Technical Descriptions - What you talking about Willis?

Technical Descriptions

As much as I would like to give you an excellent explanation of what this type of document is, just put it is pretty simple. A technical description is a document that provides a summary of an item such as a part, a collection of pieces, etc. Think of a description of a new toaster that you just bought. The pamphlet that you will get in the box that talks about the color, shape, size, weight, height, width, thickness, texture, density, contents, materials of construction, and so on.. Don't think of it as the directions, as we will discuss that in a later post. 

Contexts for Description

As mentioned earlier, descriptions are a common element in technical writing—just not quite in the same way that instructions are. Descriptions appear more often as a sentence or two here, a paragraph there, or a whole section elsewhere. Certain kinds of technical writing feature description:

• Accident reports requiring plenty of description.
• Product specifications—documents that describe the design and feature of a new or changed product—have plenty of description.
• Instructions often require the description to enable readers to visualize what they are doing and what they are working with.

Sources of Description

When you write a description, you need to think about the kinds of descriptive detail you can provide. Sometimes, descriptions are rather weak in this area. Use the following list to plan your description or to review a description you have written. Think of the categories of descriptive detail you could provide, or use the following list to identify categories you have not used:

color	height	width	shape	weight
materials	texture	width	methods of attachment	depth
amount	pattern	ingredients	age	subparts
length	finish	temperature	moisture content	smell

Miscellaneous Concerns

In descriptions, you'll probably find yourself puzzling over how to handle numbers, abbreviations, and symbols:

Numbers. Remember that technical writing breaks some of those rules you worked so hard to learn in past writing classes. In the technical writing context, we are often vitally concerned about numbers and want them to stand out. This means that you should use numerals in running text when the number indicates an exact, measured or measurable amount or when it represents a critical value. For example, in these sentences, it seems to matter that the numbers are exact:

The cup is 3 inches in diameter.

Use 4 tacks to fasten the poster to the wall.

Abbreviations. In technical writing, we expect to see abbreviations. Use them in your description freely. Remember the rule on punctuating abbreviations—punctuate them only if they spell a word (for example, "in."). Remember too that abbreviations do not go up against the number they are used with (for example, make that "8 mm tape" or "8-mm tape" but not "8mm tape").

Symbols. The most common problem with symbols in instructions and descriptions has to do with inches and feet. If you're writing instructions for a carpenter's dream project where there are feet and inches all over the place, use the symbols " (inches) and ' (feet). However, if you cite inch and foot measurements only a few times, use the word or abbreviation instead.

While there is a lot more to Technical Description that what I have posted thus far this was just a brief overview of all there is to Technical Descriptions. 

For more info, you can reference the link below. 

Technical Descriptions - What does it look like?