Technical Writing, a form of technical communication, is a style of formal writing and business communication, used in fields as diverse as computer hardware and software, chemistry, the aerospace industry, robotics, finance, consumer electronics, and biotechnology. Good technical writing clarifies technical jargon; that is, it presents useful information that is clear and easy to understand for the intended audience.
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Technical Writers of India: A Survey
Though the technical writing field in India is growing faster than ever before, no institution in the country imparts any kind of technical writing course or training. Some University courses include a paper in Technical Writing, but its scope is very limited. Also, no figures are available about the number of technical writers in India.
TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>India
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Technical Writers Write-Off Techies 
Boundless opportunities exist for persons with excellent skills in this era of web-based technology.
Yorke, Peter. STC India (2001). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>India
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Technical Writers' Mailing Lists
The TWIN (Technical Writers of India) mailing list has crossed 1,000. As the founder and owner, I wanted to stop the list a few years ago when it had touched 675, because I was afraid it would touch 1,000 within a few months. I had other reasons for wanting to stop the list. But the voice of the members prevailed and I handed over the list to the current owner. Why did I start the list? Well, I saw that Indian technical writers (and others), were making a fool of themselves on Techwhirl (a list with around 4,000 members then, today perhaps it has 8,000) and other lists. A professor from a reputed institute in Bangalore had asked about a problem of printing on the list. I was embarrassed. I said, why not restrict this ignominy to ourselves and started the TWIN list.
Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Writing>Mailing Lists>Technical Writing
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This course will help those employed within technical fields (scientists, engineers, medical professionals, etc.), as well as those who address technical audiences, to effectively plan, research, write, and present technical information.
Van Valkenburgh, Nicole. Brigham Young University. Academic>Courses>Writing>Technical Writing
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This course provides an introduction to technical writing, which includes technical reports, instructions, proposals, letters of application, resumes, procedures, and manuals; this course is particularly appropriate for students in English, information resources, science, engineering, architecture, education, and other applied sciences, although it is open to students from any major.
Clark, Dave. University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (2003). Academic>Courses>Writing>Technical Writing
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The first part of the course will help you acquire reading and writing skills needed in graduate school. Consider these survival skills as well as a way to get a competitive edge. In class, we will focus on the reading and analysis (written and oral) of academic writings in Computer Science and closely related fields. Most weeks you will be expected to read a journal or other technical article and report on it. You may be asked to make a short oral presentation to the class.
Kaczmarczyk, Lisa C. University of Texas (2004). Academic>Courses>Writing>Technical Writing
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English 421 helps students become better professional communicators through contextual research and analysis. The curriculum is informed by current research in rhetoric and professional writing and is guided by the needs and practices of business, the high-tech industry, and society at large.
Karper, Erin. Purdue University. Academic>Courses>Writing>Technical Writing
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Plan; know your purpose, audience and scope; leave enough time to write and edit several drafts; don't bore the reader.
Kirk, Elizabeth J. and Mary Wiberg. AAAS. Presentations>Scientific Communication>Writing>Technical Writing
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A medium for all technical writers to add their tips and ideas for becoming a successful technical writer.
Taylor, Vicki M. Suite101 (2001). Resources>Directories>Writing>Technical Writing
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A collection of links to technical writing online resources from a search engine dedicated to writers.
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This web site contains information about Chris Werry's section of RWS 503W Technical Writing. You'll find the syllabus, course description, on-line readings, assignments, and other course materials here.
Werry, Chris. San Diego State University. Academic>Courses>Writing>Technical Writing
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ENGL 421 helps students become better professional communicators through contextual research and analysis. The curriculum is informed by current research in rhetoric and professional writing and is guided by the needs and practices of business, the high-tech industry, and society at large, as well as by the expectations of Purdue students and programs. Students learn effective strategies for communicating with other people about and with technology, particularly in networked workplaces and through usability testing. They learn how to collaborate with colleagues in project teams as they analyze writing situations and respond to them with informative and visually effective print and electronic documents. The course teaches the rhetorical principles that help students shape their technical writing to suit a range of readers, for multiple purposes, in a variety of professional situations.
Clark, Tracy. Purdue University (2003). Academic>Courses>Writing>Technical Writing
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Technical Writing introduces students to the world of technical and professional communication. The focus of this course is upon writing that you might use on-the-job.
University of Colorado. Academic>Courses>Writing>Technical Writing
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503W is designed to help upper-level students develop the communication skills needed for successful professional careers. The course provides the opportunity to write in the variety of forms you are likely to encounter in your professional lives (that is, memos, manuals, proposals, etc.).
