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Q&A Should creativity or eloquence in a technical document be removed during review?

I am working on churning out some technical documents, which are similar to a colleague's. I've copied some sections of his document as appropriate, and there are no concerns of plagiarism. His doc...

3 answers  ·  posted 6y ago by zr00‭  ·  edited 4y ago by System‭

#4: Post edited by user avatar Monica Cellio‭ · 2019-12-13T02:38:28Z (over 4 years ago)
  • I am working on churning out some technical documents, which are similar to a colleague's. I've copied some sections of his document as appropriate, and there are no concerns of plagiarism. His document, further in the review process than mine, has received some comments such as, "Good prose, but not appropriate for a technical document." I rather enjoyed my peer's description, and it was in fact accurate.
  • My frustrated Googling led me to the question "[Can technical writing suck less](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/21091/can-technical-writing-suck-less)", which makes some good points to which I'll concede. I am curious though, **should review for a technical document require a rewrite of such "creative" sections, especially with looming deadlines approaching?** In this specific case, these documents are for internal IT documentation only, but I want to know the general case as well.
  • **EDIT** : When I say "creative", rather than "fantasy" or something, I mean more like "eloquence", such as using clever phrasing or more advanced vocabulary, e.g. using "boon" over "benefit".
  • I am working on churning out some technical documents, which are similar to a colleague's. I've copied some sections of his document as appropriate, and there are no concerns of plagiarism. His document, further in the review process than mine, has received some comments such as, "Good prose, but not appropriate for a technical document." I rather enjoyed my peer's description, and it was in fact accurate.
  • My frustrated Googling led me to the question "[Can technical writing suck less](https://qpixel.artofcode.co.uk/questions/16460)", which makes some good points to which I'll concede. I am curious though, **should review for a technical document require a rewrite of such "creative" sections, especially with looming deadlines approaching?** In this specific case, these documents are for internal IT documentation only, but I want to know the general case as well.
  • **EDIT** : When I say "creative", rather than "fantasy" or something, I mean more like "eloquence", such as using clever phrasing or more advanced vocabulary, e.g. using "boon" over "benefit".
#3: Attribution notice added by user avatar System‭ · 2019-12-08T08:31:20Z (over 4 years ago)
Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/q/35014
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
#2: Initial revision by user avatar zr00‭ · 2019-12-08T08:31:20Z (over 4 years ago)
I am working on churning out some technical documents, which are similar to a colleague's. I've copied some sections of his document as appropriate, and there are no concerns of plagiarism. His document, further in the review process than mine, has received some comments such as, "Good prose, but not appropriate for a technical document." I rather enjoyed my peer's description, and it was in fact accurate.

My frustrated Googling led me to the question "[Can technical writing suck less](https://writing.stackexchange.com/questions/21091/can-technical-writing-suck-less)", which makes some good points to which I'll concede. I am curious though, **should review for a technical document require a rewrite of such "creative" sections, especially with looming deadlines approaching?** In this specific case, these documents are for internal IT documentation only, but I want to know the general case as well.

**EDIT** : When I say "creative", rather than "fantasy" or something, I mean more like "eloquence", such as using clever phrasing or more advanced vocabulary, e.g. using "boon" over "benefit".

#1: Imported from external source by user avatar System‭ · 2018-04-11T20:51:18Z (about 6 years ago)
Original score: 4