The domain of Technical Writing is very important. For documents translated for information or publication, for texts that are meant to be effective. It means conveying information in an objective tone. Moreover, the focus is on content rather than the author. In many cases, the data, or numbers, are more important than the text, resulting in poor (source) writing. So, texts that are not as precise, concise, and clear as they could be.

In the article linked above, Karen Tkaczyk gives the following suggestions to ameliorate the readability of a translated technical writing text:

— Language and structure: avoid using jargon, keep sentences short, and organize paragraphs to be logically coherent (if appropriate, even convert blocks into bullet points);

— active voice — as a general rule, in English: strong action verbs;

— avoid wordiness, be concise, ex. replacing as many “of” phrases with possessives or noun pairs;

— reorder chronologically;

— make use of style guides (references in the article) and sheets, i.e. project-specific notes on source or translator style/quirks (example in the article).

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