are wild about video gaming. (I love that a "bubble" is a concept that'

At universities and in high school English classes, there is sometimes a perception that whoever uses the longest or most words looks smartest.  However, in industry, whoever makes the client happiest by having the easiest, clearest documents, looks best!   Unfortunately, technical writing is not poetry.  In fact, sometimes, when I'm editing the technical writing of Spanish or French first-language speakers, I find myself revising particularly beautiful, flowery phrases to something much more boring.  But technical clients just want simplicity. Let your diagrams and your data speak for themselves.  Here’s a nice logical if-then statement for you:  If the document is easy  for your client to digest  Then they will think  that you are brilliant.  Achieve this by:  using short words  using fewer words  Use Fewer Words  There are some words that you can search in a document to discover wordy phrases. “Of” and “for” and “as” often appear in these unnecessarily long phrases. Norm

These tables include a long list of words that have commonly been misused in technical writing and reports. Occasionally it happens within a group that misuse of a term becomes so common that every new person who joins the group will start to use the incorrect term, too! Fun for group bonding, but can look unprofessional when it is seen outside the group. If you have any questions about any of these or would like to discuss, write me at christabedwin at gmail.com, or contact me through LinkedIn. You will also find that if you Google specific combinations from this list, many a grammarian has written articles about these troubles. This blog post merely offers a quick reference guide. Bonus points and/or a discount on editing services if you find the Scottish-sounding typo in these tables. :) Source: Client Pleasing Reports & Communications, copyright 2015, by Christa Bedwin