Technical Writing- Words and Phrases

For an engineer, manager, scientist or executive - technical writing could be a part of their daily work .Some people write effectively with ease as if it comes as natural as breathing, while some struggle to produce poorly structured that can confuse and irritate their readers.

A person with good technical knowledge able to produce good writing style can be a gifted one. Generally speaking the arrangements of words or style varies from one individual to another, on the other hand some features of style are common to all good writers.

Clarity of thought is the most important feature of writing style. In the words of Walter Wells,” There should be no vagueness, not the slightest doubt or confusion over what the message says, not even for an instant”. The writer should always bear in mind that he is writing for the reader and not for himself, therefore the language and the style should be formal and effective.

Economy of words required, while selecting the word that fits best into the framework, avoid wordiness, and use one’s judgement while writing a piece of effective communication. Another aspect that cannot be neglected is spelling. If there is a mistake in spelling the meaning changes. A student can be penalized for wrong spelling in exams during evaluation of his knowledge of any subject. Therefore spelling is important. Incorrect spelling conveys a poor impression of you as a communicator. It distracts the reader from getting your message. Worse, it can convey the wrong meaning or no meaning at all.

There are many ways in which you can improve your spelling:

Ø A dictionary is your most useful tool for checking and improving spelling.

Ø Write regularly, using the words which you tend to misspell. Always check the spellings, whether you are writing personal or work-related messages.

Ø One can improve spelling through your reading. Books and magazines are safer to read. Newspapers can be most often produced in a hurry, and tend to have more errors.

Ø Use mnemonics a set of words that help to remember how to do something e.g. an island is land in water(island corresponds to island)

Ø Often one word is confused with another which it somewhat resembles. This is called malapropism.

 A list of words frequently confused is given in Appendix B. This should be noted carefully. Some examples of malapropism are the following:

When should I accept you next? (Expect)

A memorial battle was fought at Quebec in 1757.(memorable)

Gladiators are iron things which give out heat. (radiators)

Malapropism takes its name from Mrs.Malaprop (a character in Sheridan’s play, The Rivals), whose English is remarkable for her ridiculous blunders in the use of words similar in sound: ‘Sure, If I reprehend anything in this world, it is the use of my oracular tongue and a nice derangement of epitaphs. The actual words that should be there are apprehend, vernacular, arrangement and epithets. 

Adapting language according to audiences:

Audience Level

Choice of words and Phrases

Example

High-tech

Use Jargon, acronyms or abbreviation without explanation

HCL corrodes pipes.

Low-tech

Use Jargon, acronyms or abbreviation with parenthetical definition

HCL(hydrochloric acid)corrodes pipes.

Lay

Avoid jargon, acronyms and abbreviation. Define technical terms and give a brief explanation

Concentrated acid damages the pipes and therefore should not be used.

To adapt communication, one has to analyze the audience or receiver. One should be aware of their intelligence level, educational level and also of their maturity level.

Let us see the example of adapting communication: A very common man explains his child about computers and how it connects to UPS, could be UPS provides electricity to the computer during power failure, whereas to a technically knowledgeable adult may explain about UPS as a device in which a rectifier maintains the full charge of battery from the main supply and the load is switched to the output of the inverter when power supply fails.

The aim of technical writing can be clarity. If your memos, letters and reports are unclear, shows that the reader's time has been wasted. Clarity can be achieved by providing specific details, writing in the active rather than passive voice and avoiding acronyms, jargon and obscure words.

Guidelines for Effectiveness:

Prefer short and well-known/common words to long and uncommon words

Prefer genuine and definite words

Use acronyms carefully

Stay away from clichés

Avoiding excessive use of jargon

Avoiding use of foreign words and phrases

Avoiding use  of redundancy and circumlocution

Avoiding use of  discriminatory writing

Use Common Words     

The words that are commonly used in daily language. One must rely on one’s judgement to decide which words are more familiar. Avoiding difficult words is necessary. Example, instead of annihilate, use destroy, use verify for corroborate, say outdated instead of antiquated.

Some writers believe using high-sounding, pretentious words makes their writing impressive. In fact, such writing confuses the reader. The writers need to use familiar words particularly in business and technical communication. The writing of today’s life can be informal in tone, precise and easy to understand.

Style does not consist in displaying your vocabulary, but how successfully you communicate to the reader. Generally very common words can be easily understood  by everyone.

