The Technical Writing Process

The Technical Writing Process

Describe the three main steps of the technical writing process and how you would use these steps to create the manual mentioned in this scenario.

a) Prewriting – Is the process in which we gather the information to be used in the manual. In this step we must examine the purpose for which we are writing, determine the goal(s) that we want to accomplish, consider the type of audience that will be reading the manual, using all necessary resources we gather the data required to complete the manual and finally, we must determine how we want to convey our information, which is in this case in a manual.

b) Writing – The writing process involves taking all the information obtained in the prewriting process and putting it down on paper in draft form. In the case of a manual we must lead the reader on a steady progression of information to ensure that they will not get lost in all the information. If the information does not follow a specific order, the reader may become too frustrated to continue reading. Format the document to emphasize important points combining this with the application of white space will make the document reader friendly.

c) Rewriting – Is the most important part of the technical writing process. This is where fill in all the missing information contained in our draft. This includes making any corrections to the formatting of the document, deleting erroneous information and checking to make sure everything follows a specific direction.

Explain the objectives of technical writing.

Clarity to make sure writing is clearly worded to avoid confusing audience.

Conciseness keeps the document brief and to the point.

Accuracy keeps grammatical and spelling errors to a minimum.

Organization gives the reader a clear path to follow your written thoughts.

Ethics concentrates on the legality of the ethical guidelines in our documents.

•Explain the purpose and sub-steps of each step and how they relate to the manual.

d) Clarity – the purpose of this step is to make sure the information provided in the manual is clear and easy to understand. We do this by 1) providing specific details, avoiding the use of vague, abstract words that could be interpreted in different ways,