DSST Technical Writing key terms

An information arrangement organized around what intended readers must understand or do, including relevant prerequisites and decision points.

A concise account of the relevant issue, findings and implications for its audience, which must retain material limits and not replace supporting evidence.

Evidence about how intended users locate and interpret information in a bounded review, distinct from assuming a technically present sentence is practically usable.

The controlled source or revision appropriate to the actual task, which must be distinguished from a familiar but obsolete instruction or screenshot.

Introductory document material such as a title, summary or contents list under the chosen convention, whose composition follows the actual reader and purpose.

Supplementary material placed outside the main discussion for reference, which should not hide an essential warning needed before an immediate consequential step.

A collection of relevant defined terms supporting the intended audience, distinct from an automatic substitute for clear explanation at the point of need.

An account of how relevant observations or analyses were obtained, allowing readers to assess assumptions, scope and evidence rather than only a final recommendation.

A document communicating completed work, present status, remaining tasks, issues and relevant schedule implications for the intended project audience.

A supported request or recommendation for an intended action, requiring appropriate purpose, feasibility, evidence and audience rather than mere enthusiastic wording.

A change to purpose, organization, completeness or meaning that may require subject approval beyond routine correction of surface mechanics.

A late review for remaining surface and output errors, which cannot by itself prove technical accuracy, source validity or adequate confidentiality.

A word or cross-reference that identifies its intended object unambiguously for the reader, rather than relying on an unclear pronoun or missing link.

Presentation of essential meaning through suitable text, structure or redundant cues, so color alone or an unexplained image is not the sole communication path.

Consistent grammatical arrangement of related items so readers can recognize their relationship and follow a list or comparison without avoidable ambiguity.

A modifying phrase whose intended actor or object is not correctly supplied by the sentence structure, which can create a misleading apparent relationship.

A clause identifying or limiting the relevant referent, whose punctuation differs from a supplementary nonrestrictive clause under the chosen writing convention.

The integration and comparison of relevant sources around a controlling question, not merely listing unrelated summaries or declaring causation from observational agreement.

A chosen convention for consistent source acknowledgement and reference formatting, whose actual rules must be checked rather than mixing incompatible examples.

A review that summarizes the actual main point of each existing paragraph to inspect organization and support, distinct from only planning before drafting.