Technical Description

A technical description is a part-by-part description of a mechanism, tool, or piece of equipment. Technical writers use technical descriptions in a variety of documents such as manuals, procedures, reports, and white papers. Technical descriptions provide users information about the product’s features and capabilities. This assignment incorporates the following skills: researching a technology, writing a technical definition, writing a technical description, writing specifications, using graphics, applying page layout and design. Step 1: Select a product or mechanism. The description must be accurate. Therefore, do not pick something too large (such as a computer) or too small (such as a paper clip). Choose a topic that provides a challenge but that is manageable. Some examples are: flash drive, wrench, calculator, clock radio, cell phone, ball point pen, etc. Step 2: Research the technology. Find out what the parts are called and how they work. You want to use the correct terminology and understand the theory behind how it works. You might look on Howstuffworks.com as a source. Step 3: Write a description of your product. The following is a review of the sections you’ll commonly find in descriptions. As you read, check out the example descriptions. Introduction. Plan the introduction to your description carefully. Make sure it does all of the following things (but not necessarily in this order) that apply to your particular description: Background. If the thing you are describing is not likely to be familiar to most of your readers, consider adding some background before you plunge into the actual description. If you are about to describe an SGO/3 density gauge to nonspecialists, you’d better first discuss what in the world the thing is, what it does, and on what part of the planet it is used. Discussion of the parts or characteristics. The main part of your description is the discussion of each part or characteristic. You must divide the thing you are describing into parts, or characteristics, or both. Parts are easy: for example, a wooden pencil has lead, a wooden barrel, an eraser, and a metal clip. Characteristics are describable aspects of a thing but are not parts: for example, the pencil has a certain weight, length, width, and so on. If you were a budding real-estate tycoon and had to describe a vacant lot for company files, you’d probably describe it by its characteristics: its location, square footage, terrain, vegetation, access to utilities, and so on. (Check out the description of the primitive stone scraper in the examples; part of it is arranged by characteristics, and part by parts!) Once you’ve divided the thing you are decribing into parts, characteristics, or both, your next job is to describe each one. For mechanical things, it works well to start by defining the part, by explaining its function. After that, you describe the part from general to specific, using any of the sources of description that are appropriate. Notice that in description, you can mix other kinds of writing. You’ll find yourself explaining functions, defining terms, discussing a bit of process as you describe. That’s not a problem as long as the primary focus and the majority of the content is truly description. Discussion of the related operation or process. At some point in a description, often at the end, it is useful to summarize the operation or process associated with the object you’re describing. For example, if you’ve just described a mechanical pencil, you could briefly explain how it is used. If you’ve just described a snowflake, you could discuss the process by which it formed.