I am excited to share with you information about technical writing in this textbook. I happened upon the discipline early in my career, and since I discovered it, I have had the opportunity to work as a technical writer in a software company before getting my PhD and returning to teaching. I have practiced, studied, and taught technical writing for more years than I care to count, but I still love it, and I still find it interesting and exciting!

You’ll see in Chapter 1 that even the academics and practitioners don’t agree on one definition of technical writing; there are many ways to define the discipline, but I think that’s one of the reasons it’s so interesting. One of the most important things about technical writing is determining who the audience will be for whatever type of document you are creating. You must always keep in mind the audience and write to them specifically. Because there are many ways to complete technical writing tasks, there are many places in the book where I encourage you to learn some basic things about how to create a particular type of document, and then go do some research to learn more.

I believe you will find this book, and the class that goes with it, valuable because no matter what kind of job you have or profession you go in to after college, you will do some technical writing.