Guidelines for Technical Writing: Planning, Readability, Data Collection, Formatting, and More

This report provides guidelines for technical writing, including planning, readability, data collection, formatting, and more. Technical writing is complex and demands the use of guidelines to ensure high-quality documents. The report emphasizes the importance of planning, readability, data collection, essential and non-essential elements, evaluation of information, ordering information, formatting, tables and graphs, referencing, and editing. Following these guidelines will ensure that technical documents are of high quality.

Running head: TECHNICAL WRITING
Technical Writing
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author note:

Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Discussion........................................................................................................................................3
Planning the report.......................................................................................................................3
Readability...................................................................................................................................4
Data collection.............................................................................................................................4
Essential and non-essential elements...........................................................................................4
Evaluation of information-..........................................................................................................5
Ordering information-..................................................................................................................6
Formatting....................................................................................................................................6
Tables and graphs........................................................................................................................6
Referencing..................................................................................................................................6
Editing..........................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion and recommendations...................................................................................................7
References........................................................................................................................................8

Introduction
ProTech is an organization that hires technical writers. It specializes in writing and
communicating reports related to technical and occupational fields like computer hardware and
software, engineering, chemistry, aeronautics, medical, robotics, biotechnology and finance. The
organization hires skilled writers because technical writing is very complex. The complexity
demands for a use of guidelines in this industry. Without the use of the guidelines, there are
chances that the documents will not be of standard quality (Riordan, 2013). The report will
provide details about the guidelines used by the organization for technical documents. Guidelines
are important because the technical documents not only contain texts but a number of
illustrations, diagrams, charts, visual aids are used. In order to make these visual representations
adequate skills and knowledge is required. A standard structure and designs are required to be
followed so that the documents are of the quality that the clients require. Moreover, a number of
software is required so guidelines for application of the software are to be provided to the
technical writers (Chia & Round 2015).
Discussion
Planning the report
Before drafting a report it is very important the exact structure of business reports are
followed. This creates a need for planning the report before had. Planning will emphasize on the
information that is to be provided in the report. Business reports are to the point and hence they
are needed to be accurate and full of information. The writers will need to undertake a deep and
detailed research so that the report has authentic data. A writer needs to plan which sources

would be best for the given business report. A draft should be initially made before finally
making the report (Riordan, 2013).
Readability
The report should consider the reader. The language and writing should be
comprehensible to the reader. If the reader fails to understand the information provided then the
report will not be of any use as its prime objective is to provide information about the given
topic. The language should be as per the knowledge and ability of the writer to encode the
information provided. On the other hand, the report should be very general or simple if the reader
is an expert the topic. So, the writer should their reader and drafts the report accordingly.
Similarly, technical jargons should be avoided if the reader is an amateur in the field (Chia &
Round 2015).
Data collection
Data collection is one of the most important aspects of preparation of reports. The
sources that are used by the writers should be authentic then only the data will be authentic. The
writers should use more journals, books and official websites for collection of data. If the writer
has to draft a report about mission, vision and objectives of any particular company then
company’s official website should be the most appropriate source for data collection. Accuracy
of data is an essential criteria of the business reports. Especially in case of financial data,
calculations and figures accuracy needs to be maintained (Cardon, 2015).
Essential and non-essential elements
Generally, reports are written in various sections. The sections those are common to all the
reports are

 Executive Summary
 Introduction
 Body/Discussion
 Conclusion
 Recommendations (Fisher et al., 2016).
All most all the reports irrespective of the nature of the report can be divided into these
five headings. The Executive summary of any report is an essential element of the report. In this
section, the writer gives information about the entire report. In the introduction section a brief
information is given about the subject including what will be discussed in other sections. In body
a detailed discussion is done on the given topic. This section is divided into various sub sections
depending upon the topic and the information required. The data collection done from the
research is analyzed in this section. The conclusion section contains the summary of the findings.
The last section is recommendation, it is not given in some reports but in reports were some
issues are highlighted recommendations are required. One thing that distinguishes reports from
the essays is that the writers should not include their personal opinions. They should provide data
and facts (Chia & Round 2015).
Evaluation of information-
The evaluation of the report is a written document that gives description of the findings
and recommendations. In the section the information gathered from various sources are analyzed
the results are put in this section. Evaluation is an important part of research reports (Fisher et al.,
2016).

Ordering information-
Ordering information can be termed as putting all the information in the report in the
right order. If proper order is not maintained for providing the information, the report will not be
presentable. The readers might be confused and would not be able to extract the right
information from the report. The readers would not understand the information hence provided
(Jaggia et al., 2016).
Formatting
Formatting is an important aspect of the structure of the assignment. The proper format of
the report contains header, headings, sub headings, font type and size. The pages should be
numbered (Riordan, 2013).
Tables and graphs
All the necessary information is required to be put in tables and graphs. Research figures
when put in tables makes the information presentable (Fisher et al., 2016).
Referencing
It is an important section of the report writing. In this section, the writer is required to put
the references of the sources from where the information has been taken. Using the exact style of
referencing is very important (Jaggia et al., 2016).
Editing
Proof reading the report is very important. Writers are required to edit their reports before
presenting the finally copy. Generally it’s better if the proof reading and editing part is done by
the experts. There are six steps in the writing process
1. Choosing the topic

2. Gathering Idea
3. Organizing the ideas
4. Drafting
5. Reviewing the structure
6. Editing and Proof reading (Cardon, 2015)
Conclusion and recommendations
Business and technical reports are required to follow a standard. Reports are generally
formal documents and therefore they are required to follow the protocols and set guidelines. So
that accuracy and authenticity of information can be maintained. The report has provided the
guidelines on the structure and contains of the report writing. Business reports are used for
several official purposes, like the sales reporting, presentation of action plans and project
proposals. The reports are therefore required to be authentic.

References
Cardon, P. (2015). Business communication: Developing leaders for a networked world.
McGraw-Hill Higher Education.
Chia, A., & Round, H. (2015). A Developmental Learning Framework for Business Report
Writing: Guidance for Management Educators”. Journal of Adolescent and Adult
Literacy, 45(7), 556-566.
Fisher, J. P., Jansen, J. A., Johnson, P. C., & Mikos, A. G. (2016). Guidelines for writing a
research paper for publication. Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Accessed on, 18-10.
Jaggia, S., Kelly, A., Beg, A. B. M., Leighton, C., Olaru, D., Salzman, S., & Sriananthakumar, S.
(2016). Essentials of business statistics: communicating with numbers. McGraw-Hill
Education.
Riordan, D. (2013). Technical report writing today. Cengage Learning