Technical Writing Presentation Jan2014

8/10/2019 Technical Writing Presentation Jan2014

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Technical Writing

January 2014



Scope of TrainingStyle

The Principles of Good Writing

Be Clear

Be Concise

Be Correct

Be Consistent

The Five Steps of the Writing Process

PrewritingDrafting

Revising

Proofreading

Publishing

Structural Aspects of Reports

Executive SummaryRecommendations

Introduction

Conclusion

Graphs, Diagrams, Tables

References

Appendices



Why Writing Well Matters

Do not leave the quality of your report writing to asupervisor —be your own critic and editor.

Regard the way you write as part of the expertise

required for your job.

Do not underestimate the potential consequences, for

Atkins’ professional reputation and your own career, of

every sentence you produce.



Style—It’s How You Write

Why does style matter?

• Technical writing is a core part of Atkins’ business

• Reports are main deliverables –they are the culmination

of technical work

• Poor writing style can overshadow good content

• Gives Atkins a competitive advantage

Writing has u t i l ity —i t performs a funct ion. Like a wel l -

drawn model or a wel l -designed semisubmers ib le, a good

sentence has sty l ist ic elegance.



The Principles of

Good Writing

1. Be Clear

2. Be Concise

3. Be Correct

4. Be Consistent



Principle 1: Be Clear

• Know your purpose for writing

• No padding

• No obscure or unnecessary phrases

• Write in plain English

• Minimize jargon




It is of c onsiderable importance to ensure that under no

circum stances should anyone fail to deact ivate the

overhead lum inescent func t ion at i ts local act ivation

po int on their departure to their place of residence,most no tably immediately preceding the two day per iod

at the term inat ion of th e standard w ork ing week.

Always turn the lights out when you

go home, especial ly on a Friday.




Know your purpose andidentify your audience

• Why am I writing the report?

• Whom am I writing for?

• What do they need to know? How much information to include?

• What is the most convenient way to convey the information to myaudience?

The long er and less c lear you r w ri t ing is ,

the less lik ely it w il l be read.



The Goldilocks Audience

Assume that some of your readers are supreme experts, some

are complete novices, and everyone else falls somewhere in

between.


The trick to tactfully addressing your audience is to write for the

novice without offending the expert.

Think of the reader as someone who has a degree in every field ortopic except the one you are writing about.



Use the recipe:

Introduce, Expand/justify, Conclude

Books, chapters, sections, subsections, and paragraphs all

use the same structure—

•make the topic clear

•then expand upon it

•sum up, tying everything back

to the topic





•Keep the tone positive and confident (e.g. sometimes it isbetter to use ―when‖ instead of ―if‖)

•Maintain a strong momentum throughout the document,

always making it clear what the point of each section is

•Use active verbs (exact, direct, robust, single-word verbs )

when explaining anything technical

•Predominantly use active voice over passive voice to help

convey a concise, positive, and confident tone




Using Active Verbs

Which do you prefer?

To cut or split something into two equal parts.

or

Bisect

Unite into what is essentially one body

or

Coalesce or combine




Yield

Prove

Propose

Imply

AssertInfer

Extrapolate

Estimate

DefineClassify

Synthesize

Evaluate

Simplify

Note

Predict

Challenge

Interpret

Provide Acknowledge

Distinguish

Restrict

DesignateDeduce

Derive

Characterize

Assess

Active Verbs to Describe Work/Thought




DischargeTrend

Converge

Permeate

ContractRestore

Continue

Cease

Bond

Fuse

Encompass

Invert

Deposit

OrientLag

Activate

Rupture

CondensePropel

Link

Scatter

Disperse

Eliminate

Fracture

Absorb

Isolate

Active Verbs to Describe Phenomena



Passive Voice

B is done by A.

The boy was bitten by thedog.

Gas is exported from theplatform.

These points wereaddressed by the FEEDstudy.

Active Voice

A does B.

The dog bit the boy.

The platform exports gas.

The FEED study addressedthese points.


Passive and Active Voice





Both the active and the passive voice can be direct, efficient,

and clear

Effective Use of Passive Voice:

The rate of evaporation is controlled by the size of anopening.

