Technical Writing

1. Technical Writing

2. Aims and Objectives of this Workshop Scientific Report Writing>Aims and Objectives Aim: To get students thinking about what characterises a meaningful technical report and provide some hints and tips that, if implemented, have the potential to improve the quality of a technical report produced by them • List the sections of a brief technical work in their established sequence • Identify the considerations associated with each section • Identify general considerations related to technical writing • Discuss your concerns related to scientific report writing

3. Table of Contents • Why Words in Mathematical Science? • The Introduction • The Main Body • The Conclusion • Title Choice • Reference List • General Writing Style

4. General writing style: • Integrating others’ work • Critical thinking • Spelling grammar and punctuation • Writing in the correct voice • Logical, methodical and coherent • Substantiated content • Formal writing style

5. Why Words in Mathematical Science?

6. Why Write in the Field of Mathematics • The first language of the World is the written word not the language of written numbers and • The first written language of the global scientific and technical community is English So • As much as you may be conversant in the conventions of communicating in numbers you need to be conversant in the conventions of communicating in words in English

7. As Mathematicians have important contributions to make in all areas of society… • …and if they are to make their contributions they have to communicate their ideas… • …and if the first universal means of communication is the written and spoken word… • … then mathematicians have to communicate effectively in words to broadcast their ideas and effect change!

8. The Introduction

9. The Introduction > Characteristic of quality • A well written technical piece will include and well crafted introduction

10. The Introduction > How do you do it • 3 primary functions • To make clear to the reader the precise subject to be considered • To indicate the writer’s attitude towards this subject • To lay out the plan for its treatment (Nelson 1947) These will now be dealt with in turn

11. 1. To make clear to the reader the precise subject to be considered • Fix in the mind of the reader the subject for attention • Define the subject • Emphasise the value of the subject to the reader • Limits of subject coverage

12. 2. To indicate the writer’s attitude towards this subject • How is the subject going to be handled/ treated • What is the purpose of your piece • In your case part of the treatment is the application of theory to the real world • But your full treatment should be more detailed*

13. 2. To indicate the writer’s attitude towards this subject • “it is most important for a writer always to think of the report or paper he is about to write as having a definite work to perform… …if one conceives his writing in this way, he will not be shooting aimlessly into the air… …He will be learning to aim accurately and shoot to kill” (Nelson 1947 p. 42)

14. 2. To indicate the writer’s attitude towards this subject • “If before he begins a paper, a reader understands what the writer proposes to do for him, what emphasis he expects to maintain consistently throughout, what point of view he is planning to assume… …the reader can get what he is supposed to get with much less effort than if he gropes his way through a maze of material with no preliminary notion of where he is being led” (Nelson 1947 p.44)

15. 2. To indicate the writer’s attitude towards this subject > How do you find your focus? • Spontaneous genesis of an idea • More likely to gain inspiration from the World around you this may come from: • Physical interaction with the real-world • Background reading • Listening to others thoughts and opinions • Watching television • Lecture materials

16. 2. To indicate the writer’s attitude towards this subject > How do you find your focus? • If the ideas are not flowing try: • Doing some more subject reading but specifically think about what you are reading in terms of its real-world application • Take up others’ pleas for assistance • Think about your own physical interactions with the world and ask yourself which mathematical thinking could have been applied to them • Your ideas?

17. 3. To lay out the plan for its treatment • You need to decide how are you going to organise the main body of your piece to achieve its purpose? • Explain the plan of treatment to give the reader a forward look over the whole area mapped out

18. 3. To lay out the plan for its treatment > How to construct a plan • You need to have a plan to be able to relate it to the reader in the introduction

19. Introduction X=A+B+C a b A=a+b+c c a1 B=a1+b1 X b1 a2 b2 C=a2+b2+c2+d2 c2 d2 Conclusion A+B+C=X 3. To lay out the plan for its treatment > How to construct a plan Fig. 1. Example Paragraph Plan to structure a technical piece. = coherence material

20. 3. To lay out the plan for its treatment > How to construct a plan • To what level of detail would you relate to the plan in the introduction?*

21. The Main Body

22. The Main Body > Characteristics of quality • There are a number of considerations specific to you discipline that should be followed in a technical piece • These are outlined on the handout provided and should be studied to learn from them

23. Conclusion

24. Conclusion > Characteristic of quality • Make sure you have a conclusion or ‘terminal section’ and one that is well crafted

