The role of technical writing is to break down complex concepts so readers can relate to them and put those concepts into practice. Technical writing is used in most aspects of training to give learners clarity.

Since your goal with technical writing is to help your learners understand a complex concept clearly, your writing should be audience-focused. No field has better success in engaging their audience than marketing – this is where you can take inspiration from. After seeing the levels of engagement marketers garner from using concise writing, it makes sense to employ the same in your training.

With that in mind, here are seven tips for concise technical writing:

1. Put the technical concept into a diagram: More visuals and less text usually result in more learning than with text alone. If the technical concept you are trying to communicate can be accurately represented by a diagram, use that. Not only will this help ensure it’s clear for the person providing the content (the SME), but it helps the learner.
2. Chunk out content with relevant visuals: While it’s not always realistic to have the perfect visual to accompany technical content, having a related visual and the design chunked out on the page will immediately help the learner grasp each part of the concept. It’s a more effective approach than just explaining the entire concept using mostly in text on the screen. Figures like graphs, tables, charts, etc. should aid the reader in comprehension.
3. Eliminate passive voice: Passive voice changes normal sentence structure. It convolutes text and makes it harder to understand. It disrupts the normal flow of subject, verb and object by making the object the main focus and adding in a ‘being’ verb. Passive voice lengthens text.

   ‘She created the task’ is more concise and reads better than ‘The task was created by her’.

4. Use plain language: Don’t overload learning text with technical jargon, corporate speak or sophisticated language. This is especially important as your audience may not consist exclusively of subject matter experts (SMEs) in your field. What’s familiar to you may not be to a general audience.

   The goal of technical writing is to provide clear and easy access to information. Use more basic versions of words that convey your intended meaning to make writing more accessible.

5. Cut out filler words: Avoid redundant phrasing as this makes your writing wordy and tiring to read. You can eliminate unnecessary prepositions, such as ‘very’ and ‘too’ that are frequently thrown in for emphasis. Rather, choose singular words that can convey the same meaning and emphasis. Other examples of this include ‘basically’, ‘took place’, ‘red in color’ instead of ‘red’, ‘ask the question’ instead of ‘ask’, See this longer list of filler words and redundant phrasing to avoid.
6. Trim long sentences: If your text contains mostly long, convoluted sentences, your learners might find it difficult to understand. Avoid long, run-on sentences. Break them up into shorter sentences when you can or use dashes to create pause.
7. Formatting: Keep the structure of your writing clean. A messy text structure will not inspire confidence or interest in your writing. A block of text will also kill interest in reading.

   Instead, use white space – this technically isn’t leading to brevity of text, but it does create the illusion of shorter text. Also, it’s easier for key points to stand out when the reader is scanning. Use subheadings and bullet points to section out text. These will help create a reading flow that will feel natural to the reader.

Training requires technical writing much of the time. The best writing involves audience focus and accessibility. Including images and using other concise writing tips ensures that your learners are fully engaged and have a constructive learning experience.

Danielle Wallace is the chief learning strategist at Beyond the Sky, a provider of custom learning solutions. Previously, as a marketing executive with Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo, she learned strategic marketing principles, which she applies to learning and development to create learning that sticks. Danielle is also a certified training and development professional (CTDP) and her thought leadership, free checklists, and monthly infographics can be found at www.BeyondtheSky.ca