Brittany Crowl

Technical writing is the craft of documenting processes. Traditionally this practice was used to detail highly technical processes in the form of user manuals, however as this coveted practice has grown, so to has the duties. These days, technical writing includes all sorts of documentation such as; reports, executive summary statements, and briefs. If at any time technical information is written down, it is by definition, technical writing.

The departments aren’t just technical though. While engineering and IT are absolutely included, finance and legal departments are also wound into this practice. The field is no longer confined to user manuals, and can be anything down to an email. If you work in a technical field, or a field where constant processes must be explained through writing, chances are, you are a technical writer without even knowing it. The trick is to write in a way that allows others who may not necessarily know much about your topic to understand.

• What is global English? – This is a style of writing that makes the language more understood by non native English speakers. This is achieved through wording that is precise, logical, and literal.

Don’t describe your characters like you’re telling the police about a suspect. Describe your characters like you’re guiding an artist through a painting when they can’t see the model.

“Her eyes were green.” Vs. “Her almond-shaped eyes glinted with emerald specs amid olive green eyes.”

See the difference? One you can just say ok, and the other you have to form that picture in your mind. You have a definite image in your mind. If you go too far, it will make the reader slow down and stretch their mind around the abundance of detail, so know when to stop.

“Her almond-shaped eyes that slanted down to the sides of her nose glinted in the sunlight with emerald specs amid the olive green iris in her thin eyes, hidden behind winged eyeliner and mascara.”

Nobody needs to read all of that in one go. If it’s necessary to know about her makeup, then by all means, describe it. But you have an entire story. You don’t have to info dump every bit of detail into one line. It’s off-putting to read such a long line about one feature on one character. Also, remember that once you tell your readers that her nose slopes gently upward at the tip, you don’t have to tell them again. Once later in the story, if it is relevant perhaps, but it isn’t a feature worth repeating. Now if your pirate has a scar that will identify him in a crowd or a tattoo that you never noticed part of before, you can mention it more frequently.

The story of the Boy Who Lived isn’t half as interesting if you didn’t know about the purple-faced uncle that ruffled his bushy mustache as he locked the rusty bolt on the outside of the door on the cupboard under the stairs. This level of detail in one line is fine, as it briefly describes both the character and part of the setting. Your mind can flow from the face to the hand locking the bolt right? Keep this sort of motion in mind when forming your details.

Narrative writing is the process of writing narratively. Was that contrary? I apologize. Let’s talk about this a bit more. Writing narratively is characterized by a series of events that are encountered by the main character in a particular setting. To be straightforward; a story. But it’s not just telling a story like a timeline, a narrative has several requirements. You must think about the purpose of the story, the tone, and voice of the narrator, the story structure, and the writing portion of organization and structure. Word choices will be crucial for a narrative, as you need to keep the same narration throughout your work.

There are many ways to approach a narrative or any type of writing. The elements used are all pretty much the same, but the order in which they appear doesn’t always fall into place in the same order. The way you break them down will be up to you and be very dependent on the type of work and the purpose of the piece you are working on. If you are writing for professional purposes, you may have a more factual grounding and therefore require more structure than something that is written for entertainment. Either way, organizing, and plotting will be your biggest needs.

Persuasive writing is a particularly useful skill utilized by writers to present their stance on an issue. By clearly sharing their opinions through structured writing, authors can convince their audiences to feel a certain way about the topic. The structure to this kind of writing has a sort of checklist that is required for success.

1. Introduction: This is a short overview of the topic and where the writer stands considering the matter.
2. Body: This section, is most of the article. This will contain the argument at hand, and the evidence supporting the chosen side.
3. Conclusion: This is the last word in the article that presents the cohesive summary of everything; the argument, the evidence, and the stance.

The obvious example here is a debate. The debate coaches during the presidential campaigns? Persuasive. The speeches given by the presidential candidates? Persuasive. These are clear examples, but I bet you didn’t know that you see examples of persuasive writing every day. While advertisements may be visual rather than writing, the text slides in videos, the script for the commercial, even the slogan is designed to be persuasive in nature.

How about the review of the online company you were thinking about trying? There are choices given by the platforms for you to decide where you stand on that company when you want to review it. The 5-star ratings are telling you to trust the company, and give them your business. The ones who leave a detailed review about their experience with the awesome customer representative and the quality of the product, are clearly supporting the matter. Any 1-star ratings will tell you about the rude rep they dealt with and how their protein powder showed up open and spilled. You never thought about it as a writing example. It’s a short example, but it is still that.

Remember to watch for persuasive terminology as you read. These are keywords in every style of writing that will trigger certain thoughts or feelings in the reader. While an expository piece of writing will contain very factual phrasing like “firstly”, “additionally”, “most importantly”, and “for these reasons”, a piece of entertainment writing will rely on the detail (article coming soon) to invoke certain emotions within you.

So next time you see an advertisement for the best diets and health crazes or the most beautiful places to travel to, remember, these are writers trying to sway you to their side.