Technical Writing and Underlying Principles — The Art of Simple Wording
The logic and the principle: What technical writing and philosophical logic have in common with mathematics?
For understanding fully what any kind of technology is about and how it works, the underlying principle is of the essence.
My favourite example is that of inference, which exists as a concept in philosophical logic as well as in mathematics:
A conclusion is true when all the statements of the whole argument are true as well.
Sounds daunting, a little? You could word this even more ‘formidable’…
Like this:
“Every Theorem in Mathematics, or any subject for that matter, is supported by underlying proofs. These proofs are nothing but a set of arguments that are conclusive evidence of the validity of the theory. The arguments are chained together using Rules of Inferences to deduce new statements and ultimately prove that the theorem is valid.”
The underlying principle of inference, namely the art of drawing conclusions, can be made more vivid like this:
“All philosophers are human beings.
Socrates is a philosopher.
Therefore, Socrates is a human being.”
Note on the side: Inference as part of the art of reasoning in informal logic or (statistical) mathematics is a core aspect of all of them.
Yet, one needs to be careful:
Conclusions such as the above are only valid, if the premises are true…
Often in science as well as in marketing a style and wording is used that is meant to make a thing or technology look ‘fine, fancy and fantastic to use’.
These ways of expression have their uses too: in science to use the proper ‘discourse language’ in order to prove one’s own expertise, can be crucial.
Yet, in technical writing, the ‘short and sweet’ is called for. Well-written in the respective language, yet neither too complicated as regards structure — or strewn with too many technical terms.
To make things as ‘clear as a bell’, the underlying principle should be clear to a writer — and then be put down in wording everyone can understand.
