By Dana P Skopal, PhD

Technical concepts are key in designing or selling equipment. We often see examples of miscommunication in the workplace or marketplace where the words confuse the message receiver or individuals place different meanings on those words.

Here the term ‘technical concepts’ has an abstract noun – concepts. An abstract noun means a word describing something that you cannot physically touch. For example: concept is an abstract noun while keyboard is a concrete noun. Our messages usually focus on things – nouns – and when writing the objective is to make those things clear to our reader.

This clarity links to both the technical content and the terms used to describe the things, such as ‘systems’. A writer with technical knowledge can often present all the specialist information and frame a persuasive argument, but from our consulting work we see that managers often cannot follow that argument because of the abstract nouns used to describe and group the technical information. For example, if a writer concludes that the ‘system’ can work, is it clear if they mean a current operating system, or a future computer system, or some other electro-mechanical system?

When using an abstract noun, adding an effective adjective such as ‘operating’ or giving a specific example can guide the message receiver.  Perhaps technical writers and subject-matter experts should sit in shoes of the message receiver as that way they can see the value of clearly describing the ‘things’ for their reader. This is where a form of usability testing can help, which involves seeing how well a group of non-technical colleagues can understand your message. We write for our reader so it is good to stop and see how our readers can follow the technical concepts.