Technical Writing

What is Technical Writing?
Technical writing generally is written reports, grants, proposals, and other similar papers. Aside from writing ethically, the main goal of technical writing is to convey information precisely and clearly.

Why do Chemical Engineers need to use it?
Chemical engineers need to be good, clear technical writers in order to communicate better. As Van Ness and Abbot put it:

Engineering students often are convinced of several misconceptions about writing:

1. Engineers are naturally poor writers.
2. Writing is not important for engineers.
3. The rules for writing technical prose are different from those for non-technical prose.

The first two misconceptions tend to go together with some sort of reciprocal justification, and we simply contradict them. The third is a mistaken impression gained from wide exposure to Techlish (156).

Engineers are not poor writers naturally. They may learn to be poor writers, or may not gain good writing skills. Writing well is comes from practice. Writing is also very important for engineers. Reports and papers are one of the main methods for scientists and engineers to report their research to each other. And, contrary to popular belief, proper grammar is extremely important in technical writing; the rules for proper non-technical prose and technical writing are the same.

General Guidelines for Better Writing:

One main goal in writing reports is having Readable Writing. Ernst and William present the following principles:

• The First Principle of Readable Writing: Express important actions as verbs, and the characters associated with those actions as the subjects of those verbs.
• The Second Principle of Readable Writing: Keep subjects as short as possible so that sentences move quickly from a short, specific subject to an action verb.
• The Third Principle of Readable Writing: Sentences should begin with old information and end with new information.

Van Ness and Abbot present these principles for writing "Techlish":

• Be concice; be brief; eliminate "bull"
• Be precise; be specific; say what you mean; avoid ambiguities
• Prefer the active voice
• Write in the present tense, unless it is clearly inappropriate
• Avoid techlishese
• Heed rules of particular importance to technical writers

Engineers must also work to be ethical in their writing.

Adapted from:

Technical Writing for Scientists and Engineers

Colomb, G.G., and W.R. Ernst. "Helping Students Communicate Technical Material," Chemical Engineering Education, 27(2),144 (1993)

Van Ness, H.C. and M. M. Abbott. "Technial Prose: English or Techlish?" Chemical Engineering Education, 11(4), 154 (1977)

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