Patterns in technical writing guidelines

From an analysis of technical communication and research source materials, it is argued that the field of technical communication does not yet have guidelines supporting an engineered approach to document production. A total of 392 writing guidelines were collected by looking at college texts, writing guidebooks, journal articles, and company standards. The authors have gained several kinds of information from the guidelines: the manner in which guidelines are stated, the number of guidelines about each topic, and the amount of research supporting each guideline. It is concluded that, if technical communicators are to successfully defend their writing suggestions to engineers and scientists, they may need to bolster the basic science on which their guidelines rest