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Technical Writing Guidelines


This is a very short list of guidelines for technical writing. I usually give this as part of induction to my PhD students. This, by no means, could replace a good book on style, but they are a good start.

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 Each sentence presents one idea.

 Each paragraph covers one subject.

 Each section covers one topic.

 Use subsections when it is needed.

 Use passive sentences whenever possible.

 Avoid the use of pronouns such as I, we, etc. and my, our etc.

 If pronouns are to be used then use plural pronouns such as we, our  and us.

 Follow a logical flow of thoughts starting with a background to the  problem, solution proposed, how that solution is used and the results.

 Qualify assertive statements and facts. As an example, if we take a  statement such as ‘it is an important subject’ then the questions are  ‘why is it important?’ ‘who said is it important?’ and etc.

 Avoid using immeasurable words or those difficult to qualify such as  ‘almost’, ‘every’, ‘huge’, ‘nightmare’, ‘easy’, ‘most’, and etc.

 Provide introduction summarizing what is the document (paper or thesis) is about and its structure and a conclusion summarizing what is the paper has covered and results reached.

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