Technical Writing and Business Writing Compared

The following table describes the difference between technical writing and business writing.

Business Writing Technical Writing
Is pre-sales document. Is after-sales document.
Is sales tool. Is help tool.
Attracts business. Sustains business.
Language may reflect creativity. Must be limited to facts only.
Language must be informative. Language must be illustrative.
Language may be decorative and impressive. Language must be plain and simple.
May or may not follow writing style guide. Must follow industry standard writing style guide.
Proofread is carried out from experience only. Proofreading is done through review checklist.
Writers need not possess technical knowledge. Writers must possess technical knowledge.
Writers must possess over all knowledge of the products they write on. Writers must possess in-depth knowledge of the products they write on.
They need not use the products themselves. They must use the products themselves first.
They need not be part of development team. They must be part of development team/QA.
Is used independent of the product package. Is one of the components of the product.
They use few tools such as CMS or so. They may use specialized authoring tools such as Adobe FrameMaker, RoboHelp, SnagIT, Microsoft Visio, and other similar tools.

 

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