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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Tips for Business and Technical Writing
Here are ten writing tips that you can use in both business and technical writing, which these days all but amount to the same thing.
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Tips for Writers Who Have to Teach a Writing Class 
Even the most confident writers may panic when they are asked to teach a writing class for their company. Ensure success with this basic tenet of adult education: Teach what the learners want to know. The second tenet follows: Don't teach any more than the learners need to know. Focus on three to five writing problems you see within your company. Use a 'teach and do' method: Teach a topic, such as passive voice, then do an exercise to practice what you have just taught. Adults like hands-on writing experience, and they like to work as teams to analyze problematic writing. Provide handouts that participants can use later, and include resources for future reference. Get evaluations from the participants so that you can improve with each subsequent workshop. And don't forget to order the donuts!
Moore, Susan B. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
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Tips for Writing Effective Training Material for Beginners 
You may think that because you're an expert, it will be easy for you to write training materials for your low-level user base. But it can be tough to think like a beginner. Use these tips to create appropriate instructions for newbies.
Dray, Jeff. TechRepublic (2003). Articles>Writing>Instructional Design>Technical Writing
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General perspective on technical writing. Technical writers produce Documentation that describe products or services and explain how to use them.
Jayaprakash, Sajitha. Mouthshut.com (2002). Resources>Writing>Technical Writing>Blogs
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There is such a desperate need for technical writers that anyone and everyone is welcome. My only fond hope is that we deliver quality. The minimum requirements for technical writing are good English-language skills, and proper use of grammar and punctuation. Typically, in most of the user manuals that I have picked up in India, I have always found errors after browsing through a few pages. Some of these errors are gross and some of them are subtle.
Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2002). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>India
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Too Little, Too Much - A Reviewer's Dilemma
Even the best planned software projects go through a last minute rush. This late dash imparts risks on the software quality, and on items such as Online Help and User or Technical Guides. Since writing consumes around 80% of the pubs project effort, the remaining time needs to be apportioned for reviewing.
Unni, Tharun Kumar. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing
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Technical writers create documents in various formats like electronic publishing, print, online help, etc. The various tools used to produce technical documents are described below.
Smita, Richa. Blogspot (2008). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Software
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Tools of the Technical Writing Trade
In technical writing, the most important tool of the trade is of course your brain. Next come your communication skills and those are followed by language skills. Finally, you will use these tools to create and shape your writing. A word processor is the most important tool of them all.
Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Word Processing
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Top Ten Lessons I Learned as a Technical Communicator
What significant contribution have I made to the community? Even if I did make one, should I go about writing it?
Prabhakar, Rahul. Blogspot (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing
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Toward a Post-Techne-Or, Inventing Pedagogies for Professional Writing 
This article examines the concept of techne in relation to situatedness. Techne is conceived as techniques for situating bodies in contexts. Although many theorists and practitioners in technical communication are working from ecological and posthuman perspectives with regard to interface designs, this article argues for extending those perspectives to workplace and classroom situations. Starting from a Heideggerian reading of techne, the article moves toward the concept of post-techne, which remakes pedagogical techniques for writing and inventing in institutional contexts.
Hawk, Byron. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
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Townsend Library: Technical Writing 
Links to several online technical writing resources.
New Mexico State University (2002). Resources>Directories>Writing>Technical Writing
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Training for Wannabe Technical Writers
'More technical writers. Better technical writers.' This is the mantra I have in mind while I write this column.
Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>India
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Training Technical Communicators for Management
Identifying management candidates and training technical communicators before they get promoted to management positions can make for a very smooth and successful transition for both the candidate and the organization.
Erber-Stark, Jessica. Writing Assistance (2006). Careers>Management>Education>Technical Writing
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Training Writers to Design and Write Short Documents for Nonspecialists
A group of technical writing students wrote a series of explanations for twelve-year-old readers. I studied these documents to discover the features preferred by the young readers. Among the characteristics favored by the readers were the following: the use of headings; narrative structure; unfamiliar terms limited to a few, each followed by a brief definition in the text; white space and uncrowded text; large, readable typefaces; and some simple illustrations. These same features are likely to appeal to adult nonspecialists when reading about unfamiliar technical material and are particularly recommended to technical writers when writing to a nonspecialist audience.
Connors, Patricia E. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing
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Transition: Technical Writer to Technical Writing Teacher
The transition from being a technical writer to becoming a Visiting Professor of Technical Communication has meant, so far, that 1) I work a whole lot more, and 2) I finally have a chance to see the effect of the things that we create on the user. My students have helped me to do this.
Johnson, Carol Siri. MetroVoice (2002). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
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Transitioning from Technical Writing into Usability
In this podcast, I talk with Theresa Putkey, a usability consultant in Vancouver, about how she transitioned from technical writing into usability.
