What are the characteristics of good technical
writing? Good technical writing is clear, well
organized, and reads naturally. Good technical
writing is brief and to the point, with no wasted
words but keeping the essential ones. And correct
grammar is as essential to good writing as it
ever was. No matter how brilliant-or how profitable-your
idea may be it has little value unless you can
express that idea persuasively, so that others
can understand the concept and its value. In today's
job market your ability to communicate well-orally
as well as in writing-is a true survival skill.
Two principles are important to keep in mind
when preparing written documents of all types:
- Do not assume that everyone knows what you
are talking about.
- Come to work prepared to sell yourself and
your ideas.
Consider the needs of your readership: your boss,
your colleagues, and your technicians. Each has
a different, specific need for information but
they all share a common goal: "Tell me quickly
what I need to know." Or, KISS-Keep It Short
and Simple.
Your objective is to satisfy your readers' needs.
You can accomplish that objective easily by following
these principles for any form of communication:
- Organization: the sequence in which you present
your ideas.
- Clarify: the manner in which you express
your ideas.
The ability to write well is an essential non-technical
skill for scientists. You need to be able to communicate
your ideas persuasively and concisely to your
managers, your peers, your assistants or technicians,
and also to audiences that have only limited backgrounds
in science. In order to accomplish this goal,
your writing must be well organized, clear, and
timely. These three principles will apply to every
document that you write. The sections that follow
will show you how.
Organization: The Sequence
in Which You Present Your Ideas
Ask yourself the following questions to be sure
that you have done a good job of organizing what
you write so that your reader will be able to
read and understand your writing quickly and easily.
Is the subject obvious from the beginning?
Every technical report you write will have a title,
which should describe the subject of the report
completely and concisely-using no more than 10
words. A properly descriptive title is almost
impossible to write until you have written the
entire document, so although you may have a working
title you should write the actual title last.
Is there a summary very near the beginning?
The summary statement allows the reader to decide
whether he or she needs to read further, or whether
the information in the summary is sufficient for
the current purpose. A good summary should convey,
in not more than 200 words
- What is the new information-a new discovery
in the laboratory, a projection of an insufficient
supply of raw material-that puts the report
into context?
- What is the value of this information?
Like the title, a brief, accurate, and fully
descriptive summary is almost impossible to write
until you have written the entire document. Although
you may have an outline of your document from
the beginning, you should wait until you have
completed the document before you attempt to write
the summary.
Science-based companies are not in business to
"do science" in the manner of large
research universities. Corporations of all kinds
are in business to earn a return on the investment
of the stockholders so your ability to demonstrate
that you understand the value of your new information
will be significantly important in your career
progress.
Note, too, that a summary is not the same as
an abstract. An abstract condenses all the information
in the document: the field of study, the reactions
used, the analytical techniques employed, and
so on. An abstract is useful to a scientist who
is exploring what has been accomplished in a specific
field. A summary, in contrast, is business related.
A summary describes the key conclusions in the
document, and the business import of those conclusions.
Is the document complete? Is all of the
information that the reader will need presented
somewhere in the document? Not all the information
on the subject that you can think of, but all
that the reader will need.
Here is where you need to consider carefully
how you will accommodate the various readers'
requirements in your document. Your boss will
want some kinds of information; your colleagues,
other kinds; and possibly your technicians, still
other kinds. Some, but not all, of your readers
will value figures, tables, experimental details,
and recommendations for further study. With some
thought, though, you can accommodate them all.
Figures can be used to illustrate points made
in the text and like a picture, a well-constructed
figure is worth a thousand words. Tables can present
essential supporting data in an organized fashion.
But no matter how useful, do not place tables
or figures where they will interrupt the reader's
smooth train of thought.
Here are some guidelines for tables and figures:
- A small table or two might be conveniently
placed in the text, where the table is mentioned
for the first time.
- One or two single-page tables or figures might
be placed in the text on the page immediately
following the first reference to the table or
figure.
- More than two tables or figures should be
placed together, immediately following the main
text, but before any appendix.
- Supporting, but nonessential, information
should be placed in an appendix or appendices.
Is the information presented in some logical
sequence? To help your reader maintain a smooth
train of thought, present your information in
some logical sequence. You have a number of options:
chronological, reverse chronological, geographic,
ascending or descending dollar value, just to
name a few. But if you do not organize your thoughts
in some coherent fashion that the reader can follow,
the resulting chaos will cause your reader to
lose interest.
Journalists use the inverted pyramid technique
for writing articles. This style places the headline
first, followed by the most important information,
and then information of less and less importance.
