Defining Technical/Professional Writing

Technical writing brings to mind objectivity, conciseness, easy to understand by many readers, manuals, and instructions. Technical writing is much more than this. Technical writing is a term that has evaded being defined although many technical writers have tried to do so. The problem many have faced with putting a definition to the term is that it limits the scope of what a technical writer does. David Dobrin, in What is Technical about Technical Writing, quotes one definition by Patrick Kelly and Roger Masse that is “Technical writing is writing about a subject in pure sciences and applied sciences in which the writer informs the reader through and objective presentation of facts .” Another definition quoted from John Harris is “Technical Writing is the rhetoric of the scientific method.”  Dobrin does not like these definitions because they make technical writing no easier to understand. Dobrin offers up his own definition of “writing that accommodates technology to the user.” These three definitions are all different from each other and there are many more varied definition people have presented. One definition that I feel is good for Technical Writing comes from Carolyn Miller in What’s Practical About Technical Writing, “Technical writing, the rhetoric of the world of work. “ I like this definition because it is broad enough to encompass what technical writing is without limiting it and hints and the more contextual side.  

Because technical writers can do so many varied tasks they can be of assistance in any workplace. They can manage websites and blogs, design brochures or forms, edit documents, write grants or proposal, create meaningful play experiences, and much more. In my internship I am creating a meaningful play experience or game that is about the many different jobs technical writers can get. For the game I will not only be laying out several of the card designs, I will also have to write and edit cards. I am doing my internship at Pittsburg State University (PSU) and my non-typical internship is one of the many reasons why technical writing is an important position to have and teach. PSU is all about helping their students to be prepared for holding a career. Having technical writing as an option for students is a very effective way to help students be prepared. Almost all jobs require some form of writing and most students do not get to write in such a manner. Students are mainly taught how to write academic papers and do research in the required English programs. While this helps to teach and reinforce some aspects for writing as well as to understand the context of a particular project, jobs require a different kind of writing.

The benefit of having a Technical Writing program being taught from a humanities department, especially an English department, is understanding the complexities of the English language. Technical writing has to be more than being concise, because most people do not write in such a manner. A technical writer has to understand the meaning the original author meant and keep that meaning when they go to edit or output in another format. A technical writer also needs to understand what audience they are creating for. The value of this is that it is hard to define what is technical and non-technical, as Carolyn Miller says in an A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing, “no one is prepared to say which subjects are “technical” … Reality doesn’t come in packages clearly marked “non-technical” and “technical”.” If technical writing was taught outside of a humanities program, a learner may not learn the skills to understand context and be able to decide what is “technical” and what is not.

Sources

Dobrin, David N. "What's Technical About Technical Writing?"

Miller, Carolyn R. "A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing,"

Miller, Carolyn R. “What's Practical About Technical Writing?"