electric power plants
ENGLISH 103
Jesus Menoy
BASIC TECHNIQUES IN TECHNICAL WRITING
Successful writers employ a variety of techniques in their writing. However, the kind of writing dictates the techniques to be employed by the writer. For instance, if one does a brochure, he use description more than any other technique; if he writes a fire incident report, he uses narration more than any other. In technical writing, the techniques basically employed are definition, definition, description, classification, partitioning or analysis, causation (causal analysis), comparison, contrast, and interpretation.
DEFINITION
Technical writing is replete with technical terms that need to be defined. It is a must to define scientific terms to allow for better comprehension. These difficult words may come in the form of known words used in a differently new sense (as fly-over), new words for already known things (as somnambulist for sleepwalker), and new words for unknown things (as schizophrenia). New words do not necessarily mean newly-coined words; they are new in the sense that they are encountered by the readers for the first time so they have to be defined.
When one defines, he gives the meaning of a certain term. The writer may define a word in any of the three ways: informal (word or phrase) definition, formal (sentence) definition, and amplified (extended or expanded) definition. An informal definition comes in the form of a word or a phrase oftentimes called a synonym. For example, word seism is defined by giving earthquake as an appositive. The word compensation and remuneration can be made simpler by writing pay or the word inundation by mentioning flood.
A formal or sentence definition, as its name suggests, is in the form of a sentence with these three elements: species, genus, and differentia/e. The species is the term defined; the genus is the class or kind to which the term belongs; the differentia or differentiae are the distinguishing characteristics that
Jesus Menoy
BASIC TECHNIQUES IN TECHNICAL WRITING
Successful writers employ a variety of techniques in their writing. However, the kind of writing dictates the techniques to be employed by the writer. For instance, if one does a brochure, he use description more than any other technique; if he writes a fire incident report, he uses narration more than any other. In technical writing, the techniques basically employed are definition, definition, description, classification, partitioning or analysis, causation (causal analysis), comparison, contrast, and interpretation.
DEFINITION
Technical writing is replete with technical terms that need to be defined. It is a must to define scientific terms to allow for better comprehension. These difficult words may come in the form of known words used in a differently new sense (as fly-over), new words for already known things (as somnambulist for sleepwalker), and new words for unknown things (as schizophrenia). New words do not necessarily mean newly-coined words; they are new in the sense that they are encountered by the readers for the first time so they have to be defined.
When one defines, he gives the meaning of a certain term. The writer may define a word in any of the three ways: informal (word or phrase) definition, formal (sentence) definition, and amplified (extended or expanded) definition. An informal definition comes in the form of a word or a phrase oftentimes called a synonym. For example, word seism is defined by giving earthquake as an appositive. The word compensation and remuneration can be made simpler by writing pay or the word inundation by mentioning flood.
A formal or sentence definition, as its name suggests, is in the form of a sentence with these three elements: species, genus, and differentia/e. The species is the term defined; the genus is the class or kind to which the term belongs; the differentia or differentiae are the distinguishing characteristics that