Please click here to help David McMurrey pay his web-hosting bill:
Donate any small amount you can !
Online Technical Writing will remain free.
A big change has come over this online technical writing book: it now uses technical document (techdoc for short) to refer to any document that contains tecnical information—as opposed to using report. The report is a subcategory along witb the other kinds of technical documents discussed in this book.
Introduction: Technical Writing
- What's new?
- About technical writing
- About technical-writing courses
- Resources
- About the author
- Acknowledgments
Applications of Technical Writing
Note: This online textbook now uses technical document, or just techdoc, in instances where report is too specific.
- Business and employment documents (Business correspondence, application letters, resumes
- Types of techdocs: an overview
- Data reports
- Business plans
- Proposals
- Progress reports
- Instructions
- Technical reports (techdocs)
- White papers
- Computer user guides
- Guides and guidance documents
- Standard operational policies and procedures
- Recommendation and feasibility reports
- Handbooks
- Titles, title pages, abstracts, introductions, and conclusions
- Oral presentations
Information Structures
Information structures are used as parts of longer documents, but can be used as documents themselves, especially for technical-writing writing projects.
Document Design
- Techdoc design overview
- Book design overview
- Page design overview
- Headings
- Lists
- Special notices
- Tables
- Charts (Microsoft Word, Excel or Google Docs, Sheets)
- Graphics and animation
- Techdoc format and final packaging
- Highlighting and emphasis
- Indexing
Processes and Guidelines in Technical Writing
- Writing process: from audience to rough draft
- Audience analysis
- Task analysis
- Translating technical information
- Power-revision techniques
- Libraries, documentation, cross-referencing
- Information collecting (NoodleTools or Notebook LM)
- Quotations, Paraphrases, Summaries: Phrasing, Punctuation, Attribution
- Basic patterns and elements of the sentence
- Common grammar, usage, punctuation problems
- Common spelling problems
- Strategies for peer-reviewing and team-writing
Examples, Cases & Models: Index
- Resumes
- Application letters
- Complaint letters
- Adjustment letters
- Inquiry letters
- Order letters
- Proposals
- Progress reports
- Instructions
- User guides
- Recommendation reports
- Data-analysis reports
- Technical reports (techdocs)
- Primary research reports
- Technical specifications
- Oral reports
- Report and section introductions
- Descriptions
- Comparisons
- Classification (Categorization)
- Causal narrative
- Definitions
- Process narrative
- Persuasion