Example:

Antiquated machinery was utilized for experimentation.

Old machines were used for the test.                    

Prefer genuine and definite words

Always prefer specific words or definite words than abstract words. Because it conveys more meaning. They tend to be more direct and to the point, while abstract words tend to be vague and divert from the point. Good business communication can be only successful if there is a clear meaning. It is very essential to convey the message with clear meaning , ambiguity results in reduced or no communication Give special emphasis to sentence structure and construction in your writing to avoid 

vagueness.  For example,  written on a bottle top reads: “Pierce with a pin, then push off.” Here we can see ambiguity in the sentence that ruins the communication. Therefore it is essential to be clear and precise in the choice of words. Another example, written in a hotel ‘Please hang outside your room before retiring!’ Here the missing word ‘your coat’ messes up the entire message.

Sometimes a sentence is correct in grammatical construction but can be interpreted in a number of ways. This is called structural ambiguity. Example, ‘Lying at the bottom of the pool, I saw a five rupee note’ The word selected has multiple meanings. It is called lexical ambiguity. Example, The giant plant collapsed damaging many buildings. Such words should be avoided in technical writing. The word should be very specific in their meaning, otherwise the interpretations  can vary. If someone says, “I was looking at the figures keenly,’ the sentence is ambiguous. Here is a list of some commonly used ambiguous words you should avoid. Like nice, big, pictures, any time, adequate, quite a bit, progress.

The examples below show ambiguous words and phrases can be substituted to sound specific and clear.

Abstract  Concrete                                                                                

An industrial worker                   A welder

Furniture An armchair                                                    

Use acronyms carefully

An acronym is created by uniting the first letter of each word in a phrase. For example, WHO is the acronym for World Health Organization. We are all familiar with other acronyms like FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), POTA(Prevention of Terrorism Act), IAF(Indian Air Force), and IBM(International Business Machines).While working in the chosen field, one may  learn its technical terms and acronyms. In due course, these terms and acronyms are freely used in communicating with people in the same area of work. While acronyms help  to achieve brevity and are necessary in technical documents, too much dependence on them leads to loss of simplicity.

Many acronyms are familiar to the layperson and can be freely used. Example, RADAR(Radio Angular Detecting and Ranging ) NASA(National Aeronautics Space Agency), BITS(Birla Institute of Technology and Science), IIT(Indian Institute of Technology), AIDS(Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome), IBM(International Business Machines), and FBI(Federal Bureau of Investigation) are commonly used and may not be difficult to decipher.

Remember the following for writing a technical documents:

Ø Introduce acronyms the first time when you use them by defining in full, parenthetically.

Ø Restrict the number of acronyms in individual sentences.

Ø Dealing with non-expert readers, try to avoid using more than one acronym in a sentence.

Ø Use the full term for an acronym when beginning a new section or when the term has not been used for several pages in your technical document.

Ø If you are using many potentially confusing acronyms, define them in a separate glossary.

Acronyms in email

w4f  - waiting for you

atw  -  at the weekend

cu    -  see you

cul   -  see you later

cm   -  call me

Idk    -  I don’t know

f2f   -   face to face

gal   - get a life

gmtl – great minds think alike

These are used by many people, especially youth, in email which should be avoided in official mails. There is no point in trying to give a comprehensive list as it is in style today may  become rapidly superfluous.

Few more examples of acronyms that may cause ambiguity in technical documents or emails:

CIA    Cash in Advance

CPA    Certified Public Accountant

FICA   Federal Insurance Contributions Act

CIM    Computer Integrated Manufacturing

IRA     Individual Retirement Account/ Irish Republican     Army/Instructionally Related Activities.

Stay Away from Cliches

Cliches are overused words and phrases that have lost their appeal. Just as nobody likes to use a coin worn out by constant use, similarly nobody lies hackneyed, once – fashionable phrases that add little or no meaning to what we say. Some well-known clichés are food for thought, teeming millions, last but not the least, fishing in troubled waters, and to burn the midnight oil. Writing becomes unimpressive and stale when you resort to an indiscriminate usage of clichés. Hence avoid using them in your technical communication.

Example:

1. The report discusses threadbare the problem of Air Pollution in India which sounds better than

The report discusses the problem of Air Pollution in India in detail.

