Technical Article Writing Workshop

For the last two days, I was attending “Technical Article Writing Workshop” in Agilent, the instructor is CP Lim, Assoc Prof from USM.

I gained a lot from this training; it will definitely help for my Master thesis or any technical reports in the future.

He says:” Often, we are in passive mode to write, we should find some motivation to write. Even the daily technical project, we should write them down.”


Share with you all some of the key points.

18 Steps to Writing Technical Reports

1. Understand the type of technical report you are writing
-He says:”If you are writing for IEEE papers, put as much formulas as possible,
to make it look scary”..(haha..good one)

2. Write down your specific aim

3. Plan your sections and sub-sections

-This allows your readers to pick the parts they want to read (eg. Your manager might be interested in ROI but not the technical portion)
- This will give you the overall ideas and skeleton for what you want to deliver

4. Avoid starting with Background, Introduction, or Methodology

- Use the opening page to present only the essential information

5. Write your headings using strong and specific nouns

- Use eye-catching words for your titles; avoid too-general-title

6. Match your content to your reader’s knowledge (know your audience)

7. Keep information specific rather than general

8. Write in plain English

9. Use active verbs rather than passive verbs

10. Keep your average sentence between 10-20 words

11. Edit wordy phrases

12. Use simple words rather than complex one
13. Avoid jargon

14. Keep technical terms to a minimum

15. Use examples and illustrations

16. Use diagrams, flowcharts, and graphs

17. Use good layout

18. Test your documents with the intended readers

In analyzing your audience, you need to know

-Who they are
-What they know
-Why they will read
- How they will read

There is one key clue in wring an Abstract. One should include

1. Purpose
2. Methods
3. Results
4. Conclusions

For writing a good Introduction, one should know the

Topic
Importance for this topic
Background (Give reader overall idea of
who have done the work before, and the current stage for the issue, then what is
your solution)
Arrangement of the article

More information on http://www.technical-writing-course.com/