The Technical Writing Process Today

There are some stages of technical writing: planning and researching; organizing and drafting; improving the style; designing; revising and editing;

Stage 1: Planning and Researching

• Defining the rhetorical situation - identify the document's subject, purpose, readers, and context of use.
• Defining the purpose - spend extra time sharpening the purpose into a one-sentence statement that will guide your research and drafting of the document.
• Researching your subject - use electronic, print, and empirical sources, collect information on your subject.

Ask yourself the five-W questions in the scope of your document. Is the document going to be informational or persuasive? Finish the sentence: “The purpose of my document is …”

Stage 2: Organizing and Drafting

• Organizing the content - using common genres to shape your ideas into documents that will be familiar to the readers.
• Drafting the content - generating and composing the content of your document by including facts, data, reasoning, and examples.

A genre is a common pattern for a document that readers will find familiar. Example: reports usually have methodology, results, discussion, and recommendations.

Some techniques for drafting include: freewriting, logical mapping, and outlining.

Stage 3: Improving the Style

• Plain style - This style stresses clarity and accuracy. By simply paying attention to where words appear in a sentence and in paragraphy, you can make your ideas clearer and easier to understand.
• Persuasive style - Using persiasion strategies, you can motivate readers by appealing to their values and emotions. You can use similes, analogies, metaphors, and tone and pace to add visual quality, change your readers’ perspective, and add energy to your work.

Stage 4: Designing

Make the important ideas stand out.

Stage 5: Revising and Editing

1. Revising - During revising, you are tring to “re-vision” the document to see if it meets your original goals.
2. Substantive editing - The content of your document should be complete and organized in a way that is familiar to your readers.
3. Copyediting - Copyediting makes the document easier to read and more persuasive.
4. Proofreading - In the technical workplace, quality is taken very seriously.