COMPUTER SYSTEMS RESEARCH
Elements of Technical Writing
2005-2006

  • Make the technical depth of your writing compatible with the background of your reader
  • If a technical term makes your writing clearer or more concise, use it: 
    
  Without the technical term:
    The chemist poured water into an open glass cylinder with a pouring lip.

  More concise with the technical term:
    The chemist poured water intot a beaker.

  Without the technical term:
    ...internal software programs that run the computer system

  With the technical term:
    ...operating system
  • Avoid technical terms when a simpler word will do just as well, or when a term's meaning
    may be unclear to a significant portion of your readers. 
     Non-clear technical term: The moon was in syzygy.  (The moon was aligned with the sun and the earth.)

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