Technical writing for microwave engineers

Updated July 4, 2011

If you are looking for someone to write technical documents for you, microwaves or otherwise, please contact us, we can do this for you at a competitive rate!

This concept is over the top: a complete resource to put all microwave geeks on the same page when it comes to tech writing. Did the IEEE think of it? Heck no! They were too busy reading frightfully-written papers for their next IMS symposium...

There are plenty of lame web sites on how to write properly out there, but not only do they suck, they aren't tailored to the microwave engineering audience. Here you will find almost everything you need to become nearly as erudite as the Unknown Editor! You will find tips on grammar, spelling, writing papers and presentations, with examples that you will encounter only in the microwave industry. Sorry, all of you Asians and Europeans, but the Microwaves101 web site is based on American English, and we only offer tips in our native language.

In the event of conflicting information between this web site and your boss, you should probably agree with whoever is paying you more. It is OK to be wrong, so long as you know you are wrong, you are consistently wrong, and you are getting paid to be wrong.

This is a chapter of Microwaves101 with no clear microwave industry sponsor. Sure, we may mention Microsoft products, but we aren't about to give Bill Gates any additional business. If you want your company to sponsor this fine piece of work, send a note to marketing@Microwaves101.com. Interested in contracting P-N Designs to edit your latest data sheet or to license a custom style guide for your own company? Click here, amigo! If you are not delighted with the Microwaves101 web site, click here you cretin!

Click the links below to jump to the tech writing topics (now on separate pages!) that you are interested in today.

Know Your Audience

Getting Organized

Writing Process and Style

Common Grammatical and Punctuation Issues

Portmanteau in engineering

Sample Documents--this needs work, we'd love to hear your suggestions!

Useful books for technical writing

To be a good writer you need an American English dictionary. It doesn't matter which one, but it should be a hard-bound dictionary you can hold in your hand. The electronic versions are useful if you know how to spell, but if you know how to spell every word in the language, you may not need the dictionary at all.

Another useful book is a thesaurus. The classic thesaurus is by Peter Roget, who was the first to have the idea of putting words with similar meanings together. However, his version is organized by numeric category; make sure you get a version with an alphabetic index. It is easier to look up "loser" under "L" than it is to find it under 725.5 (Volition/Voluntary Action/Accomplishment/Defeat).

One book we've just learned about is Professor Paul Brians' "Common Errors in English Usage". Check it out at the site Common Errors in English.

Finally, if the company you work for has a style guide, get a copy and follow it. This is where the corporate acronyms will be explained, as well as policies on controversial issues like whether it should be website or Website or web site. If you are writing for someone else (such as a newsletter, magazine, or publishing house), ask for their style guide. If you can't find one anywhere else, use the IEEE Computer Society style guide, which can be found at http://computer.org/author/style/index.htm. It is, um, kind of dry, to say the least.