Guide to technical writing
From Derek
This is Derek Abbott's guide to technical writing, primarily for use by his PhD students. But anyone is welcome to use this resource. Each PhD student is requested to go through this page as a checklist when writing a journal article or a thesis chapter.
Choice of writing package
- We use LaTeX because engineering is a highly mathematical topic, and this is the most professional way to present an mathematical paper. Also managing a very large document, such as a thesis, is actually easier in LaTeX. The overall quality of presentation beats Microsoft Word without question.
- We use Microsoft Word for administrative matters, writing letters to editors, grant applications, CVs etc. But for technical journal articles and a thesis, LaTeX is the preferred medium. In some cases where we are collaborating on a journal article with non-engineers (eg. biologists) we will compromise and use Microsoft Word fir ease of editing.
Spelling convention
- We use either American, British, or Australian spelling depending on the requirement of the publisher. In the case of a thesis, because this is Australia, we use Australian spelling.
- In the case where two alternative spellings are allowed, eg. biassing or biasing, the rule is to chose the shortest one.
- There are cases where language is evolving and it is uncertain which spelling is out of date and which is acceptable as a modern replacement. For example, back in the 1990s it was unclear whether to write "infra-red" or "infrared." Infra-red was the old way to write it, but many people were starting to write infrared. The rule here is to put both in Google and see which one wins in terms of greatest number of hits. In this example, the spelling "infrared" began to have dominant Google hits and is now clearly the dominant spelling.
