Expository Writing vs. Technical Writing – What is the Difference?
There are important differences between expository and technical writing.
What is Expository Writing?
Expository writing is the process of explaining, describing, or clarifying. It can be done in a number of ways and is not limited to just one form. This type of writing is not just about giving information, but also about persuading readers to adopt the writer’s point of view.
Expository writing is often used in essays and academic papers.
What is Technical Writing?
Technical writing is a form of communication used to convey information to an audience that is not familiar with a technical subject.
Technical writing is a form of communication that conveys information to an audience that is not familiar with the subject. This form of communication may be used in engineering, science and technology, business, and medicine. It can be used in any field where there are specialized terms or concepts that need to be communicated precisely and clearly.
The Difference Between Them
Expository writing is what in screenwriting and novel/story writing they WARN you AGAINST — it is the kind of writing that argues and explains the reasons behind an attitude, position, or conclusion.
In this type of writing (which could have hundreds of different forms like a blog, column, essay, composition, or other kinds of non-fiction), you try to convince the other person about the correctness of you position. In screenwriting lingo this is also called “laying down the pipe” since in a building sometimes you can see all the pipes that carry the water, collect the sewage etc. The idea in such forms of creative writing is to hide the psychological processes or worldly reasons behind actions so that the audience can enjoy the pleasure of figuring out the “pipe works” on their own.
In expository writing you can see “the pipes” clearly. It’s not a taboo to EXPLAIN why something is that way rather than the other. REASONING is a part of expository writing. However, the similarity ends there.
Technical writing, on the other hand, is a HOW-TO type of writing. You explain how systems, gadgets, or processes work. And you do it through by documenting the sequential process steps involved. You write what one needs TO DO in order to ACCOMPLISH a GOAL, and thus as a result, CHANGE one’s BEHAVIOR, and presumably lead a better life (a perhaps grandiose but honest goal of TW).
There is not much rhetorical arguing and reasoning in technical writing. For example — ADVERBS and METAPHORS as well as any ANTHROPOMORPHIC narrative devices are not for tech writing but they can and are used widely in expository writing.
Their goals and tools are different. The former (expo) tries to ARGUE an ISSUE and CONVINCE the reader; the latter (TW) tries to SHOW and SOLVE a problem through STEP-BY-STEP directions.
This has been, for example, a partially expository answer (since I tried to convince you that tech writing and expository writing are somewhat similar but also different) and also partially a technical answer since I tried to give exact reasons why they are different and which tools not to use if you are writing a technical document.
Conclusion
Expository writing is the process of explaining a topic. It is usually more informal and less technical than technical writing. It focuses on the big picture, while technical writing gets into the details of a topic or subject matter.
In contrast, technical writing is more formal and requires more precision in terms of language use and grammar. It also tends to be longer and more detailed than expository writing.
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