Active Voice:

The size of an opening controls the rate of evaporation.

What’s the difference?

Emphasis





Bad Passive Voice:

Find the items in the sentence that can actually do

something, and make the sentence clearly about those

items by placing them in front of active verbs (the things

they are do ing ).

How do you change a passive voice sentence into an

active voice sentence?

Active Voice:

Two model simulations (Figures 1 and 2) illustrate

how zones of fracture concentration influence

groundwater flow. These simulations show...

Groundwater flow is influenced by zones of fracture

concentration, as can be recognized by the two model

simulations (see Figures 1 and 2), by which one can see ...

Groundwater flow is influenced by zones of fracture

concentration, as can be recognized by the two model

simulations (see Figures 1 and 2), by which one can see...





Principle 2: Be Concise

Avoid

To be concise, you should avoid these common traps:

Verbosity

Tautologies

Clichés



Avoid Verbosity

At this point in time

Now

Due to the fact thatBecause

In close proximity to

NearNot withstanding the fact that

Although




Avoid Clichés

Last but not least

Window of opportunity

Back to square one

The fact of the matter




Avoid Tautologies

Sufficiently adequate

Revert back

Plan ahead going forwardLooking back in hindsight

New innovation

Point in time

They’re unnecessary and

redundant




Principle 3: Be Correct

What is correct?

The rules and stylistic guidelines of technical writing

depend on your audience, field, and region.

Familiarize yourself with proper:

•Word Choice

• Punctuation

• Grammar & Usage

• Spelling

When in doubt, check the proper style gu ides.




Word Choice

Choose vivid and precise words

Accurate use of language (spell check won’t catch these)

• continuous / continual

• principal / principle

• appraised / apprised

• adverse / averse

When in doubt, check a dict io nary.




Punctuation marks are vital to creating grammatical structure and

sentence meaning.

Punctuation

Period

Comma

Hyphen

Colon

Slash

Apostrophe

Semicolon

Question Mark

Quotations

Dash

Parentheses

Brackets

.

,-

:

/

’

;

? “ ”

—

( )[ ]



A woman without her man is nothing

A woman without her man is nothing

A woman without her man, is nothing.

A woman: without her, man is nothing.


Punctuation

Punctuat ion m arks: terr ib ly pow erfu l in th e r ight hands.




Punctuation

Punctuat ion m arks: terr ib ly pow erfu l in th e r ight hands.






Grammar & Usage

Common grammar issues:

Subject/Verb Agreement

The instructions for completing thetraining is are attached. The media is are highlyinfluential in shaping your opinions.

Comma Splice

Digital recordings made it possible to

measure the nuclear magnetic signal atany depth, this allowed for a precise

reading to be taken at every six inches.

Digital recordings made it possible to

measure the nuclear magnetic signal atany depth, and this allowed for a

precise reading to be taken at every six

inches.

Some engineers support technical

writing education, however, manyoppose it vociferously.

Some engineers support technical

writing education; however, manyoppose it vociferously.

Fragment

When aiming for the highest returns,

and also thinking about the possible

losses.

When aiming for the highest returns,

project managers should also thinkabout the possible losses.



Grammar & Usage

Standard usage:

The oxford comma, also known

as the serial comma, is the

comma preceding the final item

in a list of three or more items.

Nearly everyone argues about

using or avoiding the oxford

comma.

The oxford comma is commonly

used in the US and less

commonly used in the UK.




Etc.Do not end lists with "etc.". Most lists start with "for example," so

there is no point in indicating that more examples exist.

BulletsWhen using bullets, placing any punctuation at the end of the

bulleted item is unnecessary.

Acronyms Always write out the first in-text reference to an acronym,followed by the acronym itself written in capital letters and

enclosed by parentheses. Subsequent references to the acronym

can be made just by the capital letters alone.

Ex.: Geographic Information Systems (GIS) is a rapidly

expanding field. GIS technology …

Grammar & Usage

Standard usage:




Use Gender Neutral Language

Never Use Contractions(examples: can’t, won’t, would’ve, shouldn’t, it’s

cannot, will not, would have, should not, it is)

Numbers

Write out all numbers below 10. Exceptions to this rule arewhen the numbers are with units of measure, age, time,

dates, page numbers, percentages, money, and proportions.

