Technical and professional
writing can be a difficult concept to identify
and describe. The definition begins with the recent expansion of technical writing emphasizing an individual’s writing style as “a focus on
all the other technical-support personnel involved in the communication process
and in non-writing tasks, such as illustrations,
communications management, public relations, editing, computer analysts and
programing, researching and so on” (Allen, 69). While humanities focus on the
critical side of the issues, a technical writing candidate will have experience
with writing and editing documents, clear concise ability to communicate both
with the business and the people that the business is focusing on as their
target audience as well as general background knowledge with editing videos,
editing html code for webpages and an overall ability to communicate the
products within the company effectively to the end customer. “Technical writing
is writing that accommodates technology to the user” (Dobrin, 118).
Hiring an individual with a
background degree in technical/professional writing means that that candidate
has spent a lot of time in the English department learning the language skills
that are required to communicate and conduct sentences through writing as well
as verbally to a customer clearing up any possible confusion there might be on a given product. Professionals in the work place tend
to criticize the technical writing aspect from a non-technical writer, ““foggy
language,” failures to emphasis and coherence, illogical reasoning, poor
organization” (Miller, 62). Technical writers learn the background information
about how to construct a properly written sentence so that they can get the
message out to the customer whether that is an
employee who they are working closely with or it happens to be the end
customer who is receiving whatever the company is selling.
Technical
writing tends to be is a very practical
field. People who learn technical writing tend to focus on what needs to be
said. Dorbin brings up the point, is technical writing writing about
technology or is technical writing considered writing that follows a very
standard and concise set of rules (Dorbin, 107).(should
this period be a ? mark) Depending on how you define that question, the
answer could be both. Another way to look at the question is, “The definers of
“technical writing” look at texts; the definers of “writing technically” look
at the encounter which produces the texts” (Dorbin, 109). Technical writers
focus on producing the information necessary to the reader of whatever document
or form of media they are producing. Technical writers could focus their time
on learning whatever they are writing about whether they question and work with
the manufacturing portion of the product or the development side of the
product, they are going to deliver the best possible
information about a product possible.
Jo
Allen suggests that a definition not be placed on technical writing as it tends
to cause someone to question, well do I do that or not since it isn’t in the
definition. It restricts the overall term and definition of what a technical
writer does, “The primary goal of the basic technical writing course [is] to
teach students to document information clearly, correctly, and economically”
(Harris, 822). So the main focus of technical writers is to learn how to
clearly write and convey a message to the end user, while there may not be a
specific course taught, technical writers spend a lot of time in an English
department learning the background of words, sentence structure and how to use
the two together correctly.
Allen,
Jo. “The Case Against Defining Technical Writing.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 4.2, 68-77.
Dorbin,
David. “What is Technical about Technical Writing.” New Essays in Technical and Scientific Communication. Baywood
Publishing Co, Inc, 1983. 107-123. Print.
Harris,
Elizabeth. “Let’s Not Ruin Technical Writing, Too.” College English, 41.7. National Council of Teachers of English,
2012. 822-825. Print.
Miller,
Carolyn. “Chapter 2-What is the Relationship Between Professional Writing and
Rhetoric?” What’s Practical About
Technical Writing. Modern Language Association of America, 1989. 61-70.
Print.
