English 2053: Report Writing

Writing the Technical Document

The heart of the document is:

1. The Basic Facts
2. What is an effective strategy? (creative concept or central metaphor)
3. What is an effective organizational plan?
4. What is the proper tone?

The first step is the draft. To assist in the drafting process, follow these guidelines:

• State your purpose explicitly
• Make the topic of each section and paragraph CLEAR (use heads and start each paragraph with a topic sentence).
• Keep your terminology consistent throughout.
• If your audience has little prior knowledge of the topic, use ideas they would be familiar with as metaphors to convey the key ideas about the new concepts you are presenting.
• If the audience is familiar with the concepts, don't bore them with the basics. Use standard terminology.
• Write CLEAR sentences.
• Keep your writing interesting.

Standard Organizational Pattern

Intro:

• Set the context
• Provide an overall framework that the reader can grasp now and fill in the details later

Define Key Terms

State Reason for Document (Why you are writing)

State Purpose

Preview Key Points

Body Paragraphs should start with clear topic statement.

• Place the important idea first
• Followed by significant statements
• Remember to define key ideas and terms

Provide transitional statements between body paragraphs

Use structural parallelism: keep each section consistent. If one body paragraph goes: Definition, Establishment of Terms, Definition of that list of terms.... Then they all should.

Use repetition of key ideas and sequencing of those ideas to encourage understanding and remembering.

Return to Eng 220 Topics Page

Back to Technical Writing

Forward to Audience Analysis