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Technical writing, sometimes called business writing, is writing for a specific purpose and with a specific goal. Usually its goal is to inform/instruct or persuade/argue. Technical writing can really be considered transactional writing because there are two people or groups involved in the communication. One party has a clear goal to inform or persuade the other party. This is real-world writing in every sense. You may not be aware of how much it already impacts your world through textbooks, instructions, web sites, and communications from many businesses and service organizations. There are professional technical communicators but only large organizations have them and even then they are not there to do your daily work for you and that is why it is so helpful for many to take at least an introductory technical writing class.

Why is technical communication important and what will you use it for? Actually, technical writing will be used by most college graduates as a regular part of their work. It is much more likely that you will use technical writing than either academic or creative writing unless you specifically enter those fields. A few examples of why you will likely need these skills include: getting a job – preparing a resume or curriculum vitae, cover letter, application, and portfolio; doing your job – preparing memos, letters, reports, instructions, case reports, reviews, assignments, descriptions, etc.; and keeping your job – communicating with management, co-workers, peers, patients/students/public.

What separates technical communication from other forms of writing, such as academic writing? Technical communication has a specific audience and is purposeful, usually intended to solve a problem for that audience. One area that really sets technical communication apart is that it is quite often collaborative. Technical communication is also focused on readability issues, not only the use of clear writing, but also page design and graphics. The excellence of technical writing is judged by clarity, accuracy, comprehensiveness, accessibility, conciseness, professional appearance, and correctness.

There are seven principles to guide technical writing: remember your purpose (to inform or persuade), remember your audience (their concerns, background, attitude toward your purpose), make your content specific to its purpose and audience, write clearly and precisely (active voice, appropriate language to audience), make good use of visuals (good page design and graphics), and be ethical (truthful, full disclosure, no plagiarizing).

Technical communication serves both explicit, or clear, and implicit, or implied, purposes. Explicit purposes include to provide information, to provide instructions, to persuade the reader to act upon the information, or to enact or prohibit something. Implicit purposes include establishing a relationship, creating trust, establishing credibility, and documenting actions. Most technical communications are based on a problem statement which gives your document a clearly stated objective for your benefit as well as your reader’s. The problem statement defines the problem, by doing more than simply stating your topic, it goes on to explain what about that topic is at issue. For example, if your topic is career guidance then your problem could be the fact that many adults need help identifying a career that suits their strengths and abilities and the solution that your document will present is to create a comprehensive clearing house that helps people identify career paths through military, vocational training, and higher education.

You can learn writing style and find more writing advice at http://answersaboutwriting.com

Writing is one of the most essential skills we must learn in today’s society. It is important to success in school. It is important to success in the work force. Writing is important to participate in the new global economy. Not only is writing important for communicating with others, it is also an important part of learning and problem solving. While most people fully recognize just how important writing is, many still do not fully understand how to develop this important life skill. There are four important rules to remember when working to develop your writing skills.

Writing cannot be learned in a short time. You can take a writing class that can help you improve your skill but drastic improvements to your writing skill is really the task of a lifetime. Writing is complex and challenging and takes time to learn then even more time to fully develop your potential as a writer.

Writing cannot be learned from a book or a lecture. A good writing teacher is more of a coach than a lecturer because truly the only way to improve your writing is through practice. Writing is a skill that requires you to develop your muscle memory just as other arts, such as music and dance, as well as sports. You must continually practice a dance step or football play before it becomes second nature. The same principle holds true of writing.

Writing is a process. Writing must proceed through a series of steps: invention, drafting, revising and editing. While the process is universal, each individual writer has a unique process that can be adapted to changing writing tasks. The writing process is recursive and writers may find themselves moving back and forth between steps on some writing projects.

Writing is socially situated. Unless writing strictly for yourself, it is important to spend time contemplating the social situation of your writing task. Who is your audience? What type of language use does that audience expect? Should the writing be formal or casual? What knowledge can you expect the audience to possess and what knowledge does the audience expect of you as the writer?

Anyone can be a writer. Writing well is not a gift from the gods or an inherited trait. It is a skill that can be learned and refined through practice. It takes time and effort to learn to write well, just as anything worth doing does, but the rewards for your effort can be infinite.

Learn more about teaching writing at http://teachingwritinghome.com/

The words “Schools Out For Summer” strike joy into the hearts of children and often a sigh of relief for parents who are just as eager to take a break from homework as their progeny. However taking a complete break from the books for the entire summer can be problematic.

Studies have shown that children forget between 1 and 3 months of school during the summer vacation. While reading is the least effected, the most impacted subjects are spelling and math. Obviously it is important for children to have time to play and relax — to just enjoy being kids during the summer. Children should not be pushed into a high-pressure study schedule over summer vacation. But parents can take steps to slow down that loss of knowledge and erosion of skills.

First and foremost, keep children reading over the summer but try to work in some nonfiction as well as fiction onto the reading list. Take a lesson from many experienced teachers and pick a few spelling words from the books children are reading. Perhaps tie test results into some special summer reward and you will have eagerly awaited spelling bees.

Writing is one skill that often erodes during summer, but you can give children a writing journal and a weekly goal. They can write about whatever you think will interest your child. They can report on their baseball games, make up elaborate games, or simply report on the books they are reading. There are lots of great writing prompts out there for kids if you run dry of ideas. It does not matter so much what your child writes so long as they spend time writing so they can work on handwriting skills as well as keep in the groove of putting words on paper. One easy writing prompt is to have the child describe people, places, objects, pets and other animals, insects, and games. Lists are another easy writing prompt — favorite things, worst things, etc. Then on another day you can use those descriptions and lists to generate another writing prompt.

Math skills might seem the hardest thing to work on during summer but in fact these can be the easiest. Math does not have to come out of a book and you can easily work a lot of math lessons into those long car rides or plane trips as you go on a family vacation. Try counting car headlights (counting by 2s) as you drive or fingers in a restaurant or plane (counting by 5s). Find various shapes around the house and then trace them to create yet more complex forms. Get the kids involved in cooking and learning about measurements. Give the kids a ruler and notebook and tell them to measure various objects around the house. Empty out your pocket change and have the kids sort it and create word problems with the coins.

There are lots of activities you can do at home without the expense of special tools, workbooks or programs that will actively engage your child in learning and help keep their school skills sharp. They will not even notice they are learning because they will enjoy these projects so much.

Renaissance Woman Deanna Mascle shares more good parenting advice at http://renaissancewomanonline.com/family.php