25. Conclusion > How do you do it • This section is your last chance to influence the reader of your technical piece. It: • tells the reader the key things you want them to remember from the other sections and what they all mean together • Checks your reader has got the essential idea • Gives your reader the impression that you achieved what you set out to do • It doesn’t introduce new information except to reinforce conclusions and/or recommendations made

26. Conclusion > How do you do it • You can remind the reader of the purpose of your technical piece • You can make a summary restatement of the points covered • You can reinforce the impression of the pattern the piece took* by briefly revisiting it • You can say something that you hope will leave a lasting impression on your reader

27. Conclusion > How do you do it • Conclusions are only really hard to write if you never had a purpose or you have lost that purpose along the way • To help you know better what to write • Remind yourself of what you set out to achieve. What the point of your design was • Ask yourself what do you want the reader to really take away with them

28. Conclusion > How do you do it • Knowing what to say to conclude a technical piece can be helped by knowing the ‘family’ of report to which it belongs: • Factual • Critical • Advisory

29. Conclusion > How do you do it • Other consideration that might help you: • What is the significance of your findings? • What are the implications of your conclusions for this topic and for the broader field • Where there limitations to your approach • Are there any other factors of relevance that impact upon the topic, but fell outside the scope of your piece • Are there any suggestions you can make in terms of future research

30. Title

31. Title > characteristic of quality: • To include a title and one that is informative and enticing • Your work's title can be as long or a short as it needs to be to achieve the criterion of an effective title

32. Title Choice > How to do it: • Revise the examples provided to emulate the principles outline in them for your own title

33. General Writing Style

34. Critical thinking

35. Critical thinking > Characteristic of quality • In any degree you are expected to demonstrate that you consider the world around you critically • This way of thinking about the world around you should come through in the way in which you write

36. Critical thinking > How do you do it? • There area two potential areas for development here:There is changing the way you view the world around youandDeveloping writing strategies the prove that you consider the world in a critical way and that present information to others so that they may think the same

37. Critical thinking > How do you do itChanging the way you view the world

38. Critical thinking > How do you do it > Changing the way you view the World • Don’t blindly accept the information you are exposed to • Develop a sceptical mind • Be a detective or investigative journalist • Seek the truth • Continually question why something is the way it is

39. Critical thinking > How do you do it > change the way you write • Don’t write, “the government says” • Write, “the government makes unfounded claims that”

40. Critical thinking > How do you do it > change the way you write • Don’t write, “the results from Smith & Black show” • Write, “extensive repetitions show that it is highly likely that”

41. Critical thinking > How do you do it > change the way you write • Don’t write, “50% of people in the UK rate maths as their weakest subject” • Write, “5 studies concur that approximately 50% of people in the UK rate maths as their weakest subject”

42. Critical thinking > How do you do it > change the way you write • Don’t write, “it is believed that more car crashes occur in the dark” • Write, “it isn’t clear whether more car crashes occur at night or not because the study was only undertaken in Finland in mid winter”

43. How do you do it > change the way you write • Yes it takes up time to be appropriately critical • Yes it takes up words to be appropriately critical • But if you don’t want to be a sheep and just accept what you are told then you need to be critical

44. Critical thinking > How do you do it > change the way you write • Trip to the zoo • See the following handout and after 3 minutes of individual study I will ask for the group to vote on which passage is purely descriptive and which is descriptive and critical

45. Critical thinking > How do you do it > change the way you write Table 2. characteristics of descriptive verses critical writing

46. Integrating others’ work

47. Integrating others’ work > Characteristic of quality • In cases of scientific and technical writing it is important to demonstrate that you are engaging with others' work to develop your own thoughts.

48. Integrating others’ work > How do you do it • Personal Development: • Researching skills - to find others' relevant work* • Reading skills - obtain important information from others' work** • Writing skills - to effectively incorporate others work into your own to demonstrate you are engaging with relevant sources of information.

49. Integrating other’s work > how to do it • Writing skills: • Use relevant references in your introduction to achieve the first and second purpose of an introduction • Use references to peer reviewed* sources to substantiate your critical judgements** • Use references to peer reviewed sources to strengthen other areas of your work where you have been critical (see table 2. in Critical thinking) • Use referenced material as examples used to demonstrate a point

50. Spelling, Grammar and Punctuation