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Elements of Technical Writing

Technical documents follow a standard structure and contain similar elements to clearly organize information for readers. The structure includes a front matter with elements like a title page, abstract, and table of contents to introduce the topic. The body provides the main content through sections covering background, methods, results and discussion. The document concludes with an end matter including references, appendixes and an index for additional materials. This structure helps technical writers effectively communicate their message and allows readers to easily understand and navigate the content.

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Atif Haider
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60 views

Elements of Technical Writing

Technical documents follow a standard structure and contain similar elements to clearly organize information for readers. The structure includes a front matter with elements like a title page, abstract, and table of contents to introduce the topic. The body provides the main content through sections covering background, methods, results and discussion. The document concludes with an end matter including references, appendixes and an index for additional materials. This structure helps technical writers effectively communicate their message and allows readers to easily understand and navigate the content.

Uploaded by

Atif Haider
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Elements of Technical Writing

All technical documents are structured in a similar way. They consist of almost the same
elements that help technical writers organize their documents in a clear manner. The following
are the elements that every technical document should contain.
1. Front Matter
Front Matter is the most important part of the technical document. It introduces readers into the
title of the document, its authors, the topic described, the issues solved, the method used, and the
overall purpose of the document.
Front Matter of any technical document must include the following elements:
 Title page. It should include the title, the author and the date. Title should be both clear
and detailed enough, so that readers could easily grasp the idea of what is covered.
 Abstract is a summarizing statement. It should neither be too short, nor too long. About
70–150 words is usually enough. Abstract should contain general information about the
topic or issue, methods used, main results, and conclusions of your document.
 Table of contents is a list of the subject headings and subheadings of the document.
List of figures
 List of tables contains all tables of your document.
 List of terms. Every document contains terminology, acronyms and abbreviations
specific to the particular field of knowledge or topic described. Some of these words may
confuse even the most knowledgeable readers. That’s why a list of terms is essential in
any technical document.
 Acknowledgments. This part of your document should include names of your
colleagues, other fellow technical writers and programmers who assisted the development
of the document.
2. Body
Body of the document contains materials with steps to take and/or methods to use in order to
resolve the issue presented in the abstract.
 Introduction presents the main goal and what to expect further in document.
Introduction shouldn’t be confused with abstract. Introduction contains the subject of
your document, the issue resolved, the purpose, its scope and background information.
 Background information should be relevant. Usually, this part includes the history of the
problem, a summary of previous research and reasons why you decided to write this
document.
 Materials and apparatus. If your document explains, for example, some sort of
experiment, you should describe software and hardware used.
 Procedure. Describe all methods that you used for gathering data.
 Work plan. This part is usually includes personnel who participated in the project,
equipment, budget and so on.
 Results. Sum up the data of the whole project in this part. It can include charts and
figures to visualize your results in an effective manner.
 Discussion. The discussion section is about commenting results. In small documents
results and the discussion part can be combined into one section.
 Conclusion. Sometimes readers, particularly managers, don’t read the whole document
to save time. So you need to provide a summary of the main results and other key points
of the document.
3. End matter
End matter provides useful information and materials outside the main body. This end part
consists of:
 References. A list of sources that you’ve used.
 Appendixes usually include materials that are not essential parts of the text like
additional diagrams, tables, lists, etc.
 Index. An alphabetical list of names, subjects, etc. with reference to the pages on which
they are mentioned.
This is the structure of every technical document looks like. These elements help the readers to
understand the document easily.

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