Technical writing: a practical guide for engineers, scientists, and nontechnical professionals

300 Pages·2019·15.25 MB·English

by  Laplante, Phillip A.

Technical Writing
A Practical Guide for
Engineers, Scientists, and
Nontechnical Professionals
Second Edition
What Every Engineer Should Know
Series Editor
Phillip A. Laplante
Pennsylvania State University
What Every Engineer Should Know about What Every Engineer Should Know about
Product Liability Concurrent Engineering
James F. Thorpe and William H. Middendorf Thomas A. Salomone
What Every Engineer Should Know What Every Engineer Should Know
about Inventing about Ethics
William H. Middendorf Kenneth K. Humphreys
What Every Engineer Should Know about Micro What Every Engineer Should Know about
computer Systems Design and Debugging Software Engineering
Bill Wray and Bill Crawford Phillip A. Laplante
What Every Engineer Should Know What Every Engineer Should Know about
about Robots Developing Real-Time Embedded Products
Maurice I. Zeldman Kim R. Fowler
What Every Engineer Should Know What Every Engineer Should Know about
about Engineering Information Resources Business Communciation
Margaret T. Schenk and James K. Webster John X. Wang
What Every Engineer Should Know about
What Every Engineer Should Know about
Microcomputer Software
Career Management
Keith R. Wehmeyer
Mike Ficco
What Every Engineer Should Know about
What Every Engineer Should Know about
Computer Modeling and Simulation
Starting a High-Tech Business Venture
Don M. Ingels
Eric Koester
What Every Engineer Should Know about
What Every Engineer Should Know about
Practical Engineering Workstations
MATLAB® and Simulink®
Justin E. Harlow III
Adrian B. Biran
What Every Engineer Should Know about
Green Entrepreneur Handbook: The Guide
Practical Cad/cam Applications
to Building and Growing a Green and Clean
John Stark
Business
What Every Engineer Should Know about
Eric Koester
Data Communications
Technical Writing: A Practical Guide for
Carl Clifton
E ngineers and Scientists
What Every Engineer Should Know about
Phillip A. Laplante
Patents, Second Edition
What Every Engineer Should Know about
William G. Konold, Bruce Tittel, Donald F. Frei, and
Cyber Security and Digital Forensics
David S. Stallard
Joanna F. DeFranco
What Every Engineer Should Know about
Quality Control What Every Engineer Should Know about
Thomas Pyzdek Modeling and Simulation
What Every Engineer Should Know about Raymond J. Madachy and Daniel Houston
Microcomputers: Hardware/Software Design: What Every Engineer Should Know about
a Step-by-step Example, Second Edition Excel, Second Edition
William S. Bennett, Carl F. Evert, Jr., and J.P. Holman and Blake K. Holman
Leslie C. Lander Technical Writing: A Practical Guide for
What Every Engineer Should Know E ngineers, Scientists, and Nontechnical
about Reliability and Risk Analysis P rofessionals, Second Edition
Mohammad Modarres Phillip A. Laplante
What Every Engineer Should Know
about Accounting and Finance
Jae K. Shim and Norman Henteleff
For more information about this series, please visit: www.crcpress.com
Technical Writing
A Practical Guide for
Engineers, Scientists, and
Nontechnical Professionals
Second Edition
Phillip A. Laplante
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2019 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
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Library of Congress Cataloging‑in‑Publication Data
Names: Laplante, Phillip A., author.
Title: Technical writing : a practical guide for engineers, scientists, and
nontechnical professionals / Phillip A. Laplante.
Description: Second edition. | Boca Raton : Taylor & Francis, CRC Press,
2018. | Series: What every engineer should know | Includes
bibliographical references and index.
Identifers: LCCN 2018008664| ISBN 9781138628106 (pbk. : alk. paper) | ISBN
9781138606968 (hardback : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780429467394 (ebook)
Subjects: LCSH: Technical writing.
Classifcation: LCC T11 .L264 2018 | DDC 808.06/65--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018008664
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at
http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the CRC Press Web site at
http://www.crcpress.com
This book is dedicated to Dr. Divyendu Sinha (1961–2010), a world-
class scientist, writer, collaborator, and, most importantly, friend.
http://taylorandfrancis.com
Contents
What Every Engineer Should Know: Series Statement ...................................xv
Preface .................................................................................................................. xvii
Acknowledgments .............................................................................................. xix
1. The Nature of Technical Writing ................................................................1
1.1 Introduction ...........................................................................................1
1.2 Who Writes Technical Documentation? ............................................2
1.3 Taxonomy of Technical Writing ..........................................................3
1.4 Technical Reporting ..............................................................................4
1.5 Business Communications...................................................................5
1.6 Scientifc Writing ...................................................................................6
1.6.1 Books..........................................................................................7
1.6.2 Journals .....................................................................................7
1.6.3 Magazines .................................................................................8
1.6.4 Conference Proceedings .........................................................8
1.6.5 Newsletters ...............................................................................9
1.6.6 Websites and Blogs ..................................................................9
1.6.7 Vignette: Nontechnical Writing .............................................9
1.6.8 Vignette: Technical Writing Sample ......................................9
1.7 Exercises ............................................................................................... 10
Endnotes .......................................................................................................... 11
References ....................................................................................................... 11
2. Technical Writing Basics ............................................................................. 13
2.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 13
2.2 Structuring Your Writing ................................................................... 13
2.3 Positioning Your Writing ................................................................... 16
2.3.1 Know Your Audience ............................................................ 16
2.3.2 Are You Talking to Me? ........................................................ 16
2.4 Choosing the Right Words ................................................................ 17
2.4.1 Conciseness ............................................................................. 17
2.4.2 Precision and Hedging.......................................................... 20
2.4.3 Universal and Existential Quantifcation ...........................23
2.4.4 Negatives ................................................................................. 24
2.4.5 Vignette: Brake Retarder Prohibitions ................................25
2.5 Avoiding Traps ....................................................................................25
2.5.1 Clichés ..................................................................................... 26
2.5.2 Anthropomorphic Writing ................................................... 26
2.5.3 Malapropisms ......................................................................... 27
2.5.4 Erroneous Heterographs ....................................................... 27
vii
viii Contents
2.5.5 Opinion versus Fact ............................................................... 29
2.5.6 Acronyms, Domain-Specifc Terms, and Jargon ............... 29
