Technical Writing And Professional Communication
Technical Writing And Professional Communication
Revived by Henrik Lynge
About the Book
This book is a revival of a classic on Technical Writing and Professional Communication, originally published in 1983 and updated in 1991. While the tools and technologies discussed may feel nostalgic today—having been written in the era of typewriters—the principles of clear, concise communication remain as vital now as they were then.
The lessons imparted in this work are timeless, emphasizing clarity of message and careful planning. In a time when revisions were costly and time-consuming, the original authors placed great importance on conveying ideas precisely and effectively. These are skills that are even more critical in today’s fast-paced, AI-assisted world.
This remake was inspired by the enthusiastic endorsement of Gregor Hohpe, who also contributed a foreword to this edition. His motivation, along with the authors' approval, made it possible to bring this important resource back to life.
I hope readers find the same powerful insights in this edition as those who first encountered the book decades ago.
About the Editor
About the Contributors
Gregor Hohpe advises CTOs and senior IT executives on IT strategy, cloud architecture, and organizational transformation. He served as advisor to the Singapore government, chief architect at Allianz SE, and technical director at Google Cloud’s CTO Office.
He is widely known as co-author of the seminal book “Enterprise Integration Patterns” and as frequent speaker at conferences around the world. His accessible, but technically accurate essays were republished in “97 Things Every Software Architect Should Know” and “Best Software Writing”. He is an active member of the IEEE Software editorial advisory board.
Professor at University of Utah
Ph.D., Professor Emerita of Technical Communication, College of Engineering
Table of Contents
- TECHNICAL WRITING AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION - REVIVED
- FOREWORD FROM GREGOR HOHPE
- ORINAL PREFACE
- ORIGINAL APPROACH
- NEW TO SECOND EDITION
- PART ONE - INTRODUCTION
- 1 - WHY STUDY TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION?
- 1.1. THE IMPORTANCE OF GOOD COMMUNICATION SKILLS
- 1.2 THE FREQUENCY OF TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
- 1.3 THE COLLABORATIVE NATURE OF TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
- 1.4 THE COMPUTERIZATION OF TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
- 1.5 THE INTERNATIONAL NATURE OF TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION
- 1.6 THE SPECIFIC SKILLS NEEDED
- 1.7 THE COMPLEXITY OF TECHNICAL AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION
- PART TWO - GENERAL STRATEGIES FOR THE WRITING PROCESS
- 2 - GENERATING IDEAS
- 2.1 DEFINING THE PROBLEM AND YOUR TASK
- 2.2 BRAINSTORMING
- 2.3 USING SYSTEMATIC QUESTIONS AS PROMPTS
- 2.4 USING SOCIAL AND ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS TO EXPLORE AUDIENCE IMPACTS
- 2.5 FINDING INFORMATION IN LIBRARIES OR DATABASES
- 2.6 FORMING A POTENTIAL THESIS OR POINT OF VIEW
- 2.7 SUMMARY
- 3 - IDENTIFYING AUDIENCES AND PURPOSES
- 3.1 AUDIENCES
- 3.2 PURPOSES
- 4 - CONSTRUCTING ARGUMENTS
- 4.1 EXPECTATIONS ABOUT CLAIMS AND PROOF
- 4.2 THREE BASIC STRATEGIES OF ARGUMENT
- 4.3 BASIC TYPES OF ARGUMENT
- 4.4 BUILDING A CASE
- 4.5 WHISTLEBLOWING
- 5 - STATING PROBLEMS
- 5.1 INTRODUCING A PROBLEM
- 5.2 IDENTIFYING YOUR STRATEGY AND PURPOSE
- 5.3 A SHORT FORM FOR STATING PROBLEMS
- 5.4 GUIDELINES FOR CHOOSING BETWEEN FULL-FORM AND SHORT-FORM PROBLEM STATEMENTS
- 6 - DRAFTING AND WORD PROCESSING
- 6.1 WRITING A FIRST DRAFT
- 6.2 USING THE COMPUTER
- 6.3 MINIMIZING DISTRACTIONS FROM TYPING OR RUNNING THE COMPUTER
- 6.4 SPECIAL HIGHLIGHTING FEATURES
- 6.5: COMPUTER FAILURES
- 6.6 PROBLEMS IN PLANNING WHEN WRITING ON A COMPUTER
- 6.7 COMPUTER-AIDED EDITING
- 6.8 ELECTRONIC MAIL
- 6.9 HYPERTEXT AND HYPERMEDIA
- 6.10 DESKTOP PUBLISHING
- 7 - TESTING AND REVISING
- 7.1 TESTING
- 7.2 REVISING
- PART THREE - VISUAL ELEMENTS
- 8 - SELECTING VISUAL ELEMENTS
- 8.1 MAKING A VISUAL AID TRULY VISUAL
- 8.2 DECIDING WHEN TO USE A VISUAL AID
- 8.3 SELECTING THE BEST TYPE OF VISUAL AID IN A GIVEN SITUATION
- 9 - CREATING VISUAL ELEMENTS
- 9.1 DESIGNING THE VISUAL AID
- 9.2 INTEGRATING THE VISUAL AID INTO THE TEXT
- 9.3 FORMATTING CONVENTIONS THAT MAKE READING EASIER
- 9.4 FORMATTING CONVENTIONS THAT MAKE WRITING CLEARER
- PART FOUR – SPECIFIC APPLICATIONS
- 10 - RÉSUMÉS AND JOB LETTERS
- 10.1. WHAT MAKES A GOOD APPLICANT?
