Technical vs. Creative Writing

1. Technical vs. Creative Writing

2. Technical • Conveys specific information about a technical subject to a specific audience or specific purpose.

3. creative • Is fiction – poetry, short stories, plays, and novels – and is most different from technical writing.

5. Proper technical writing practice • Planning • Clarity • Brevity • Simplicity • Word Choice • Active Voice • Commit to the process

6. plan • Identify audience • Know purpose & material • Understand the task • Organize thoughts and material • Budget time for planning, writing, & revising

7. Clarity • Avoid jargon • Audience familiarity with topic determines jargon • Define unfamiliar words • Abbreviations in parenthesis

8. Brevity • Don’t be too wordy • Never use 2 words when 1 will do • Less is more • Include essentials ONLY • Most important first • EX: The Giants won the game, despite making several errors in the first half. • Remove redundancy

9. Simplicity • Use details wisely • Balance details with audience need for clarity

10. Word choice

11. Word choice • Choose words that are clear • Order words carefully • Do not overuse pronouns (it and this) • Avoid excess words that slow comprehension of meaning

12. Word choice, con’t

13. Active voice • Natural sound • Present tense

14. process