Introduction to Technical Writing

TECHNICAL
WRITING

Vince Ricci, Part‐time Lecturer 
Center for Innovation in Engineering Education (CIEE)  
English for Engineers and Scientists

Stanford University 
B.A., History    
June 1992 
James W. Lyons Award for 
Service 
Awarded Public Service 
Summer Fellowship to write 
& edit National Guide to 
Fundraising & Development

New York University (NYU) 
M.A., Educational 
Communication & 
Technology (ECT) 
December 2001 
Cognitive Science 
Instructional Design 
Museum exhibit design 
Marketing

•  Writing teacher  
•  Distinguished Teacher Award 
•  Grant writer

•  Admissions counselor  
•  400+ clients  
•  Harvard, Stanford, Kellogg, 
Chicago, Wharton, MIT 
•  5 attending HBS from 2010

1.  Kaplan book 
2.  Cochrane article 
3.  References  
4.  Homework

 Chapter 1: deﬁnitions
 Chapter 2: purpose, audience and
context

Informative writing that involves
  technical
  scientiﬁc
  engineering

Convey complex information
to a speciﬁc audience

If audience cannot understand or
use information presented,
writer has failed

Good technical writing is
  accurate
  clear
  concise

Avoid writing phrase like
“Increasing the temperature
caused a large change in the
reaction rate.”

Instead, write
“Increasing the temperature by
10°C doubled the reaction rate.”

If a report does not contain clear
information, the reader cannot
understand, believe, or care

Three questions
  Do I understand?
  Do I believe?
  Do I care?

end result  result
future plans  plans

Goal-oriented
Convey information
No extraneous material
Find essential information

Speciﬁc format
Allows reader to quickly locate
everything in organized fashion

Consider
  purpose of document
  intended audience
  context

1.  Purpose
2.  Audience
3.  Context

If the audience cannot use,
apply or understand
information presented
then the author has failed

 Practical
 Purpose determines format

1.  Title 
2.  Abstract 
3.  Introduction 
4.  Body 
5.  Results 
6.  Discussion 
7.  Conclusion 
8.  Acknowledgments
9.  References

Tailor communication
to meet audience needs

Who are your intended readers?

Use different language
when addressing
technical expert
as opposed to an audience
that has limited knowledge

What will audience members do
with the information?

Context determines
how reader or listener
will receive
and interpret
the message

Help writer determine
what format
is appropriate
and how subject
should be approached

 Accuracy 
 Clarity 
 Conciseness

 Purpose 
 Audience 
 Context

Writing Tips  
for Ph.D. Students

John H. Cochrane
Graduate School of Business
University of Chicago

Figure out the one central and
novel contribution of your paper.
Write this down
in one paragraph.
As with all your writing,
this must be concrete.

 A contribution includes an 
addition to your ﬁeld’s overall 
knowledge

How do you 
add value?

Don’t write
“I analyzed data
on executive compensation
and found many
interesting results.”

For example, Fama and French
1992 start their abstract with

“Two easily measured variables,
size and book-to-market equity,
combine to capture
the cross-sectional variation
in average stock returns
associated with market ,
size, leverage,
book-to-market equity,
and earnings-price ratios.”

“Two easily measured variables
size and
book-to-market equity…

“…combine to capture
the cross-sectional variation…

“…in average stock returns…

“…associated with
market ,
size,
leverage,
book-to-market equity,
and earnings-price ratios.”

Distilling one central contribution
will take some thought.

Focus on one contribution,
and help readers
to get it quickly.

Your readers
are busy and impatient.

Never assume
read whole paper
from start to ﬁnish

Make it easy
for your readers
to skim.

Readers want to know
your basic result.

Organize the paper in “triangular”
or “newspaper” style, not in
“joke” or “novel” style.

Notice how newspapers start
with the most important part,
then ﬁll in background later
for readers who
want more details.

A good joke or a mystery novel
has a long windup
to the ﬁnal punchline.

Put the punchline
right up front
and then slowly
explain the joke.

Too often, we never really ﬁnd out
what the contribution of the paper
is until the last page,
the last table,
and the last 5 minutes

Context 

Main
idea

We don’t care how you came
to ﬁgure out the right answer.

Why / How 

What

 Contribution (what) before 
methods (why / how) 
 Readers skim 
 Triangular style 
 Open with punchline

Most journals
allow 100-150 words.

The main function of the abstract
is to communicate your
contribtuion

Do not mention
other literature
in the abstract.

Say what you ﬁnd,
not what you look for.

Don’t write
“data are analyzed,
theorems are proved,
discussion is made.”

The introduction should start
with what you do in this paper,
the major contribution.

Don’t just state your conclusion
“My results show
that the pecking-order theory
is rejected.”

Give the fact behind that result.
“In a regression of x on y,
controlling for z,
the coefﬁcient is q.”

The ﬁrst sentence is the hardest.

Do not start with philosophy
“Financial economists
have long wondered
if markets are efﬁcient.”

Do not start with
“The ﬁnance literature
has long been interested in x.”

Start with
your central contribution.

Three pages is a good upper limit
for the introduction.

 Abstract ‐ no literature review 
 Introduction ‐ ﬁrst sentence 
 Start with contribution

First, your readers are most
interested in ﬁguring out
what you do.