In the process, the writer's goal is to identify
the "five W's": who, what, when, where,
and why, in that order.
This general principle can be applied to technical
writing as well. The headline is your title, from
which the reader will determine whether to read
further. Next is your conclusion, followed by
supporting information of less and less importance,
organized in some logical manner.
A technical report-or a letter, memorandum, or
any other document-can have as many as eight distinct
sections: title, abstract, summary, introduction,
conclusion, recommendation, discussion, and appendix.
You are not required to have all of these sections
in every document that you write, and some of
them can be combined, such as an introduction
and summary. In writing a shorter document, you
can even omit some of them.
This sequence differs from the typical sequence
that appears in academic writing, where the conclusions
are presented last, as if the writer were writing
a detective story, revealing "whodunit"
on the last page.
Is the relative emphasis of the various ideas
appropriate? If you are writing to describe
an ingenious synthesis that can save steps and
so produce a product at decreased cost, write
about those things. Don't provide extensive details
about the difficulties you had with the analytical
procedures you used to prove the structure of
the intermediates and the final product. Analytical
procedures and experimental procedures are properly
summarized in an appendix.
If you really did discover a novel way to avoid
a common problem with an analytical technique,
write a separate document on that subject.
Are there headings to guide the reader?
Courtesy to your reader demands that you inform
your reader what topic will be covered in the
next section. Your reader may very well decide
to skip a section that does not seem to fit his
or her needs. This is not an insult to you-it's
an indication that you have written well to satisfy
the needs of various readers. Not every reader
will read every word of your magnum opus,
and your headings will guide the reader to find
just what she or he needs.
These questions will apply to every document
you write, from a lengthy technical report describing
the results of a major research project to a brief
report on a sales call on a client. However, the
list is sufficiently generic so the manner in
which you use it may not be exactly the same in
each case.
Clarity: The Manner In
Which You Express Your Ideas
We've all wrestled with passive writing, a style
favored heavily by lawyers and governments. Which
of the following two paragraphs is easier to understand?
Management has become cognizant of the necessity
of eliminating undesirable vegetation surrounding
the periphery of the facility.
Please kill the weeds around the building.
The second paragraph illustrates what we mean
by clarity. Clarity makes it easier for your reader
to understand clearly what you are talking about.
Clarity also brings with it two additional benefits:
- Speed: The speed with which you can get your
message across.
- Image: The image with which you present yourself
as a knowledgeable, organized, effective employee.
The image you project is very important to your
career development. The manner in which you express
your ideas will ultimately determine whether your
ideas will be accepted with confidence. If you
succeed, your subordinates will see you as an
effective leader; your supervisors will see you
as an effective persuader; and your customers
will see you as an effective salesperson.
There are six elements, analogous to those for
good organization, to help you write with clarity.
Use clear, familiar words. Your English
teacher may have insisted that when writing an
essay, you should not use the same word more than
once. The educational benefit of this constraint
was to help expand our working vocabulary. But
for many of us the unintended consequence is that
we now tend to use fancy words when simple words
will do. You can use a thesaurus to find lots
of illustrations, but these simple examples often
appear in scientific documents:
Instead of |
Use |
Facilitate |
Help |
Utilize |
Use |
Endeavor |
Try |
Sufficient |
Enough |
Consequent(ly) and subsequent(ly) are among the
most frequently misused words in "scientific"
writing. Consequent(ly) and subsequent(ly) should
be avoided, and the simpler words-next, later,
resulting, and as a result-should be used instead.
Keep most sentences short and simple.
Some sentences, usually because they contain lengthy
subordinate clauses and descriptive prepositional
phrases, may become quite long, as this sentence
is, and so may be hard to understand quickly.
Other sentences may, at times, be quite short.
Like this one.
A good goal is to write sentences that average
15 to 20 words. You should monitor your writing
from time to time by calculating the average
length of your own sentences, but base the calculation
on one to two pages of text rather than a single
paragraph.
Try to express only one idea per sentence. If
you find yourself trying to express more than
one idea in a sentence, chop the sentence in two,
and insert a period to heal the wound.
Another rule that you probably learned from your
English teacher is never begin a sentence with
and or but. Of course you can begin
a sentence with either of these conjunctions,
when the sense demands and as long as you don't
overdo it. Likewise, it's permissible to end a
sentence with a preposition and to repeat words,
as I mentioned earlier.
Include people in your writing. Refer
to people and companies by their names, not in
the third person such as "the vendor",
"the company", or "the management."