2. The Engineers left no stones unturned to construct the bridge in time definitely sounds better than

The Engineers worked very hard to construct the bridge in time.

There can be few clichés that can convey the idea so effectively that it becomes extremely difficult to improve upon them or think of a substitute. Therefore, use a cliché that best expresses your meaning then use it unhesitatingly.

Avoiding excessive use of Jargon:

The definition of jargon ‘language full of technical or special words.’Every profession has its own jargon. Doctors communicate with each other in medical terms which are rarely understood by the common man. Similarly software professionals use computer-related jargon. The use of jargon is acceptable so long as the communication takes place among colleagues in the same field or profession. But to maintain the interest of a large readership it is essential to reduce or avoid the use of jargon since the reader may not be an expert in the subject. It is certainly difficult to communicate technical matters in non-technical language. But the capability to do so can be acquired with practice.

Frequently writers use jargon instead of plain and simple language to show their supremacy and their knowledge of the subject. Jargon is most often used on the false idea that complex thoughts cannot be expressed without the use of highly technical language. But jargon only helps to widen the semantic gap between the professional and the layman. One of the hallmarks of effective communication is its ability to reach a population larger than that for which it is intended. If such is the goal, excessive use of jargon has little role to play.

Let us see some examples that show difference between technical jargon and the corresponding meaning for laypersons

Technical Jargon                  Familiar Expressions

Accrued interest                  Unpaid insurance

Annual premium                       Annual payment

Assessed valuation                 Value of property for tax

Maturity date                             Final payment date

Mach-2                                       Final payment date

Catalysis                            accelerated decomposition

Avoid use of Foreign words and phrases

It makes little sense to use words like vide supra or raison d’etre in place of better understood English equivalents like ‘see above’ and ‘the justification for’ respectively. Some foreign words are unavoidable and are also universally understood and accepted. Some examples are  etc.(etcetera), i.e.(id est),e.g. (example gratia), a.m(ante meridiem), p.m.(post meridiem), and so on. It is also not wrong therefore to sue such words or phrases.

Foreign Words                   Meaning

infra dig                               Below dignity

status-quo-ante                As it was before

vide supra                           See above

alma mater                         Fostering mother university

bonafide                              In good faith

Sub rosa                               secretly

Avoid use of redundancy and circumlocution

Redundancy is the part of a message that can be eliminated without loss of much information. Re-emphasizing the same message through the use of extra words does not confer any extra worth to the idea. Once unnecessary words are pruned, the idea stands out clearly and effectively. Some examples of redundancy are – the superfluous words are italicized  - basic fundamentals, return back,, adequate enough, resume again, the month of May, few in number, detailed perusal, true fact and so on . In this case the entire sentence needs to be rewritten in order to make it crisp and precise.

Unemployment decline which has continued over the past four months, indicates that the recession has bottomed and the upturn in the economy is a fact.

The strong reversal of unemployment trends indicates an improvement in the economy.

Avoid use of discriminatory writing

It is wrong in today’s all inclusive society the writer’s part to alienate a section of the masses through the usage of discriminatory words. Such writing is offensive and does not speak well of the author’s open- mindedness.

Since language developed in a male –dominated society it is common to find words like man-made, manpower, chairman, firemen and so on. These can be made non-sexist and non-discriminatory by using non-sexist nouns like ‘ of human origin’, ‘personnel/workers’, ‘chairperson’, ‘firefighter’ and so on.

Words that label by race, nationality or sexual orientation must also be avoided. Statements like Jews are miserly’, Muslims are jihad-lovers’, ’Negroes do mental jobs’, ‘Harijans are meant to be suppressed’, cannot enhance the writer’s image. It is no longer acceptable to use words that stereotype by age or typecast people with disabilities. Terms like ‘deaf and dumb’, ‘mentally retarded’ and ‘handicapped’ sound highly insensitive. Gentler and more humane words like ‘physically challenged’ or ‘mentally challenged’ convey the same meaning but with a greater degree of sensitivity.

The elements of style that you need to incorporate in your writing are selecting simple words, using simple words, using words with precision, and making a conscientious effort to express yourself plainly, accompaniments and verbal tricks , new words, overstated or worn out phrases, and pointless repetition should not be allowed in the writing. In the words of Charles C. Cotton, “The writer does the most , who gives the reader the most information and takes from him the least time.’