Introduction to Technical Communication

In this course, you are going to be challenged to write and to speak on a professional level. You are ready to leave the world of term papers and student writing behind. You are ready to enter a world of busy readers who have no tolerance for fluff or verbosity and who just want you to get right to the point and not waste their time.

Technical communication is a large part of your student world. In your professors and your textbooks, you will find both shiny and cloudy examples of technical communication. As you enter the real world, your own star will be judged to a large extent on your abilities as a technical communicator.

Effective technical communication has the following characteristics:

• It is accurate.

• It is as concise as possible.

• It is appropriate for the target audience.

• It is engaging.

Sometimes, the preceding characteristics are in conflict with each other. How, for example, can you describe something accurately, while staying as concise as possible? How do you engage your target audience while describing something as dry as dust? To solve these conflicts, you'll need to enhance a seemingly conflicting pair of skills—creativity and discipline.

Understanding the complex requires intelligence, but simplifying the complex requires genius.

To paraphrase Issac Goldberg:

Technical communication is to write and to say,
The geekiest things in the simplest way.