Technical writing

Technical writing is a specialized form of communication used by many of today's industrial and scientific organizations to clearly and accurately convey complex information to a user.

An organization's customers, employees, assembly workers, engineers, and scientists are some of the most common users who reference this form of content to complete a task or research a subject.

Most technical writing relies on simplified grammar, supported by easy-to-understand visual communication to clearly and accurately explain complex information.

Procedural technical writing is used in all types of manufacturing to explain user operation, assembly, installation instructions, and personnel work/safety steps.

In most cases, however, technical writing is used to help convey complex scientific or niche subjects to end users in "laymen's" terms and includes purely factual content.

Modern procedural technical writing relies on simple terms and short sentences, rather than detailed explanations with unnecessary information like personal pronouns, abstract words and unfamiliar acronyms.

[2] Although technical writing plays an integral role in the work of engineering, health care, and science; it does not require a degree in any of these fields.

An organization's Subject Matter Experts (SMEs), internal specifications, and a formal engineering review process are relied upon to ensure accuracy.

[3] Examples of fields requiring technical writing include computer hardware and software, architecture, engineering, chemistry, aeronautics, robotics, manufacturing, finance, medical, patent law, consumer electronics, biotechnology, and forestry.

[4]: 4 [5] To achieve the highest level of clarity, the authors of an organization's technical writing should be indistinguishable to the reader - with no variations in the established format, grammar, and/or style.

[6] In some cases, engineers may perform the technical writing for the project they are working on, but this rarely occurs in large organizations where products must be released or revised weekly.

While technical writing has only been recognized as a profession since World War II, its roots can be traced to ancient Egypt where visual communication was regularly used to explain procedures.

[7] In recent years, the prominence of computers in society has led to many advances in the field of digital communications, leading to changes in the tools technical writers use.