2.5.7 The Laziness of “Very” .............................................................. 31
2.5.8 Other Pitfalls ........................................................................... 32
2.6 Making Your Technical Writing More Interesting .........................33
2.6.1 Humor .....................................................................................33
2.6.2 Vignette: The Joy of Spam ....................................................34
2.6.3 Allegory ...................................................................................35
2.7 The 5 Cs of Technical Writing ...........................................................36
2.7.1 Qualities of Good Writing ....................................................36
2.7.2 Correctness ............................................................................. 37
2.7.3 Clarity ......................................................................................38
2.7.4 Completeness ..........................................................................38
2.7.5 Consistency ............................................................................. 39
2.7.6 Changeability ......................................................................... 39
2.7.7 An Example ............................................................................ 39
2.8 Referencing .......................................................................................... 41
2.8.1 Choose the Right References ................................................ 41
2.8.2 Web References ......................................................................42
2.8.3 Reference Styles ......................................................................42
2.9 Exercises ...............................................................................................43
Endnotes ..........................................................................................................44
References .......................................................................................................45
3. The Writing Process ..................................................................................... 47
3.1 Introduction ......................................................................................... 47
3.2 The Traditional Writing Process .......................................................48
3.2.1 Brainstorming......................................................................... 49
3.2.2 Drafting ...................................................................................50
3.2.3 Revising ...................................................................................50
3.2.4 Editing ..................................................................................... 51
3.2.5 Publishing ...............................................................................54
3.2.6 Vignette: A Paper on Software Control on Oil Rigs .........54
3.3 Environment ........................................................................................58
3.4 Dealing with Writer’s Block ...............................................................58
3.5 Meeting Deadlines .............................................................................. 59
3.6 Writing Tools ....................................................................................... 59
3.7 Permissions and Plagiarism ..............................................................60
3.7.1 Permissions .............................................................................60
3.7.2 Plagiarism ............................................................................... 62
3.7.3 Self-Plagiarism .......................................................................63
3.7.4 Detection Tools .......................................................................64
3.7.5 Paper Generators ....................................................................64
3.7.6 Vignette: Determining Authorship—The
Federalist Papers ....................................................................... 67
Contents ix
3.8 Making Your Writing Understandable to All .................................68
3.8.1 Hofstede’s Metrics ..................................................................68
3.8.2 British versus American English ......................................... 70
3.9 Exercises ............................................................................................... 71
Endnotes ..........................................................................................................72
References .......................................................................................................72
4. Scientifc Writing ..........................................................................................75
4.1 Introduction .........................................................................................75
4.2 Technical Reports ................................................................................ 76
4.3 Tutorials ................................................................................................77
4.4 Opinion ................................................................................................. 79
4.5 Research Papers ................................................................................... 81
4.5.1 Survey of the Field ................................................................. 81
4.5.2 Based on Survey Data ...........................................................84
4.5.3 Based on Experimentation ................................................... 87
4.6 Reviews of Books, Papers, and Reports ........................................... 91
4.6.1 Reviews ................................................................................... 91
4.6.2 Journal and Conference Paper Reviews ............................. 91
4.6.3 Book Reviews ......................................................................... 93
4.6.4 Blind Reviews ......................................................................... 95
4.6.5 Vignette: Scientifc Proposal................................................. 97
4.7 Exercises ............................................................................................... 97
Endnotes .......................................................................................................... 98
References .......................................................................................................99
5. Business Communications ....................................................................... 101
5.1 Introduction ....................................................................................... 101
5.2 Résumés .............................................................................................. 101
5.2.1 Name ...................................................................................... 102
5.2.2 Contact Information ............................................................ 103
5.2.3 Summary ............................................................................... 103
5.2.4 Statement of Objective ......................................................... 104
5.2.5 Experience ............................................................................. 104
5.2.6 Education and Training ...................................................... 104
5.2.7 Licenses and Certifcations ................................................. 105
5.2.8 Consulting. ............................................................................ 105
5.2.9 Hardware and Software ..................................................... 105
5.2.10 Foreign Languages .............................................................. 106
5.2.11 Security Clearance ............................................................... 107
5.2.12 Military and Other Service ................................................. 107
5.2.13 Awards and Honors ............................................................ 107
5.2.14 Publications ........................................................................... 108
5.2.15 Affliations ............................................................................ 108
5.2.16 Interests ................................................................................. 108