How Technical Writing is Different Than any Other Writing

Technical Writing is the writing about Technology. Technical writer is the person who studies and put the information about technology in his simple words so that users of the technology will understand the new technology and can use it freely. In other writing we can include writing plays, novels, stories and poems. We can call this writing as Literary writing. Literary writing is completely different than the technical writing. The person who is well versed in Literary writing can be good in Technical Writing. Both are different fields. Technical writing is mainly concerned with Technology where Literary writing is busy in depicting Human World. The register used for both writing is different from one another. Following are the differences between both writing as both are separate domains.

Technical Writer, the title itself reflects the meaning of the term. The writer who writes about the Technology is known as Technical writer. The purpose of the technical writing is professional. The writing is meant for limited readers or audience group. Whereas Literary writing is not professional but an expression of spontaneous overflow of powerful feelings and emotions of the writer. Literary writing is not written for limited audience group but for all human beings. In short, literary writing is written about mankind, for mankind.

Technical writing is mostly about the technology so the subjects of writing are limited and fixed or decided by the company. The person who writes about the technology is bound to some rules and has no choice for selection of any elements on the personal basis. Literary writing is not bound to any particular subject, religion, race, age, time, sex etc. It is boundless writing about the boundless subjects. Literary author has full reign to select his subjects and express them freely and frankly without restriction of any rules and regulation. In literature we find writing on wide and varied subjects. The literary author is not professional writer.

Technical writer can’t be any person without the knowledge of technical tools and professional writing skills. Technical writer is the person who is skillful and technology savvy. The person, with related education and some experience in writing can only be a technical writer. Education and practice are the important criterion of the Technical writer. But these criterion are not similar to the Literary writing. Author can be any person with powerful language to express the feelings and emotions. There is no qualification required to become an author. In other words, we can say that an author is inborn.

There is no school or college to make author. An author is the person who has inborn qualities to observe the things around him minutely and to express them on paper. The powerful words with great imagination, creates the picture of the situation in front of reader’s eye. Therefore qualification, education, experience etc are worthless words to attach to literary author. Like technical writer any person can’t be a literary author. The person with inborn qualities of observation and expression can be a successful and good author.

In technical writing we don’t find emotions, sentiments or any other human feelings, as it is not writing about the mankind but technology. The register of the technical writing is limited and full of technical terms. The usage of language is limited. Artistic words and figure of speech are strictly avoided while writing. Imagination and creativity are rare words to find in technical writing. Brevity and simplicity are the major principles of technical writing. You can’t stretch any topic as you like. Impressive writing with bombarding words is strictly prohibited. Literary world is completely far away from technical world where you are free from all restrictions and you have limitless sky to fly. Literary author can talk on any subject.

In addition to that there are various genres to select from and express your thoughts. Artistic language is preferred to bring reality in writing. Literary writing depicts the actuality with imaginations and truth. Author has full reign to comment, criticize, and complaint about any issues. To make the literary piece alive, artistic language is used with figures of speech. Vocabulary used for literary writing is wide and limitless. Author is not restricted to write within limit but can extend writing till satisfaction.

Major difference between technical writing and literary writing is the origin of the thoughts. Technical writing originates from the brain where literary writing spurs from heart. Technical writing is assigned task and it is completed with preplanned but literary writing is the expression of instant thoughts finds the way out of the heart. Technical writing is time bound activity that is supposed to finish within time where literary writing is timeless writing.

Technical documents written by the writer are revised frequently for the new revisions. The document created in the beginning might not be similar with its final version. Literary writing is eternal, everlasting and remains unchanging. It is not revised for any changes once published even if changes are made, done with author’s permission. Technical documents can be revised and changed without author’s intention and permission.

Above mentioned description is brief otherwise there are lots of differences that can be discussed. Above major points are enough to understand the difference between Technical Writing and Literary Writing.