Defining Technical/Professional Writing

In David Dobrin’s “What’s Technical about Technical Writing,” he quotes a definition by Patrick Kelley and Roger Masse that says, “Technical writing is writing about a subject in the pure sciences or applied sciences in which the writer informs the reader through an objective presentation of facts.” This definition doesn’t sit well with Dobrin because it defines a concept in terms that are equally difficult to understand. He later goes on to state his definition of technical writing as “writing that accommodates technology to the user.” While I find Dobrin’s definition to be better than Kelley and Masse’s, I strongly disagree with both of them because I dislike the idea of a clear cut definition for technical writing.

There seems to be an excessive amount of emphasis on defining technical writing. Like Jo Allen in his “The Case Against Defining Technical Writing,” I do not think a definition for technical writing works because it creates a strict split for what is and what is not technical writing. While I understand the need to be able to define our profession and explain it to others, I found that the gamut of skills I have acquired while learning technical writing makes that task seemingly impossible. In the courses that I have taken for technical writing I have learned how to create documents adhering to a strict style guide; I have learned how to edit documents with multiple style books; I have learned how to write HTML and CSS code for websites; I have learned how to create graphics for advertising; and I have learned how to use a plethora of different software to accomplish all of these tasks and many more. All of these things are tasks that a technical writer can do.

Maybe my unorthodox view of technical writing can be contributed to the English department. Our technical writing major originates from a humanities department that emphasizes discussion, imagination, and originality. Learning from the humanities helps you understand different messages and the ambiguity of those messages an author is trying to deliver. Sometimes you have to be able to think differently in order to convey a message, and learning from a humanities department helps that happen. A heavy summary for one of the main points of Carolyn Miller’s “A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing” would be that the humanities allow technical writing a communal rationality rather than contextless logic.

In my internship at Krimson Kultuur, I have mostly worked on the design aspect of technical writing. I have created business cards and info cards so customers can better understand our products and our mission. I know that I will also be editing our website and some instructional documents. These are all aspects of technical writing.

In the end, technical writing falls under numerous categories, and a technical writer can accomplish many different tasks, but one thing will always be true about technical writers: they are indispensable assets.