I don’t get to teach technical writing much anymore, so when I touched on it in a new media class I took the opportunity to freshen up some older web resources.
A business memo, a lab report, or a professional e-mail are all variations on the basic report structure described in this document. Feel free to modify these guidelines in order to meet your reader’s needs.
Think of Your Reader First
Your busy reader has a problem, and has turned to your report for help. What, exactly, does your reader want? Deliver it as efficiently as possible.- Begin with Your Conclusions
A technical document is not a mystery novel. Don’t save your best points for the end, because most readers are too impatient to wait.- Organize with Appropriate Headings
For any document longer than a page or two, break the content into sections (like introduction, background, discussion, and conclusion).via Short Reports: How To Write Routine Technical Documents — Jerz’s Literacy Weblog.
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The Article is Dead. Long Live the Article
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Yahoo, You Nagged Me Too Many Times; Bye!
Thomas Jefferson on "newspapers without government" vs "government without newspapers"