English
Technical Writing is NOT "Creative Writing"
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Technical writing fails when it tries to become “fine writing” or “creative writing.” Why? Because one of the main tools of “fine writing” is attributing human-like qualities to non-human actors and agents. That’s a definite taboo in technical documentation. (“Anthropomorphizing” is the $100-word that says the same thing.) For example you…
Read MoreEliminate "Very" and other Unnecessary Qualifiers from your Technical Writing
Technical writing needs to be objective. It should describe objects the properties of which we can measure quantitatively. COROLLARY: When different people read a technical description, they should be able to perform identical tasks and obtain identical results. And for that to happen, the words you use must not be open to wide-raging interpretations. One…
Read MoreTechnical Writing – How to write with Clarity and Authority
© 2010 Ugur Akinci As a technical writer you are supposed to tell your readers what to do and how to accomplish specific tasks. It would not be an exaggeration to say that your task, in essence, is to show them “how the world works and how to act correctly when the situation demands it.”…
Read MoreEnglish – How to Use "Less" and "Fewer" Correctly in Your Technical Documents?
Here is the rule: © 2010 Ugur Akinci FEWER is used for objects that you can COUNT one by one. LESS is used for objects that you can only MEASURE in BULK, and cannot count individually. For example, you can count the members of a TEAM but you cannot count the RAINDROPS when it’s raining.…
Read MoreEnglish – How to Improve Your Technical Documents by Using Appositives
© 2010 Ugur Akinci An appositive is a group of nouns that explain something about another noun that was not very clear. An appositive clarifies the meaning of a noun. An appositive is usually written in between two COMMAS, as if taking a breath during a speech. Examples: “EYE-8, the most sensitive camera in the…
Read MoreEnglish – Eliminate Phrases that Start With "in" from your Technical Documents
© 2010 Ugur Akinci There are a number of filler phrases in English that start with “in.” You can improve the readability of your technical documents by eliminating such phrases and using much shorter equivalents. For example: ORIGINAL: “Switch to another frequency IN CASE the reception is weak.” BETTER: “Switch to another frequency if the…
Read MoreEnglish – How to Use "Can" and "May" Correctly in your Technical Documents
© 2010 Ugur Akinci It’s easy to remember the correct way of using “can” and “may” in your technical documents: CAN expresses the ABILITY to do something. MAY has to do with the PERMISSION to do it or the POSSIBILITY of something happening. For example: ORIGINAL: “The circuitboard can overheat.” [Of course; just like ANYTHING…
Read MoreTechnical Writing – Anticipate Resistance. Eliminate it in Advance.
© 2010 Ugur Akinci Technical writing shares one very important structural feature with copy writing: anticipation of resistance. To write a good technical manual, you have to anticipate why the reader might doubt the veracity of your instructions; why they might resist it. Then, like a skilled bomb-removal expert, you have to defuse and remove…
Read MoreTechnical Writing – Collective Nouns, Singular Verbs, Singular Pronouns
© 2010 Ugur Akinci There are those nouns that depict collectivities, groups. For example: a team. A horde. A couple. A series. A collection… Minority. The Olympics. United Nations. We call such words collective nouns (or collective noun phrases). Although all collective words denote a collection of individuals, they should be treated as SINGULAR words…
Read MoreHow to Write Technical Documents for an International Audience
Writing technical documents for an international audience means writing documents that translate easily to the target language, and are understood easily by the speakers of the target language. In the world we are living in, technical documents are increasingly translated from one language to another since customers of most goods and services transcend national boundaries.…
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