- 10.2 DESIGNING THE LETTER OF APPLICATION
- 10.3 DESIGNING THE RESUME
- 10.4 OTHER EXAMPLES
- 11 - THE BUSINESS LETTER
- 11.1 BASIC LETTER FORMATS
- 11.2 FORMS OF ADDRESS
- 11.3 LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL
- 11.4 LETTER OF COMPLAINT
- 11.5 RESPONSE TO A LETTER OF COMPLAINT
- 11.6. LETTER OF REQUEST
- 11.7 RESPONSE TO A LETTER OF REQUEST
- 11.8 CROSS-CULTURAL DIFFERENCES
- 12 - BASIC FEATURES OF REPORTS
- 12.1 THE FOREWORD AND SUMMARY: ORGANIZING MAIN POINTS FOR NONSPECIALIST READERS
- 12.2 STRUCTURING PROOFS AND TECHNICAL DISCUSSIONS: ORGANIZING DETAILS FOR SPECIALIST OR INTERESTED READERS
- 13 - MEMOS, SHORT INFORMAL REPORTS, AND PROGRESS REPORTS
- 13.1 THE STRUCTURE OF MEMOS AND SHORT REPORTS
- 13.2 THE FUNCTIONS OF MEMOS AND SHORT REPORTS
- 13.3 THE FORMATTING OF MEMOS AND SHORT REPORTS
- 14 - FEASIBILITY REPORT
- 15 - LONG REPORTS
- 15.1 THE LONG INFORMAL REPORT
- 15.2 THE FORMAL REPORT
- 16 - THE PROPOSAL
- 16.1 THE ORGANIZATION OF A FORMAL PROPOSAL
- 16.2 THE ORGANIZATION OF A SHORT INFORMAL PROPOSAL
- 16.4: GETTING THE PROPOSAL APPROVED FOR SUBMISSION
- 17 - INSTRUCTIONS, PROCEDURES, AND COMPUTER DOCUMENTATION
- 17.1 Analysing the situation and tasks
- 17.2 PLANNING THE DOCUMENT
- 17.3 WRITING AND EDITING A DRAFT
- 17.4 EVALUATING, REVISING, AND TESTING
- 17.5 DOCUMENTING LARGE PROJECTS
- 18 - THESES AND JOURNAL ARTICLES
- 18.1 THESES
- 18.2 JOURNAL ARTICLES
- 18.3 ABSTRACTS
- 19 - ORAL PRESENTATIONS
- 19.1. GIVING A FORMAL ORAL PRESENTATION
- 19.2 GIVING AN INFORMAL ORAL PRESENTATION
- 20 - MEETINGS AND NEGOTIATION
- 20.1 ORGANIZING AND RUNNING MEETINGS
- 20.2 PARTICIPATING IN MEETINGS
- 20.3 TELECONFERENCING
- 20.4 NEGOTIATING
- PART FIVE - READABILITY
- 21 - READABILITY: GENERAL PRINCIPLES
- 21.1 ESTABLISH YOUR TOPIC AND PURPOSE
- 21.2 USE KEY WORDS PROMINENTLY
- 21.3 EXPLAIN IMPORTANT CONCEPTS WHEN WRITING FOR NONSPECIALIST READERS
- 21.4 USE STANDARD TERMINOLOGY WHEN WRITING FOR SPECIALIST READERS
- 21.5 STRUCTURE YOUR TEXT TO EMPHASIZE IMPORTANT INFORMATION
- 21.6 CONSTRUCT WELL-DESIGNED PARAGRAPHS
- 21.7 FIELD-TEST YOUR WRITING
- 21.8 TAKE CULTURAL DIFFERENCES INTO ACCOUNT
- 22 - WRITING PARAGRAPHS
- 22.1 WRITE A GOOD TOPIC STATEMENT
- 22.2: DEVELOP A CLEAR PATTERN OF ORGANIZATION
