Advanced Technical writing

1. Advanced Technical writing Lecture Five Steps to Successful Writing February 2017 Mohammed Alhanjouri

2. The Writing Process • The writing process takes you from the very beginning of a writing project • It includes finding topics, analysing audience, writing, and revising the rough draft.

3. Five Steps to Successful writing • Preparation • Research • Organization • Writing the draft • Revision

4. Preparation: • Preparation • Research • Organization • Writing the draft • Revision • Establishing your objective. • Identifying your reader. • Determining the scope of your coverage.

5. Establishing your objectives • Preparation Establishing your objectives Identifying your reader. Determining the scope of your coverage 2. Research 3. Organization 4. Writing the draft 5. Revision Simply determine what do you want your readers to know? Or be able to do when they have finished reading your report.

6. Identifying your reader • Preparation Establishing your objectives Identifying your reader. Determining the scope of your coverage 2. Research 3. Organization 4. Writing the draft 5. Revision • What are your readers need in relation to your subject? • What does your reader already know about your subject?

7. Audience Analysis • The audience of a technical report—or any piece of writing for that matter—is the ,intended or potential, reader or readers. •  Lack of audience analysis and adaptation is one of the root causes of most of the problems you find in professional, technical documents. • One of the first things to do when you analyze an audience is to identify its type.

8. Types of Audiences The common division of audiences into categories is as follows: • Experts:These are the people who know the theory and the product inside and out.  • Technicians: These are the people who build, operate, maintain, and repair the stuff that the experts design and theorize about. • Executives:These are the people who make business, economic, administrative, legal, governmental, political decisions on the stuff that the experts and technicians work with. Executives are likely to have as little technical knowledge about the subject as nonspecialists. • Nonspecialists:  The nonspecialist reader is least likely to understand what these people are saying.

9. Determining the Scope of Your coverage • Preparation Establishing your objectives Identifying your reader. Determining the scope of your coverage 2. Research 3. Organization 4. Writing the draft 5. Revision The first two steps will help you to decide what to include and not to include in your writing.

10. Research • Preparation Establishing your objectives Identifying your reader. Determining the scope of your coverage 2. Research 3. Organization 4. Writing the draft 5. Revision To understand your subject do search in the library, internet, and interview

11. Organization • Preparation Establishing your objectives Identifying your reader. Determining the scope of your coverage 2. Research 3. Organization 4. Writing the draft 5. Revision To make topic understandable by the reader, follow the following steps: • Outline • Illustration • Layout and design

12. Writing a Draft • Preparation Establishing your objectives Identifying your reader. Determining the scope of your coverage 2. Research 3. Organization 4. Writing the draft 5. Revision Expand your notes from outline to paragraph Concentrate on converting outline into sentences and paragraphs

13. Revision • Preparation Establishing your objectives Identifying your reader. Determining the scope of your coverage 2. Research 3. Organization 4. Writing the draft 5. Revision • Structure • Grammar