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GROUP 4 (GE-ELEC14)
DO’S AND DON’T’S OF TECHNICAL WRITING
PCBET- 19 - 602A
Efana, Mae-Ann E. Ellis, Brethanie Liegh B. Muñoz, Kristel Mae
No matter what level of a business you're at, whether a leader, manager or employee, written communication is likely to form a fundamental part of your everyday role. Depending upon your job you may regularly be required to write an email, business correspondence, reports, web content, newsletters, user guidance, contracts or a host of other types of document. If your business writing skills aren't quite as polished as you'd like or simply need brushing up, Maguire Training's Essential Writing Skills course will give you everything you need to write accurately and with confidence, encouraging your creativity and helping you to use grammar, spelling and punctuation correctly.
Everyone can benefit from improving their business writing skills and so, to help you begin straight away here are ten do's and don'ts to help you achieve better business writing.
Dos
1. First of all, know your audience well and refer to a prescribed standard of style. Pre-write the content to understand the flow and gaps of knowledge at your end. Display a good readability in your content. Make use of active verbs to convey the clear sets of steps or processes. Use possessive form of words. DO write with the reader in mind. If you're writing about a technical subject for a non-technical reader try to avoid technical jargon and acronyms they may not be familiar with and, if possible, explain concepts in a way which the reader can relate to. 2. DO structure and organise your business writing. A long document, letter or email should open with a summary overview of the contents allowing the reader to make a judgement on whether the subject matter is important to them without having to wade through the text. For ease of reading, longer texts should be divided into separate sections with descriptive headings, and should cover one or two subjects at most.
3. Write short sentences Focus on writing more simple sentences and less compound/complex sentences.
DO keep writing as simple and succinct as possible. Effective written communication gets to the point quickly and unambiguously. Business communication does not benefit from the use of extended, flowery language or obscure vocabulary. Say exactly what you need to say in as few words as possible without losing the emphasis or meaning of your message.
4. Write one thought / description per sentence, and preferably only one to two thoughts/discussions per paragraph. If you are discussing different subjects in your text, setup a smooth transition between any two topics. Find the connecting thread in between the two chapters and maintain a flow for better comprehension. 5. Use simple words. You aren't doing creative writing to use words like "blasphemous", "surreal", etc. Instead write, "Critical", "not viable" respectively (depending upon what you want to say). Make use of clear, unambiguous words whose meaning you are sure of. Avoid use of unnecessary prepositional phrases. Reduce the number of adjectives and adverbs altogether. 6. DO choose an appropriate tone for your business writing. You may wish to adopt an informal tone when writing for colleagues or business associates that you know well but in any situation where you are not one hundred percent sure as to how your writing will be received or interpreted it's better to play it safe and maintain a formal and respectful tone.
Always use third person (except in some rare cases where you can use "we", but never "I") All pronouns should be third person. Example: Instead of "I performed the experiment twice.” write "The experiment was performed twice" (Yes, you are kind of writing passive voice here, but you are not mentioning "who" performed the experiment, so it is alright).
5. Avoid too many adjectives. They reflect opinionated bias For example, beautiful, wonderful, ugly, etc. By all means if it is a fact that the machine has "poor" sensitivity, then go ahead and write it, but don't use intense adjectives. 6. Don’t use filler words such as redundant pairs, modifiers or similar categories. Do not use long noun strings in order to modify the last noun of a sentence. 7. Avoid using passive voice (except in some rare cases; read dos for that) Instead of "Its working was clearly explained by the scientists", write, "The scientists clearly explained it’s working." 8. DON'T be tempted to use sarcasm jokingly in written communication. In verbal communication your intent - whether serious or humorous - is given away by your delivery and tone of voice. These qualities are lost in written communication and a quip which may seem funny to you at the time of writing may be entirely misinterpreted by the reader causing unintended offence. As far as humor goes in business writing, if in doubt leave it out.
Do not assume anything about the process or product in hand. Do not make your report humorous. What is amusing to you may be offensive or inexplicable to your reader.
9. No acronyms without their description If you say "MS is used for analysis of pharmaceutical samples", make sure you first mention what MS means (Mass spectrometry). Once you explain the full form, you can use the acronym in the consequent sentences. 10. Do not use abbreviations unless specified to do so. Do not apply contractions or any gender specific pronouns. Don’t use intensifier to convey strength of an action or a property of a subject. 11. Do not use "don't", "didn't", and "wasn't" Do not constrict words like "do not" to "don't". Instead, write "do not". Similarly, write "It is" instead of "it's". 12. DON'T forget to include a call to action if a response is needed
If you'd like an answer to a question you've posed in an email, feedback on a draft report, and RSVP to a written invitation or a reply to a
business or sales letter you've written, don't forget to close with an appropriate call to action to the reader.
13. Do not rush to send the content for further processing without glossing over the content for accuracy and coherency.
DON'T be unprofessional in your writing
Ensure that any facts you include in your writing have been checked for accuracy, don't include anything which, however well- meaning your intentions, could be construed by the reader as discriminatory, inflammatory or offensive, and don't be critical of others in your writing. Before distributing or sending written material, try reading it to yourself out loud - this can be a useful technique to help ensure that what you have written is accurate, professional and acceptable.
References:
o https://www.maguiretraining.co.uk/blog/10-dos-and- donts-for-better-business-writing/ o https://www.stylusolutions.com/blog/technical-writing- dos-and-donts/ o https://www.quora.com/What-are-some-Dos-and-Donts- for-Technical-Writing