After you’ve explained
your contribution,
then you can write
a brief literature review.

Be generous in your citations.

Set your paper off against
2 or 3 closest current papers, and
give proper credit to people who
deserve priority for things
that might otherwise
seem new

Your task now
is to get to the central result
as fast as possible.

Most papers start with
 long motivation
 long literature review
 big complex model
 descriptive statistics
 preliminary results
 side discussions

Put nothing before
the main result
that reader does not
need to know
in order to understand
the main result.

Do not restate all of your ﬁndings.

One statement in the abstract,
one in the introduction
and once more in the body of the
text should be enough.

You can include a short
paragraph or two
acknowledging limitations,
suggesting implications beyond
those in the paper.

 Literature review – meaningless 
before your contribution 
 Body of the paper – all about 
your main result 
 Short conclusion

Keep the paper
as short as possible.
Every word must count.

As you edit, ask yourself
“Can I make the same point in
less space?” and
“Do I really have to say this?”

Don’t repeat
If you’ve said it once,
you don’t have to say it again.

Document your work
A fellow graduate student must
be able to sit down with your
paper and reproduce every
number in it from instructions
given in the paper, and any print
or web appendices.

 Don't repeat 
 Be precise 
 Document your work 
 Simple is best

The most important thing
in writing
is to keep track
of what your reader knows

Keep in mind
what you have explained
and what you have not.

Use active tense
Not passive
“it is assumed that x = 3”
“data were constructed
as follows”

Search for “is” and “are” in the
document to root out every
single passive sentence.

Take responsibility
for what you are writing.

 Audience is king 
 Assume nothing 
 Active verbs 
 Take responsibility

Use normal sentence structure:
subject, verb, object

Not
“The insurance mechanisms
that agents utilize
to smooth consumption
in the face of
transitory earnings ﬂuctuations
are diverse”

Instead
“People use a variety
of insurance mechanisms
to smooth consumption.”

Avoid technical jargon
wherever possible.

 Present tense (be consistent) 
  Subject, verb, object 
 No jargon 
 Concrete examples

Research papers
are essays.
Spend at least 50%
of any project
on writing.

Pay attention to the writing in
papers you read.
Notice the style adopted
by authors you admire.

 Read everything 
 Write anything

 Reference style guides

Strunk and White
“The Elements of Style”

William Zinsser
“On Writing Well”

Diana Hacker
“A Pocket Style Manual”

 Notice tone 
 Create your own

William Zinsser —
“On Writing Well”
Strunk and White —
“The Elements of Style”
Diana Hacker —
“A Pocket Style Manual”

Review slides bit.ly/VT-526
  Print/read bit.ly/CochranePhD 
  Check bit.ly/VinceTek

Objective ‐ learn how to write  
for peers from a diﬀerent  
academic discipline

①  Write a single one (A4) page proposal for a piece 
of writing in your ﬁeld 
•  Introduction 
•  One Body Paragraph 
•  Conclusion  
•  Between 350‐600 words 
•  Follow “Purdue OWL” handout tips

•  Bring ﬁve printed copies next week 
•  These are for your Peer Review Group 
•  You will share papers with each other 
•  You will give each other feedback

Author____________ Reviewer_____________ 

The goals of peer review are 1) to help improve your classmate's 
paper by pointing out strengths and weaknesses that may not be 
apparent to the author, and 2) to help improve editing skills. 

INSTRUCTIONS 

Read the paper(s) assigned to you twice, once to get an overview 
of the paper, and a second time to provide constructive criticism 
for the author to use when revising his/her paper. Answer the 
questions below.

1. Were the basic sections adequate? If not, what is missing? 

 

2. Did the writer use subheadings well to clarify the sections 
of the text? Why or why not? Explain with details. 

 

3. Was the material ordered in a way that was logical, clear, 
easy to follow? Why or why not? Explain with details.

4. Were there any grammatical or spelling problems? 

 

 

5. Was the writer’s writing style clear? Were the paragraphs 
and sentences cohesive?

6. Did the writer adequately summarize and discuss the 
topic? Why or why not? Explain with details. 

 

 

7. Did the writer make some contribution of thought to the 
paper, or merely summarize data or publications? Why or 
why not? Explain with details.

"As a peer reviewer, your job is not to
provide answers. You raise questions;
the writer makes the choices. You act
as a mirror, showing the writer how the
draft looks to you and pointing our
areas which need attention."
- Sharon Williams

①  Read all before commenting 
②  Give yourself enough time  
③  Point out strengths  
④  Be kind 
⑤  Make comments text‐speciﬁc

⑥  Stick to major issues   
⑦  Make reasonable suggestions  
⑧  Discuss complicated feedback  
⑨  Review your comments before sharing

①  Be respectful  
②  Use "I" statements 
③  Oﬀer suggestions, not 
commands

④  Provide reader's point of view 
⑤  Phrase comments clearly and 
carefully  
⑥  Make sure comments are 
constructive and speciﬁc

"This paper is confusing. It keeps
saying the same things over and
over again"

"It sounds like paragraph ﬁve
makes the same point as
paragraphs 2 and 3."

Thank you. 
bit.ly/VinceTek

Introduction to Technical Writing

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