TEACHING TECHNICAL WRITING AS PART OF ESP

Abstract

The paper suggests theoretical and practical perspectives and directions for future research of technical writing with reference to specific industry standards of higher education in Ukraine (educational qualification specification for Bachelor’s program), requirements of ESP (English for specific purposes) and Common European Framework of Reference for Languages. The paper discusses skills, abilities and competences needed for technical writing in higher technical university. It reflects main stages, content, forms and methods of teaching technical writing. The main objective in this case is to increase the global competitiveness of graduates on the IT market, which should include the most optimal ways of training. The concept of “technical writing” is defined. The focus of the paper is on compositional and semantic structure of technical writing (methods of professional presentation of information); graphical level of information presentation; language peculiarities: lexical level, grammatical level. Profound knowledge of foreign language can help implement such aspects of the professional activity as the introduction of new technologies, trends in the development of science and technology, the successful performance of professional functions, exchange of experience and establishing business contacts with foreign partners. This makes the need for studying technical writing urgent not only because of the lack of appropriate training and reference materials, but also because of the importance of qualitative education and training of future IT specialists.

Keywords

• technical writing
• ESP
• IT specialists
• scientific and technical style
• compositional and semantic structure