As an engineer, you’ll need to produce well-written documents to communicate technical details and instructions clearly. Engineering documents range from design specifications to user manuals and lab reports. While writing is often secondary to mathematical and technical skills in engineering, written reports and instructions are crucial to avoid errors, meet compliance standards, access funding, and more.
Follow these tips to create engineering documents that are clear, accurate and serve their purpose effectively:
Research and Plan First
Don’t just open a blank Word doc and start typing. Creating sound engineering documents requires:
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Understanding the intended audience – Determine the background knowledge readers have. Define acronyms and explain concepts simply.
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Knowing the purpose – Documents inform, instruct, record, or legally comply Understand the core goal
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Gathering necessary information – Collect technical data, design specs, test results, code samples or other crucial details to include.
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Making an outline – Organize sections and main points in logical flow before writing.
Thorough preparation results in focused, fact-based documents that meet audience and project needs.
Use the Appropriate Structure
Standard engineering document formats include
Design Specifications
Details technical requirements for a product or process. Follows order:
- Overview
- Design parameters
- Materials to use
- Performance requirements
- Safety considerations
- Testing protocols
Lab Reports
Documents experiments and results. Contains:
- Objective
- Methods
- Observations
- Data
- Calculations
- Results analysis
- Conclusions
User Manuals
Instructs readers on operation maintenance and troubleshooting. Covers
- Product overview
- Specifications
- Setup
- Use cases
- FAQs
- Maintenance
- Safety
Match document structure to conventions for that document type. This aids comprehension.
Craft Clear, Consise Content
Write content that is:
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Accurate – Double check facts, figures, and technical details.
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Scannable – Use descriptive headers, bullet points, and callouts to aid scanning.
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Concise – Avoid wordiness. Focus on essential info.
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Defined – Explain acronyms, initialisms, and technical terminology.
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Precise – Choose words carefully to convey exact meaning.
Additionally, be consistent in formatting and style. Follow style guides like AP or Chicago. Well-written content prevents errors and misinterpretation.
Include Visuals Appropriately
Charts, diagrams, photos, and drawings improve understanding for most readers. Be sure visuals:
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Supplement text descriptions (not duplicate them)
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Are clearly labeled with captions
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Use basic shapes recognizable by all audiences
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Are high resolution for print/screen visibility
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Follow document style and branding
Technical visuals require as much care as text. Poor images confuse readers.
Finalize and Proofread
Before finalizing engineering documents:
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Check accuracy of all technical details
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Confirm visuals are correctly matched to descriptions
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Review document structure and organization
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Proofread to fix typos, grammar errors, inconsistencies
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Ask knowledgeable colleagues to review drafts
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Perform test prints/previews to catch issues
Thorough final reviews catch mistakes that could lead to project failures or compliance issues.
Maintain Regular Updates
Engineering documents are living resources requiring updates. Routinely:
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Note design changes, product updates, or process improvements
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Add new findings from testing or engineering changes
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Refresh visuals to current versions
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Verify links/references are still valid
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Archive older iterations
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Redistribute updates to correct parties
Proper document maintenance ensures accuracy over the product lifecycle and avoids outdated references.
While engineering students may not hone writing skills as much as math or science expertise, written communication is a critical engineering competency. Employers seek engineers able to produce clear technical documents. With attention to structure, content, visuals and reviewing practices, you can create accurate documents that inform audiences and prevent errors. Implementing the above tips will elevate your engineering writing.
Narration (Point of View)
When writing, it is important to use appropriate tense and narration. Engineers often write to explain how something happened: a lab procedure, a site visit, an accident, a recommendation.
Third person narration is most often the appropriate choice in technical documents and academic journals, but in some cases it might be appropriate to use first or second person (common in business correspondence).
Examples:First person narration, “I” words are used. I should get good grades in college. We should get good grades in college. Second person narration, “You” words are used. You should get good grades in college. Third person narration, “he/she/neutral” words are used. A student should get good grades in college.
Students should get good grades in college.
Technical documents present facts, data, evidence, calculations, results, and theories, which must be presented in an impersonal, neutral, and objective manner. Avoid use of the word “feelings” or the verb “feel” in technical writing.
Phrases such as “I feel this is the best approach” evokes emotion, is not objective, and can lend uncertainty to technical writing. Similarly, “When the weight feels right” should not be used in describing inanimate objects.
Paragraphs are the building blocks of documents. It is important to keep in mind the basic elements of paragraph construction: each paragraph should contain a topic sentence that is well-developed and supported, discuss one idea, and transition to the next paragraph.
In technical writing, paragraphs are generally kept to 4-6 lines. Short paragraphs emphasize main ideas, encourage conciseness, keep the reader’s attention, and break up content into manageable chunks.
Parallelism means using the same structure for listed items. These items can occur in a sentence, in a table, in a bulleted or numbered list, or in headings. Sentences with parallel structure are easier to read and flow more smoothly.
When creating a bullet list, all items in the list should be parallel in construction.
Redundancy means using two or more words that essentially mean the same thing. Redundancy affects conciseness.
Examples:
- a new innovation
- absolutely true
- red in color
- cylindrical in shape
SI versus Customary Units
Systeme Internationale (SI) units are the most widely and officially recognized system of metric units for weights, dimensions, and other physical measures in technical writing. Technical documents should use SI units in text, figures, tables, and equations.
In technical writing, uncomplicated sentences are used to state complex ideas. Long, complex sentences tend to confuse readers. Strive for a sentence length of 10-20 words. A document should not be constructed, however, of short, choppy sentences. Varying sentence length can encourage readability, make comparisons, and contrast information.
Writing technical documentation – tutorial with Confluence
How do you write an engineering document?
Objectives: Outline your goals and what you hope to accomplish by completing the engineering document. Consider what the purpose of this information is and how it can benefit the reader or end user so you can stay focused on these objectives as you write. Tools: Review the software and technical tools you may require to complete the document.
How do I write a draft of an engineering document?
Before creating a draft of an engineering document, it’s important to conduct preliminary research and make a plan or outline. This allows you to have a clear idea of the details you want to include and the information you hope to discuss, which can help make the writing process more efficient and effective.
Why should you hire an engineer to write a document?
Good writing by an engineer will increase communication effectiveness. Directing your writing to the intended audience will allow the reader to understand the content on the first read, rather than needing to ask for additional details or explanation. By understanding the audience’s goal in reading the document, can highlight the important data.
How many engineering writing tips do you need to know?
There are 12 engineering writing tips every engineer needs to know. Because writing is essential in almost every engineering position. It might surprise you, but engineers write a lot – and not just technical writing, either. This applies to all types of engineers, regardless of your position. In fact, every 10x engineer I know is a skilled writer.
