The Informational Sketch — A Major Vice of the Technical Writer

Abstract

The author of this article argues that all too often teachers of technical writing spend too much time pressuring their students to write simply and without jargon, and that as a result they often get writing that is bad because it is skeletal and undeveloped writing lacking in continuity and narrative functions. The technical writer is often overjoyed to submit outline-writing because it requires small effort, not realizing that it shifts the burden of interpretation to the reader. The author recommends a number of cures for the skeletal technical paper.