INTRODUCTION TO TECHNICAL
COMMUNICATION
LECTURE 1
Introduction
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Technical Communication
Technical Writing
Ethics in Technical Writing
Introduction to Tech. Comm.
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Communication
means
writing,
speaking, and showing visuals to other
people, as well as listening to and
observing others and reading their work.

These two productive skills are seen as
the most daunting tasks by most of us.
Nevertheless, writing and speaking well
are critical for the success of an engineer
(Hart, 2005).

Many surveys have proved the
importance of good communication skills
for engineering careers.

Most graduate engineers forget that apart
from communicating with fellow engineers,
they also need to communicate with nontechnical
audience
–
managers
&
administrators who, most of the time, make
the decision in a company or organisation.

Engineers must communicate with listeners
and readers from a variety of educational
and professional backgrounds. Each of these
audiences has different needs when reading
the documents written by the engineers.
The Relevance of Tech. Comm.
Types
Letters and
memos
Advertising &
promotional
materials
Documents
Examples
inquiry letter, complaint letter etc.
magazine advertisements, business
cards, brochures, pamphlets,
leaflets etc.
annual reports, operating and
repair manuals, parking tickets etc.
Oral
presenting a new product,
communication informally explaining etc.
Characteristics of Tech. Comm.

Necessity for a specific audience
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audience driven: respond to a specific
audience’s needs
eg.: writing a memo, a letter or a report
The use of visual elements

illustrations: diagrams, headings, font types
and size pictures etc.

Ease of selective access

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Because readers have other demands, they
may have little time to read.
So, the presentation of information should be
easy to understand or catchy, for example,
the use of headings, important words in an
advertisement.

Has time limit (timeliness)
 The useful life of technical
communication is relatively short.
 eg: Manual for Microsoft 1999, last
year’s advertisement on Pulau
Langkawi Holiday Package.

Structure
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Ideas are presented in the shortest manner,
for example, a word for advertisement.
Direct and simple
Some ungrammatical structures are allowed,
for example, you may begin a sentence with
“and” or “but”.
Introduction to Tech. Writing


What are the differences that you can identify from
both excerpts?
Which can be considered as a part of tech. writing?
Time is a river flowing from nowhere through
which everything and everyone move forward to
meet their fate.
Time is a convention of measurement based on
the microwave spectral line emitted by cesium
atoms with an atomic weight of 133 and an
integral frequency of 9,192,631,770 hertz.
What is Technical Writing?
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precise
objective
direct
clearly defined
Characteristics of Tech. Writing

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Deals with technical information
Relies heavily on visuals
Uses numerical data to precisely describe
quantity and direction
Accurate and well documented
Grammatically and stylistically correct
What is a Technical Report?

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a structured presentation of data or
information
gathered from research / experiment /
investigation
prepared for a group of audience
at the request of a supervisory authority
to fulfil the specific needs of the audience
Classification of Tech. Reports
1. Function/purpose of writing

records of activities that have taken place
(progress report)

provide information for various types of decision
making

persuade and influence readers’ attitudes

motivating them to act in a particular manner
(proposal)

3 categories:

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investigative/analytical
descriptive of a design
construction process, software or product development
2. Audience analysis
 formal
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follow certain conventions on format
style (headings, illustrations, etc.
documentation of sources
multiple audience
presentation of comprehensive and relevant
information
informal
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disseminate necessary information of ongoing
activities
provide info for decision making
often for a single or restricted reader
structure, tone & style vary
Ethics in Technical Writing

Ethics is “a set of rules and standards
for using communication skills and
resources with the intention of doing
good” (Finkelstein, 2005)

The following is the ethical constructs that
are traditionally used in technical writing:
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Be accurate – present precise and correct
information all the time
Be honest – write the truths
Be objective – do not inject personal bias into
your reports
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Honour your obligations – produce documents
and materials within the agreed-upon time
frame
Do not substitute speculation for fact – clearly
separate opinions from accepted truths
Do not hide truth with ambiguity – do not play
down facts that would be contrary to your
report
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Do not use the ideas from others without giving
proper credit – document the sources of all nonoriginal ideas, except for common knowledge
Do not violate copyright laws – document the
use of copyrighted materials when used with
permission.
Do not lie with statistics – do not manipulate
data or graphical representations of data
Give
Credit
Be objective
Be accurate
Be
Factual
BE
GOOD
DO
GOOD
Be honourable
Be legal
Be truthful
Don’t
deceive
Figure 1: Ethics model for technical writing
From: Finkelstein, L. J. (2005). Pocket book of technical writing for engineers and scientists – Second Edition.
New York: McGraw Hill.
Key areas of ethics in
technical writing
Plagiarism
An act of theft in
which you take
other people’s
idea, or his
expression of
idea, and
represent it as
your own, without
acknowledging
the source.
Image Alteration
An act of
manipulating
(change, combine
or remove etc.)
image or graphic
representation to
suit your claim in
the report.
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