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Technical People Instruction Writing Writers Good Manual Written

Id ESLPod_0449_CN
Episode Id ESLPod 449
Episode Title Using an Instruction Manual
Title Using an Instruction Manual
Text

Most instruction manuals and similar "documentation" (official written materials) are written by "technical writers," or people whose job is to take complex, detailed, technical, and confusing information and explain it to "laypeople" (people who are not experts in a particular field of study) as clearly as possible. Good technical writing has little or no "jargon" (words that are specific to an industry and generally are not known by people outside of that industry) and is very "concise" (uses as few words as possible).

A lot of technical writing is published in instruction manuals or "online help menus" (parts of a website where people can go to get information about how to use a particular website). Other technical writing appears in reports, papers, "proposals" (ideas or suggestions for doing something in the future), and "contracts" (legal agreements between two or more people or organizations).

Many technical writers study in special programs to earn a "certificate" (a piece of paper stating that one has completed a special course or training) in technical writing. Other people begin their "careers" (the jobs that one has) in engineering or science before deciding to become technical writers. Many technical writers specialize in a specific "field" (area of work) such as medicine, engineering, or computer science.

Technical writers must have good writing abilities, but they must also be able to understand technical information. Most technical writers have good interviewing skills, too, so that they can speak to scientists, engineers, and technicians to learn about the products, understand what they are told, and then explain it to laypeople using more common language.

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