-
- News
- Books
Featured Books
- pcb007 Magazine
Latest Issues
Current IssueThe Growing Industry
In this issue of PCB007 Magazine, we talk with leading economic experts, advocacy specialists in Washington, D.C., and PCB company leadership to get a well-rounded picture of what’s happening in the industry today. Don’t miss it.
The Sustainability Issue
Sustainability is one of the most widely used terms in business today, especially for electronics and manufacturing but what does it mean to you? We explore the environmental, business, and economic impacts.
The Fabricator’s Guide to IPC APEX EXPO
This issue previews many of the important events taking place at this year's show and highlights some changes and opportunities. So, buckle up. We are counting down to IPC APEX EXPO 2024.
- Articles
- Columns
Search Console
- Links
- Events
||| MENU - pcb007 Magazine
Happy’s Essential Skills: Technical Writing
May 4, 2016 | Happy HoldenEstimated reading time: 8 minutes
Following is my process for technical writing—I hope that it will be useful to you. My process is the outgrowth of doing daily tasks. Generally, it follows these steps:
- Create a detailed outline of a topic.
- Make Powerpoint slides for a verbal presentation.
- Make the verbal presentation using your Powerpoint slides (this is important; you must actually speak the words).
- Using your outline and the Powerpoint slides, pick five to 12 slides that will become your figures in a written paper.
- Using the Powerpoint slides, begin writing a narrative, keeping the words you have already spoken in mind.
- If your slides contained bullets, data, etc., add tables and bullets until you come to one of the figures you have selected
- Add the figure(s) and continue until all your Powerpoint slides are consumed.
- Re-read what you have written, making sure that thoughts are complete and the subjects flow.
- You could record step 3 and play it back or use voice-to-text software for step 5.
Figure 5: Relationships and comments added to the mind map.
I have collected a series of technical papers or articles to create a three-hour technical course. Two or three technical courses can become a Chapter in a book. As you can see, I sneak up on technical writing; I cannot sit down and do it from scratch!
University of Michigan’s Technical Writing Guide
The Univ. of Michigan’s Technical Writing Guide is a comprehensive, 61-page instruction manual for technical writing. The five sections and eight appendices explain topics that range from general grammar and punctuation instructions, to incorporating lab reports, completing theoretical analyses, constructing reference sections and more. It’s a beginning-to-end guide that anyone attempting to generate a piece of technical writing should bookmark and refer to often.
MIT’s Technical Writing Process
Another useful reference is a compilation of lectures on technical writing by the MIT Writing Center. Following is a portion of an outline of 24 Powerpoint slides entitled, “Sentence Structure of Technical Writing,” written by Nicole Kelley.
1. Good Tech Writers Practice
a. Planning – before you begin
i. Know your audience and expectations
b. Clarity – avoid jargon and unfamiliar terms
i. Audience familiarity with the topic determines appropriate use of jargon and TLAs
c. Brevity – use words efficiently – never use two words when one word will do
i. Pare your language down to the essential message
ii. Place key information first in the main clause
iii. Remove redundancy by combining overlapping sentences
d. Simplicity – for clarity, balance details wisely with audience needs
i. Many engineers want to provide as much specific detail as possible, but this can come at the expense of reader understanding and your main point. Choose words with clear meanings
e. Good word choice – Avoid too many abstract nouns and unnecessary words.
i. Order the words in your sentences to avoid ambiguity
f. Active voice – an active voice is more straightforward and stronger than a passive voice
i. When in doubt, read passages out loud to determine the natural sound
g. Committing to writing as a process – good writing doesn’t happen overnight; it requires planning, drafting, rereading, revising, and editing
i. Learning and improving requires self-review, peer-review, subject-matter expert feedback, and practice
h. There are no shortcuts—practice makes perfect. Good writing is a habit that takes time to develop.
Good Advice
Regardless of the type of document that is being written, technical writing requires the writer to follow the practices of knowing his audience, writing in a clear, non-personal style, and doing extensive research on the topic. These practices enable the writer to create clear instructions and explanations.
- Know your audience. An expert in the field will understand certain abbreviations, acronyms, and lingo that directly applies to such a field. A novice will not understand in the same manner, and therefore, every detail must be explained.
- Omit opinions. Use an impersonal style. Write from a third person perspective, like a teacher instructing a student.
- Presentational strategies help the readers to grasp messages quickly.
Four points to keep in mind:
- The writing should be as straightforward as possible in order to ensure the reader understands the process or instruction. This may be simply a list of steps to achieving a desired goal, or a short or lengthy explanation of a concept or abstract idea.
- Know how to research for your intended audience. Gather information from a number of reliable sources, understand the information gathered so that it can be analyzed thoroughly, and then put the information into an easily digestible format to instruct those who read it. The more inexperienced your audience, the more information you will need to gather and explain.
- Be thorough in description and provide enough detail to make your points, but use an economy of words and avoid using gratuitous details.
- The top-down strategy (tell them what you will say, then say it)
- Headings (like headlines in newspapers)
- Chucks (short paragraphs)
- Plain, objective style so that readers can easily grasp details.
A good technical writer can make a difficult task easy and can quickly explain a complex piece of information.
Further Reading
The University of Michigan Technical Writing Guide includes a reference section with additional documents that you can download. This is true also of the MIT Technical Writing link provided above.
Conclusion
Are you ready to try your first technical paper? It’s not as difficult as you may think, and once started, can do your career a whole lot of good. Soon, IPC just issued a call for papers for next year’s APEX EXPO in San Diego. This is true also for the SMTA conference next fall in Chicago. Or, if you would like to submit a technical article for consideration in an I-Connect007 publication, contact Patty Goldman.
Page 2 of 2Suggested Items
IPC Focuses on Education and Onboarding
05/09/2024 | Andy Shaughnessy, Design007 MagazineI recently spoke with Carlos Plaza, senior director of education for IPC, about expanding educational efforts in the PCB design, fabrication, and assembly segments. As Carlos explains, PCB design is a hot topic, but onboarding may be the hottest one of all.
Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2024: Industry Growth, Challenges, and Technological Advancements
05/09/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOEditor Nolan Johnson and Shawn DuBravac, IPC chief economist, dive into key industry topics such as growth, challenges, and technological advancements. They discuss shifts in the global competitive landscape, downstream demand, customization, and how AI is enhancing human skills. The industry outlook appears promising for both the short and long term.
Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2024: The Driving World of e-Mobility with Indium
05/08/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOIn the competitive EV market, technology plays a crucial role facing the challenges of infrastructure. As Brian O'Leary explains, Indium's e-Mobility product suite includes proven solder and thermal management products for high reliability.
Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2024: Understanding Objective Evidence in Manufacturing Processes
05/07/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOGraham Naisbitt explains the importance of objective evidence in manufacturing processes, debunking the common misconception that the ROSE test is a cleanliness test. He also discusses the introduction of Rev J, a requirement for measuring ionic contamination on circuit assemblies, and the challenges in accurately measuring contamination. Alternative methods like ion chromatography and the need for updating standards like the ROSE test are mentioned.
Real Time with… IPC APEX EXPO 2024: My Role as a Technology Solutions Director
05/02/2024 | Real Time with...IPC APEX EXPOPeter Tranitz, senior director of technology solutions at IPC, shares insights into his role as the design initiative lead. He details his advocacy work, industry support, and the responsibilities of the design initiative committee. The conversation also covers the revamping of standards, the IPC Design Competition, and the implementation of design rules in software tools.