Do no rely on o r necessar i ly trust Spel l Check.

Grammar & Usage

Standard usage:




Capitalization Rules

Engineers tend to over-capitalize in technical writing

The Easy Rules:• Capitalize the first word of every sentence

• Ex: Engineers typically over-capitalize.

• Capitalize proper nouns• Ex: Mary, Texas, Mississippi River, the White House

• Capitalize calendar items• Ex: Easter, Tuesday, November

• Capitalize race, ethnicity, nationality, languages, religion,

and political and social affiliations• Ex: Asian, Republican, German, Hebrew, Catholic





The Harder Rules:• Capitalize cardinal directions

• Only when they refer to a specific location or established region

(ex: The South is also called Dixie)

• Not when they are used as directions or as adjectives(ex: Turn east.)

• Capitalize professional titles only when they precede a

proper noun

• Ex: President Obama and Doctor Jones or Barack Obama, presidentof the USA and Henry Jones, doctor of podiatry

• Ex: Kristina is the project manager

• Capitalize the titles and subtitles of works

• According to sentence case or title case rules





Sentence Case versus Title Case

• Sentence case is the conventional way of using capital letters in a

sentence--capitalizing only the first word and any proper nouns

• Ex: Leave your competition in the dust

• Title case is as one of the conventions used for capitalizing the words in

a title, subtitle, heading, or headline. The general rule to follow title case it

to capitalize the first word, the last word, and all major words in between

• Ex: Leave Your Competition in the Dust




Owed Two Spell Check

I have a spel l ing checker -

I t came with my PC.

I t plain lee marks four my revue

M iss steaks aye can knot sea.

Eye ran this poem threw it,Your sure reel glad two no.

Its vary polished in it’s weigh,

My checker tol led me sew.

Spelling

Spell-check is helpful, but it will not always detect all

problems (e.g. ―their‖, ―they’re‖, and ―there‖).




Spelling

Tricky Singular Plural Pairs

Singular Plural

Appendix Appendixes or Appendices

Axis Axes

Crisis Crises

Criterion Criteria

Formula Formulas or Formulae

Medium Media

Phenomenon Phenomena

Radius Radii

Stimulus Stimuli




P i i l 3 B C t



Commonly Misspelled Wordsbeing vs. begin word vs. world

moth vs. month quit vs. quite

form vs. from thing vs. think

are vs. area trail vs. trialher vs. here contact vs. contract

sing vs. sign angel vs. angle

through vs. thorough ever vs. every

manger vs. manager feel vs. fell

star vs. start stated vs. started

being vs. begin word vs. world

moth vs. month quit vs. quite

Principle 3: Be CorrectSpelling



Principle 4: Be Consistent

Not every aspect of technical writing can be governed by an iron-

clad rule.

Some points of style or format allow room for individual preference.

Nevertheless a writer must be consistent throughout one

document.

Where a choice is poss ible, make it and th en keep to it w ithout

variat ion.



The General Principles of

Good Writing Recap

1. Be clear(have a purpose, use plain English, and follow a logical

sequence, keep the tone positive and confident)

2. Be concise(avoid tautologies, clichés, and verbose phrases)

3. Be correct(use appropriate word choice, grammar, punctuation, and

spelling)

4. Be consistent(where there is no fixed rule, make a choice and keep to it)



The Five Steps of the

Writing Process

Step1: Prewriting

Step 2: Drafting

Step 3: Revising

Step 4: Proofreading

Step 5: Publishing



Step 1: Prewriting

• Decide on a topic to write about

• Consider who will read or listento your written work

• Do your research



Ways to Generate Ideas• Free write

• Brainstorm

• Use graphic organizers

• Talk out ideas with others

• Determine the who, what, where, when, why, and howof a topic

• Determine what you already know and what you still

need to learn

Step 1: Prewriting



Step 1: Prewriting

Ways to Plan Your Writing• Create a cluster, diagram, or web

• Make an outline

• Identify pros and cons

• List supporting arguments

• Sort and organize by topic



Step 2: Drafting

• WRITE

• Write sentences and paragraphs even if

they are not perfect

• Read what you have written and judge if

it says what you mean

• Show it to others and ask for suggestions



Step 2: Drafting

• Some things that many writers find helpful when

working on the first draft include:

• Set aside at least thirty minutes to concentrate

• Go somewhere without interruptions

• Turn off distracting programs

Do no t procrast inate and attempt

to f in ish your w ri t ing in one si t t ing .

