Technical Documentations

---

Technical writing covers many genres and writing styles depending on the information and audience.[3]:84–114 Technical documents are not solely produced by technical writers. Almost anyone who works in a professional setting produces technical documents of some variety. Some examples of technical writing include:

• Instructions and procedures are documents that help either developers or end users operate or configure a device or program.[11]:226 Examples of instructional documents include user manuals and troubleshooting guides for computer programs, computer hardware, household products, medical equipment, mechanical products and automobiles.
• Proposals. Most projects begin with a proposal—a document that describes the purpose of a project, the tasks that will be performed in the project, the methods used to complete the project, and finally the cost of the project.[11]:191 Proposals cover a wide range of subjects. For example, a technical writer may author a proposal that outlines how much it will cost to install a new computer system, a marketing professional may write a proposal with the product offerings and a teacher may write a proposal that outlines how a new biology class will be structured.
• Emails, letters, and memoranda are some of the most frequently written documents in a business.[11]:117 Letters and emails can be constructed with a variety of goals—some are usually aimed at simply communicating information while others are designed to persuade the recipient to accomplish a certain task. While letters are usually written to people outside of a company, memoranda (memos) are documents written to other employees within the business.[11]:118
• Press releases. When a company wants to publicly reveal a new product or service, they will have a technical writer author a press release, a document that describes the product's functions and value to the public.[14]
• Specifications are design outlines that describe the structure, parts, packaging, and delivery of an object or process in enough detail that another party can reconstruct it.[15] For example, a technical writer might diagram and write the specifications for a smartphone or bicycle so that a manufacturer can produce the object.
• Descriptions are shorter explanations of procedures and processes that help readers understand how something works.[3]:564 For example, a technical writer might author a document that shows the effects of greenhouse gases or demonstrates how the braking system on a bike functions.
• Résumés and job applications are another example of technical documents.[11]:284–285 They are documents that are used in a professional setting to inform readers of the author's credentials.
• Technical reports are written to provide readers with information, instructions, and analysis on tasks.[11]:141–143 Reports come in many forms. For example, a technical writer might evaluate a building that is for sale and produce a trip report that highlights his or her findings and whether or not he or she believes the building should be purchased. Another writer who works for a non-profit company may publish an evaluation report that shows the findings of the company's research into air pollution.
• Case study is a published report about a person, group, or situation that has been studied over time; also : a situation in real life that can be looked at or studied to learn about something.[16] For example, an individual's challenging situation at his or her workplace and how he or she resolved it is a case study.
• White papers are documents that are written for experts in a field and typically describe a solution to a technological or business challenge or problem.[11]:644 Examples of white papers include a piece that details how to make a business stand out in the market or a piece explaining how to prevent cyber-attacks on businesses.
• Websites. The advent of hypertext has changed the way documents are read, organized, and accessed. Technical writers of today are often responsible for authoring pages on websites like "About Us" pages or product pages and are expected to be proficient in web development tools.[17]:484–504
• Datasheets are the document that summarize the features, key specifications, technical characteristics, application circuits and some other important information about the product, machine, equipment, software, application, system in brief.
• API guides are written for the developer community and are used to explain the application programming interfaces.
• Help systems are online help centres that provide users with technical information about products and services. They provide content as web pages that are viewed in a browser. The content may be created in help centre software, such as Zendesk, or in help authoring tools or component content management systems that can create a help centre as an HTML output.