Bekins, Linn. San Diego State University (2002). Academic>Courses>Writing>Technical Writing
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Course goals: to prepare you to communicate effectively, ethically, responsibly, and professionally in a business environment; to provide you with skills, strategies, and conceptual knowledge to help you address a variety of communication tasks; to help you understand the symbiotic relationships among form and content, and audience and purpose; and to give you practice in collaborating with other professionals in managing and completing group projects, and to improve your own individual communication and management skills.
Tovey, Janice. East Carolina University (2002). Academic>Courses>Graduate>Technical Writing
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English 2309, Technical Writing, will introduce you to some of the types of documents that you will be likely to write in your careers. We will study audience-centered writing and writing as a series of recursive steps through which a writer moves in preparing a final draft. The students in this section will participate in the Texas Tech University Computer-Based Research Project by meeting class in the Macintosh Computer Classroom located in the English building (324A). The course will be VAX-based, but students do not need any prior knowledge of computers or computer skills. Because the course is computer-based, students will have to find time outside of class to work on a computer.
Hanson, Amy. Texas Tech University (1997). Academic>Courses>Undergraduate>Technical Writing
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ENGL 202C, Technical Writing, serves students who are preparing for careers in the sciences and applied sciences (particularly engineering). This advanced course in writing familiarizes students with the discourse practices prized in their disciplinary and institutional communities—and helps them to manage those practices effectively in their own written work. In this way the course teaches those writing strategies and tactics that scientists and engineers will need in order to write successfully on the job.
Jones, Billie J. Pennsylvania State University (2002). Academic>Courses>Undergraduate>Technical Writing
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This course offers an overview of the field of technical communication and provides practice in the composition of traditional technical writing forms, especially letters and memorandums, interim reports, feasibility studies and formal proposals.
University of Massachusetts (2001). Academic>Courses>Undergraduate>Technical Writing
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We offer you Level 1 and Level 2 courses in technical writing, plus a workshop on writing system requirement specifications. We're constantly updating and restructuring our content. We also welcome your active participation in building and improving this learning community.
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Most contract technical writers work through agencies. If you know anything about relational databases, you'll understand why this is so: just as the way to solve the problems of 'many-to-many' relationships between two tables is to create a third table, routing the relationships through it so that they become manageable, so, too, with tech writers and customers.
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Technical Writing and Instructional Design Techniques 
Technical communicators and instructional designers use similar techniques in producing written documents. This paper discusses how the Perot Systems Instructional Design team creates its documentation in a similar manner as technical communicators. We start by discussing the use of the ADDIE model for developing documentation; 2) explaining how we implement our Word and PowerPoint style guides with a brief mention about our client-driven Training Engagement Methodology; and 3) ensuring copyrights are respected. The subject matter experts that we support as technical communicators and instructional designers sometimes view us as the documentation police because we constantly question the data and quotations.
Damrau, Jackie. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing
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Technical Writing and the Macintosh
Technical writing is one of those activities that historians of technology have almost completely ignored.
Stanford University (2000). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Macintosh
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Technical Writing and the Pronoun Problem
Take the time to avoid gender-specific language in your business and technical writing. Given the consequences of being misunderstood, it is well worth the extra effort. Remember, anything that distracts the reader, detracts from your message.
Herron, Scott. Article Alley (1997). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Gender
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Technical Writing at SolidWorks Corporation Is a Collaborative Effort
Collaboration is a key element of the documentation process at SolidWorks Corporation, and it contributes significantly to the high quality of the technical documents. 'We couldn't produce the volume of documents that we do in the time that we have without working closely together,' says Georgia, manager of the Technical Publications department. Five technical writers and eight translators collaborate with each other, with developers and testers, with a translation house, and with a print house. Together they produce a user's guide, a tutorial, multiple online help systems, and numerous smaller documents with each release of the software. Releases occur about twice a year. Because each release includes major new functionality, the documentation schedule is very tight. 'Taking into account that we have to wait for the engineers to complete their changes, and that we have to freeze the English version in time for the translators to translate before the release,' says Georgia, 'the schedule is even tighter than it appears at first.' Some of the techniques that make this situation workable are an integrated hardware and software system, careful distribution of responsibilities, explicit procedures and style guides, and file maintenance.
Kloss, Marilyn B. Boston Broadside (2001). Careers>Writing>Technical Writing>Case Studies
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A list of blogs by technical writers.