S 3 R i i



Step 3: Revising

• MAKE IT BETTER

• Reread your writting

• Think about what others said about it

• Rearrange words or sentences

• Take out or add parts

• Replace overused or unclear words

• Read your writing aloud to be sure it flows

smoothly



St 3 R i i



Revising for Purpose• Is my purpose clearly stated for the reader?

• Do I clearly maintain that purpose throughout the

document?

• Does all of my supporting information clearly relate to my

purpose?

• Do I organize my ideas to best fulfill my purpose?

Step 3: Revising

St 3 R i i



Revising for Form• Do I follow the established form of the document?

• Do I separate ideas into paragraphs with clear topic

sentences?

• Do I maintain balance among my points, developing

each equally?

Step 3: Revising

St 4 P f di



Step 4: Proofreading

• MAKE IT CORRECT

• Be sure all sentences are complete

• Correct spelling, capitalization, andpunctuation

• Change words that are not used correctly

• Have someone check your work

Step 5: Publishing

Th Fi St f th



Revising

Proof-reading

Drafting

The Five Steps of the

Writing Process

Publishing

Prewriting



Structural Aspects of Reports

• Arrange information for your reader —not

yourself

• Avoid copy and pasting information from otherreports

• Maintain a strong momentum

• Stay focused receipts

Executive Summary



Executive Summary

What is its purpose?

Should contain:

• Who commissioned the report and why

• The scope of the research/tasks undertaken

• How the study/job was conducted and why itwas done that way

• Discoveries/conclusions and their significance

• What ought to follow from the findings

Don’t just copy and paste!

Recommendations



Recommendations

•Put recommendations into a consolidated list

• The consolidated list can cross-reference pages or sections

where each recommendation arises

• Formulate each recommendation in precise terms

• Details about your reason for making the recommendation

belong in the main body

• Be consistent in how you express each recommendation

(usually ―Do this…‖ ―Do that…‖)

Introduction



Introduction

Explain what is coming, how it will be presented,

and why.

The introduction should answer these questions:

• What exactly is the subject of the report?• What is its specific purpose?

• What is its scope?

• How is the discussion going to be organized?

• What are the key terms and concepts

that will be used?


Conclusion



Conclusion

• The conclusion just serves to summarize the main

findings established in the report.

• Typically it is short

• Your conclusion should answer:

What did you discover/do?

And why does it matter?




Graphs, Diagrams, TablesThey need precise descriptions underneath each one,

and a clear interpretive paragraph should accompanythem.

ReferencesCite your referenced work (published materials, in-house documents, e-mails) according to the preferred

style guide.

AppendicesIf your graphs and tables are numerous or very

technical, they should also go into an Appendix—not

the main body of the report.



Technical Writing

January 2014



Be Clear Answers

Each platform connected to the gas Ring Main will

control its gas import, export and gas inventory

individually, importing from and exporting to the Ring

Main depending on its own deficit or surplus.

The lift gas flowrate is set using individual flow

controllers for each well.

Downstream equipment is protected by lowtemperature trips down-stream of the import PCVs.

These trips will stop gas import via the relevant route

C A



Comma Answers

The intention of the site visit was to meet the personnel involved,

discuss the content of the interim report and collate and collectavailable documentation.

The decision was made in the recent past in the context of lower gas

prices, but other commercial implications may be different.

As a rule, FPSOs are ship shape, and are designed to weathervaneabout a mooring point.

Although the primary driver for undertaking this study is availability,

the client is considering increasing their production capacity.

We work with our clients to assess modification options, prepare

conceptual designs, perform detailed engineering, prepare work packs

and provide procurement and construction support.

The performance of a compressor over time can be monitored by

comparing the actual head produced with that predicted from a design

curve, or accepted field test curve, for the same inlet volume flow.





Technical Writing

July 2012

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