Stages of the Technical Writing Process

In technical writing, the writing process is a structured approach to planning, drafting, revising, and editing your work. This process ensures clear, accurate, and user-focused documentation. It typically involves the following stages: 

Planning / Prewriting

Planning and prewriting are important in technical communication because they ensure content is tailored to the audience’s needs and context of use. In this stage you do the following:

• Define the purpose and goals of the documentation
• Identify who will use the document
• Gather information
• Select an appropriate format

Remember: When planning writing, always consider the primary audience’s needs first. Secondary audiences can be directed to supplementary information in appendices or through hypermedia links. To learn more about audience analysis, read Audience Analysis [1].

Drafting

Drafting is a crucial step in the engineering writing process. It involves writing a preliminary version of the text, which can then be revised and refined to produce the final version. During drafting you may do the following:

• Developing and clarifying ideas: Drafting helps writers develop their ideas and arguments. Once externalized on the page, you can elaborate or expand upon blocks of text without overwhelming your memory. You can identify gaps in your arguments or areas where additional research is required.
• Organising ideas: Drafting allows you to reorganise information in a logical manner, improving coherence and flow.
• Collaborating: Drafting facilitates collaboration. After producing a preliminary version of the text, you can share it with others to receive feedback for improvements.

Revising

Revising is a broader-level process that brings about changes to content, structure, and style. It refines the message to make it more coherent and engaging for the intended audience. During revising, you may do the following:

• Make changes to wording, sentence structure, or paragraph organization.
• Remove redundancies or unnecessary content.
• Check that figures and tables are well integrated within the text.

Editing and Proofreading

Editing and proofreading are granular-level processes that examine writing with a focus on grammar, punctuation, spelling, word choice, and formatting. In this stage, you may do the following:

• Polish the text to check for consistency in style—perhaps while referring to a style guide.
• Ensure that citations or references are accurate and properly formatted.