Once the antecedent has been established, it is
permissible to use the pronoun. (And don't refer
to yourself in the third person. Even "I",
once in a while, is ok.)
Use a conversational style. How many times
have you heard someone say, "What I really
mean is
", followed by a simple, conversational-style
explanation that was easy to understand? How many
times has that happened to you?
When you write, think about how you would express
your idea in a conversation with a friend who
is educated but not an expert in your subject.
Or how you might explain the concept to a neighbor,
perhaps, or to your spouse at dinner. The most
effective way to express an idea in conversation
is to use a style that is relaxed, and that style
is effective in writing as well. However, be sure
that what you write is not so relaxed that it
becomes sloppy or idiomatic.
Use the active voice. The passive voice
is used extensively in academic writing, under
the mistaken assumption that it frees the document
from personal influence or bias. That's nonsense,
of course, because of all the work that is reported
was done by a person, not by a machine. The passive
voice merely makes the document sound stilted
at best, or quaint, and difficult to read and
understand at worst.
The real reason to avoid the passive voice is
not that it is stilted or difficult to read, but
that it is awkward, and can lead to very complicated
sentences. Consider the following:
1. The proposal, having been read by the auditor,
was approved by her.
2. The auditor read the proposal and approved
it.
Which one do you think your always-pressed-for-time
boss would prefer to read?
Assemble all the information before you begin
writing. Clear writing requires clear thinking.
However, clear thinking is not possible unless
and until you have all of the information that
you will need.
Consider carefully those last few words, "all
the information that you will need." Not
all the information there is on the subject or
all the information that it might be nice to have
to impress your boss. Just all the information
you absolutely need, and no more. Timely reporting
is essential in industry, so you must judge when
you have all the information that you need. The
most successful employees are experienced enough
to make this judgment quickly and accurately.
Timeliness: Producing
a Document Promptly
Writer's block happens to everyone, even to the
very best, most prolific authors. If you find
yourself experiencing writer's block, here are
some suggestions to get you back on track.
- Begin writing something-anything-evenif it
will be changed later.
- Preferably, begin by preparing an outline.
- Write the elements of your outline in complete
sentences.
Write something-anything. Writer's block
often occurs when you begin to write your report
or memorandum or letter. You just don't know how
to get started but you do have some idea of the
thoughts that you want to express. The real problem
is that you cannot keep more than one or two ideas
in your brain at one time. So as each idea comes
to you, write it down. Then write down the next
idea that comes to you, and so on.
When you have a few ideas written down, you will
see that one idea may need to come before another.
For the time being, just draw a circle around
the idea that needs to be moved, and draw and
arrow on the paper to where the idea should go.
You can also accomplish the same objective using
your word processor, simply cutting and pasting
ideas in the sequence that they need to be.
Prepare an outline. Develop an outline
by inserting ideas one at a time in their proper
sequence. Never try to begin an outline with Roman
numeral I; that's a sure way to cause writer's
block if you don't have it already.
Write the elements of your outline in complete
sentences. Some people can hold a concept,
completely formed, in their minds. They can remember
and accurately recover that concept simply by
writing down a word or short phrase. However,
most people can do a better job by writing down
the elements of their outline in complete, grammatically
correct sentences. Writing in complete sentences
helps writers learn a concept so well that they
will have no trouble explaining it to someone
else. Writing in complete, grammatically correct
sentences can also reveal if there is a missing
piece of information that must be found before
proceeding further.
The ability to communicate well in writing (as
well as orally) is a critical non-technical skill
in science. Technical competence alone will not
get you where you want to be. Communication is
the basis of the scientific enterprise and if
you want your work to be understood and accepted,
you need to be able to communicate your ideas
and results effectively.
Warren Bush is an active Career Consultant
and presenter for the American Chemical Society.
He is also an independent consultant in the chemistry
of petroleum refining, sulfur recovery processes,
and air and water conservation.
Bibliography
William Strunk, Jr. and E.B. White, The
Elements Of Style, Fourth Edition, MacMillan
Publishing Co., Inc., New York, 2000.
The ACS Style Guide: A Manual for Authors
and Editors, Second Edition, Janet S.
Dodd, Editor, American Chemical Society, Washington,
D.C.; published by Oxford University Press, 1997.
Marilyn F. Moriarty, Writing Science through
Critical Thinking, Jones and Bartlett
Publishers, Inc., Sudbury, Massachusetts, 1997.
Edward R. Tufte, The Visual Display of
Quantitative Information, Graphics Press,
Cheshire, Connecticut, 1983.
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