Technical manuals are documents intended to provide detail about the manufacturing, assembly, instructional, or other technical information required for the use of a product or service. A technical manual can take many forms, including but not limited to assembly instructions, manufacturing specifications, an owner's manual, an operations manual, of a listing of parts and supplies. What these manuals have in common is a need for clear, precise writing and a need to provide highly technical detail. Frequently, such technical manuals use jargon or industry-specific terminology intended for experts who are already familiar with the material covered in the technical manual. Other manuals, like instruction manuals, sometimes define such terms so that non-experts can use them as well.
Standard technical manuals are text-based and often feature illustrations or diagrams to facilitate comprehension of the technical information therein. Most are created following a process whereby the manual writer interviews the experts involved in the use of the materials to be discussed. The writer then takes the experts' knowledge and attempts to place the material into language that non-experts can understand, though industry-specific terminology (as opposed to expert jargon) is frequently employed, depending on the specific technical manual. The manual is then prepared and sent to its destination, whether that be internal audiences (employees) or external audiences (customers).