Johnson, Tom H. and Theresa Putkey. Tech Writer Voices (2008). Articles>Usability>Technical Writing>Podcasts
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Translate Technology Solutions Into a Strong Business Case
How do you explain highly technical designs in terms that nontechnical managers and executives--who typically have decision-making power over the budget--can understand and appreciate? Unless you know a technical writer who can translate for you, you're going to have to do it yourself.
Talon, Mike. TechRepublic (2003). Careers>Business Communication>Technical Writing>Business Case
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Translation and the Technical Writer
As more companies sell in the global market and recognize the importance of customer service and satisfaction, they are beginning to realize the importance of translating software and documentation into foreign languages. Once your own company realizes that it needs to translate its documentation, to whom will it turn for project management? You, of course. The technical writer is in an ideal position to control the translation of documentation and the textual element of software.
Tunsley, Roger A. Boston Broadside (1993). Articles>Language>Translation>Technical Writing
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The Truth about Technical Writing
In view of the contradiction that surrounds the term, perhaps the distinction of technical writing from other forms is as much emotional as actual.
Grossberg, Kathryn Milner. English Journal, The (1978). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Emotions
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Try a Hand at Technical Writing
Simplifying the jargon associated with any particular product or process is the key function of technical writers.
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Two Approaches to Modularity: Comparing the STOP Approach with Structured Writing
The first time I heard of the STOP paper was sometime in the mid 80's when the historian of technical writing, John Brockman, phoned me to ask if my Information Mapping method of structured writing derived from the STOP method. At the time I told Brockman that there was no direct relationship between our two approaches since I'd never read the paper. When the editor of this journal sent me the STOP document in preparation for writing this paper, I read it with delight. Although our two innovations date from the same period, the STOP authors and I were working in two completely different disciplines, cultures, organizations, and locations. These two approaches resulted in modularity - albeit of quite different kinds. The main purpose of this project is to compare and contrast these two approaches to modularity. I should note here that I approach this article principally as an exercise in historical comparison, rather than as an exposition of my current views, about which I will say a bit at the end of this article.
Horn, Robert E. Journal of Computer Documentation (1999). Articles>Information Design>Technical Writing>History
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"Unattached" Clauses in Technical Writing
The views concerning "dangling participles" of grammarians, usage experts and authors of books on technical writing are reviewed and compared. Although many unattached clauses are clearly unacceptable, some are less objectionable and still others are acceptable practice. Absolute constructions and other clause-relational participial, infinitival and verbless clauses need no attachment to a proximate noun or noun phrase, and logical clauses that are not attached to a noun are shown as normal, acceptable use. Even clearly adjectival clauses are often unattached when followed by the passive voice, intransitives and several other grammatical structures; clauses between the subject and verb and at the end of the sentence are also often not attached to the immediately preceding noun. Cultural (perhaps also gender) differences between humanistic teachers and task-oriented engineers are noted as possible causes of different viewpoints regarding the use of unattached participles, and greater acceptance of the many acceptable forms of unattached clauses is argued. <em>Suggested Reading Approach</em> The first three sections (on principles, authoritative views and theoretical background) could be skimmed if you are already familiar with the background.
Jordan, Michael P. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (1999). Articles>Writing>Grammar>Technical Writing
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Understand Film Language: An Introduction for Technical Communicators
The techniques of film language areas important to video and multimedia presentations as the techniques of written language are to technical documentation. Film language consists of such components as shot content, frame composition, camera movement, color (or shade), lighting, and film transitions. Film transitions are the way in which shots and sequences are connected and carry specific semantic weight for the viewer. However for many technical video-makers, the meanings of film transitions are overlooked in favor of flashy presentations or are abused to cover a problem. In developing videos for training or informational purposes, we should respect and understand the significance of film transitions and other aspects of film language.
Tillman, Michael A. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Multimedia>Visual Rhetoric>Technical Writing
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Experienced programmers find the man pages very useful but a naive user often finds them overwhelming.
Gururaj, B.S. STC India (2003). Presentations>Documentation>Technical Writing>UNIX
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User Assistance: Writing for a High-Context Culture
What we consider to be good technical writing often reflects an American cultural perspective. One facet of this cultural orientation is that technical writing tends to use a low-context style. Most notably, we tend to write user assistance as if users have never seen the user interface we are explaining. Secondly, we tend to write user assistance as if users have never even used software before. But users rarely go to Help before they have tried to accomplish a task on their own first, and most users today have extensive experience using software and are familiar with the standard ways of interacting with user interfaces. So a user interface is a high-context artifact—one a user has already seen before reading our documentation and that uses rules and conventions the user already knows.
Hughes, Michael A. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Documentation>Help>Technical Writing
