Patterns in technical writing guidelines

Abstract

From an analysis of technical communication and research sourcematerials, it is argued that the field of technical communication doesnot yet have guidelines supporting an engineered approach to documentproduction. A total of 392 writing guidelines were collected by lookingat college texts, writing guidebooks, journal articles, and companystandards. The authors have gained several kinds of information from theguidelines: the manner in which guidelines are stated, the number ofguidelines about each topic, and the amount of research supporting eachguideline. It is concluded that, if technical communicators are tosuccessfully defend their writing suggestions to engineers andscientists, they may need to bolster the basic science on which theirguidelines rest