What is technical writing?

1. What is technical writing? And why should we know how to do it?

2. What is technical writing? • Technical writing is a formal way of communicating information. • Used in scientific writing • Used in academic writing that is not about analyzing literature or history

3. How is it used in science? • Communicate procedures • SOP: Standard Operating Procedures • For individual labs… • What are you doing? • Can somebody repeat your lab by only following what you wrote for your procedures?

4. How is it used in science? • Communicate observations • How do we know you followed your procedures as you wrote them? • What happened when you did your lab? • What should others notice when they do those procedures?

5. What is an SOP? Standard Operating Procedure

6. Which means… • In industry and academic labs there are procedures for… • How to use a piece of equipment properly • How to do a process that is often repeated • How to do a standardized process that is specific to that lab environment

7. Why bother with an SOP? • An SOP communicates the standard to which the lab expects its members will execute. • It helps a novice know… • how to use a piece of equipment properly • how to do a lab safely • to the level expected in the lab. • So that a person using equipment knows how to use it and therefore it does not get broken. To help prevent “oops”es.

8. Will our labs follow SOP? • Not formally, but you will sometimes be given copies of instructions that you need to interpret and write in your own words for a particular lab. • SOPs use a lot of paper because they need to be very detailed- this is why you may only write one this school year

9. Then why bother? • People (students) need to learn at some point so you (students) will be introduced to this writing in the biotech class. • The clearer you are able to communicate scientific information, the better your writing will be- may be useful in college. • Like any process, it will take time and practice to develop this skill so we might as well start now 

10. Focus for this year in biotech: • With respect to technical writing: • Can you put procedures in your own wordsthat include enough detailso that you know what to do, but are not so wordythat they are difficult to follow? • Do you write down “observations” as you do the labs?

11. “Observations” may include • Checking off procedures as you do them • Notating starting and stopping times • Writing down what you see that is interesting • Writing down what you see that suggests something did not work correctly • Details that serve as evidence of what you actually did to execute the lab • Did anything change in your procedures? • How do we know you did your procedures?

12. Who does this? • EVERY person in the class • Not just the strongest person in a lab group • Every person should have their lab notebook out when doing labs requiring the lab notebook. Don’t leave your notebook at your table and figure you’ll add things after lab. ADD information to your lab notebook AS you are doing the lab.