What is objectivity? How to keep technical writing objective? How to maintain objectivity? These are some of the questions to which we will find answers. Objectivity in writing means that the author or writer explains or discusses a topic without subjectivity. It is an impartial mental attitude.
Subjectivity in writing refers to the text containing the personal opinion of the writer, the use of I, we and their feelings. Therefore, it can be said that objectivity is removing subjectivity from writing.
An example of objectivity is “SnagIt is a powerful and useful screenshot tool.” If this sentence were written in a subjective format, it would look something like this; “I find SnagIt to be a very useful tool for screen capturing.” According to many experts like Ugur Akinci, Ph.D., “very” kills the objectivity of a sentence and it can be much better without this word.
Importance of Objectivity in Technical Writing
Technical writing is about explaining or describing an objective fact, information, or procedure. It does not deal with human emotions, feelings or expressions; it would be likely to say that technical writing is objective.
There are three categories in technical writing, user documentation, software documentation, and technology marketing documentation. These categories involve products, applications, software, and machines, and writers, specifically technical writers, are not allowed to express their personal experiences and emotions for them. Writers must be impersonal and objective to convey the product effectively.
For example, I have an IP phone configured to describe its features and procedures; I’d rather use an instructional voice for users than tell them how I use it. Users want to see what is ‘action’ and not ‘actor’ because in the position they are in, they are actors themselves. They don’t need to see a competitor sitting next to them.
The interest of the users in the documents is the reason for the technical writing, which must be fair and impartial, objective and clear. The more objective a technical document is, the easier it is to follow the words. Objectivity also changes with the level of the users i.e. layman, experienced and technical along with the three categories of technical writing.
Outstanding features of objectivity
The following features can help you maintain objectivity in documents.
- Objectivity results in no jargon or useless words
- Objectivity allows to differentiate between the words used in the white paper, the end user and the marketing documents.
- Show the product up front, instead of the writer.
- Objectivity comes with the passive voice
- The active voice is rarely used