Technical Writing Defined

On its own, the word technical typically refers to specialization in a certain field or skill. However, in regards to writing, the word “technical” can have many different implications. To a writer, technical writing might be viewed as his or her ability to put their thoughts onto paper and combine those thoughts into a compelling story. To a research scientist, technical writing might be interpreted as the ability to write clear and concise scientific reports that can be easily read and interpreted by others in the scientific community. To someone in the medical profession, technical writing may relate to written correspondence between other doctors, nurses, or families. In almost every profession, written communication is very important, which means skill for the technical aspects of writing in that profession are very important. Personally, I view technical writing as my own ability to write both creatively and effectively; whether it be for pleasure or school/work related. In my profession, technical writing has great significance. In the scientific community, the ability to report findings from experimental data is very important and very necessary. Without good technical writing ability, scientists would be unable to report their findings in a way that could be read and interpreted by others, and that would be detrimental to the speed at which research today could be conducted.