- 22.3 GIVE EACH PARAGRAPH A FUNCTION WITHIN THE LARGER CONTEXT
- 23 - USING PARALLELISM
- 23.1 TYPES OF LISTS
- 23.2 MISLEADING PARALLELISM
- 23.3 PARALLELISM IN PARAGRAPHS
- 23.4 PARALLELISM BEYOND THE PARAGRAPH
- 24 - MAINTAINING FOCUS
- 24.1 OPTIMAL ORDERING OF NOUN PHRASES
- 24.2: TYPES OF GIVEN OR REPEATED INFORMATION
- 25 - CREATING FLOW BETWEEN SENTENCES
- 25.1 OPTIMAL ORDERING OF NOUN PHRASES II
- 25.2 WAYS OF SATISFYING THESE CRITERIA
- 25.3: A PROCEDURE FOR PRODUCING MORE READABLE TEXTS
- 26 - EDITING FOR EMPHASIS
- 26.1 COMBINE CLOSELY RELATED SENTENCES
- 26.2 USE SIGNAL WORDS
- 26.3 BE CONCISE
- 26.4 USE PHYSICAL HIGHLIGHTING
- 27 - CHOOSING APPROPRIATE WORDS
- 27.1 ACCURACY
- 27.2: COMPREHENSIBILITY
- 27.3 TONE
- 28 - PROOFREADING
- PART SIX - REVIEW OF GRAMMAR, STYLE, AND VOCABULARY BUILDING
- 29 - INDEFINITE ARTICLES
- 29.1 UNCOUNTABLE NOUNS
- 29.2 COUNTABLE NOUNS
- 29.3 COUNTERS
- 29.4 TWO-WAY NOUNS
- 29.5 INFORMAL USAGES
- 30 - THE DEFINITE ARTICLE
- 30.1 SPECIAL ADJECTIVES
- 30.2 SPECIAL NOUNS
- 30.3 GENERICS
- 30.4 PREVIOUS MENTION
- 30.5 MODIFIERS FOLLOWING THE NOUN
- 30.6: SHARED KNOWLEDGE
- 30.7 IMPLIED UNIQUENESS
- 30.8 A FLOWCHART FOR ARTICLES
- 31 - VERBS
- 31.1 MAJOR TENSE DISTINCTIONS IN SCIENTIFIC AND TECHNICAL ENGLISH
- 31.2: THE USE OF THE PROGRESSIVE (-ING) FORM OF THE VERB
- 31.3 SUBJECT-VERB NUMBER AGREEMENT
- 31.4 GRAMMATICAL IRREGULARITIES OF PARTICULAR VERBS
- 32 - MODAL VERBS
- 32.1 OBLIGATION
- 32.2 PROBABILITY
- 32.3 ABILITY
- 33 - RELATIVE CLAUSES
- 33.1 GRAMMATICAL RULES
- 33.2 STYLISTIC RULES
- 34 - CONNECTIVES
- 34.1 CONJUNCTIVE ADVERBS
- 34.2 SUBORDINATING CONJUNCTIONS
- 34.3 COMMON MISTAKES TO AVOID
- 35 - Noun Compounds
- 35.1 CONSTRUCTING NOUN COMPOUNDS
- 35.2 INTERPRETING NOUN COMPOUNDS
- 35.3 USING NOUN COMPOUNDS TO PROMOTE COHESION
- 36 - VOCABULARY BUILDING
- 36.1 USING CONTEXTUAL DEFINITIONS
- 36.2: USING CONTEXTUAL CLUES
- 36.3 CONSULTING AN AUTHORITY
- 36.4 GETTING TO KNOW A WORD WELL
- 37 - INFORMAL CONVERSATIONAL EXPRESSIONS
- 38 - PRONUNCIATION
- 38.1 ON USING THIS CHAPTER
- 38.2 SOUND SEGMENTS
- 38.3 WORD STRESS
- 38.4 NOUN COMPOUNDS
- 38.5 SENTENCE INTONATION
- TECHNICAL WRITING AND PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION - REVIVED
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