Technical Writing in Five Difficult Lessons
1. Sensing a good story
Civil
engineering does not run in Adrian Young's veins. But writing about it might. From the day
his boss first asked him to put together the specification, he realised he wanted to
write. Not grind out calculations. Certainly not prepare countless drawings; he couldn't
draw to save his life.
He was born of engineering stock in Australia in 1954. His father was a mechanical engineer, responsible for a huge fleet of road building equipment. "It seems odd that my dad's own car was so difficult to start," he recalls. He studied civil engineering at the James Cook University of North Queensland, a rural campus where kangaroos and curlews cohabited with a mere 1500 students. Graduating with honours he found work easily with regional consultants, eventually living in Cairns, the gateway to the Great Barrier Reef.
A tropical cyclone gave Adrian his first break in the technical press. "I rushed down the coast to photograph the destruction of a small town. I consulted my old professor who was an expert in storm damage and rattled off 200 words to the editor of Engineers Australia." It was published as a minor news item without a by-line. His professor telephoned him later to correct a detail that Adrian had misquoted.
Lesson One - get your facts right.