Tech Biz Writing

Fritjof Capra, in his book The Tao of Physics, explains the task of a technical writer as follows: “The notion that all scientific models and theories are approximate and that their verbal interpretations always suffer from the inaccuracy of our language was already commonly accepted by scientists at the beginning of th 20th century, when a new and completely unexpected development took place. The study of the world of atoms forced physicists to realise that our common language is not only inaccurate, but totally inadequate to describe the atomic and sub-atomic reality. Quantum theory and relativity theory, the two bases of modern physics, have made it clear that this reality transcends classical logic and that we cannot talk about it in ordinary language.”

That this theoretical sophistication will eventually filter through to the down-to-earth concepts of engineering is certain, and has probably happened already. As science continually reassesses itself in terms of its wider implications, engineering too will need to adapt to the new complexities and possibilities. Language will be forced to expand and develop in an attempt to remain abreast of the new philosophies. Even simple technical descriptions, essential for complete understanding, will need to reflect the depth of theoretical complexity inherent in modern devices.

Technical writers of the near future will be resourceful individuals. They will need to span disciplines even more than they do now. But while techniques move on, and change is there to be described, they will survive. And, with a bit of luck, prosper.

Next: 51. Reinforcements - The Field.

This entry was posted on Thursday, November 9th, 2006 at 5:07 pm and is filed under Technical Writing, Publishing, TechBiz Writing, Documentation, Research, Editing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.