Technical Writing

Overview

Writing is an essential communication tool for planners. Practitioners use writing to produce plans, ordinances, staff reports, legal documents, consulting reports, and other deliverables. Scholars use writing to situate their research within existing literature, to describe their research methods, to explain their research results, and to apply those results in a practical setting. Whether professional or academic, most final planning products take the form of written communication. Planners, in short, write for a living.

If you read the dry pages of journals and reports, you might be tempted to conclude that great writing by planners is a lost art. We believe otherwise. Classic planning works—Mumford, Jacobs, Appleyard, Whyte, and many others—contain brilliantly insightful and artistic writing. In the following quotation, for instance, Whyte uses just a few simple sentences to highlight an essential planning problem, to provide a specific example of the problem, and to suggest within that example the seed of a solution. In so doing, he indicates many of the essential characteristics of current planning trends, such as Smart Growth and New Urbanism, decades before their time.

In almost all U.S. cities the bulk of the right-of-way is given to the roadway for vehicles, the least to the sidewalk for pedestrians. New York’s Lexington Avenue is a prime example, in particular the four block stretch between Fifty-seventh and Sixty-first streets. It is the reductio ad absurdum of the U.S. city street—and by its very excesses it provides clues for its redemption.

—William H. Whyte, 1988, p. 69

Most of us may never write as elegantly as William H. Whyte. But today’s planners can and should be able to write prose that is informative and well-composed. This chapter presents many of the basic skills and techniques needed to write well. The chapter will:

• 1. Provide an overview of why planners write
• 2. Describe key features of the early writing process, including objectives, scope, and audience

• 3. Review the mechanics of writing, from individual word choices to the organization of whole documents
• 4. Offer guidance for rewriting and editing
• 5. Discuss in detail the standard structure of academic research papers
• 6. Present two very different articles written by planners that exemplify’ the craft of writing

Each section of the chapter uses planning examples to highlight important concepts. The emphasis is on technical writing for academic planners. Nevertheless, many of the tools and strategies described herein apply to any writing project, from a poem to a magazine article to a staff report. In the end, clear thinking, good writing, and enjoyable reading all go hand-in-hand (Gopen & Swan, 1990).

Writing well requires more than putting words on paper. Writing is best when it is concise, meaningful, and easily understood.

—Victor C. Pellegrino, 2003, p. 9

Purpose

Planners write for a living. But many planners also have more personal and more fundamental motivations for writing. We want to influence and inspire people. We want to promote positive social and environmental changes. We want to see core values realized in the world around us: health, livability, sustainabilityjustice, etc. Good writing is one of our most important tools for making these goals a reality'.

In terms of substantive content, planners may write for any number of reasons. Here, we consider two broad categories: writing intended primarily for technical or specialized consumption, and writing intended primarily for non-technical or public consumption.

Technical Writing

Writing for technical or specialized communication includes both professional planning practice and academic planning research. According to the American Planning Association (APA): “Professional planners help create a broad vision for the community. They also research, design, and develop programs; lead public processes; effect social change; perform technical analyses; manage; and educate” (APA, 2013). Associated technical writing products typically include plans, zoning and subdivision ordinances, staff reports, legal deliberations, and consulting agency reports.

Plans take stock of a local municipality and craft a future vision for that place (e.g., City of Portland Comprehensive Plan, 2011). Zoning and subdivision ordinances establish regulations for land use, density, building envelope, site development, public infrastructure, and other planning issues (e.g., Salt Lake City', Utah City' Code, 2013). Staff reports make recommendations about project applications and record the details of decision-making processes (e.g., City of Berkeley' Planning Commission, Agendas and Minutes, 2014). Consulting agency reports may have a variety of purposes, including informing decision-makers, educating the public, arguing for or against planning activities, solving planning problems, translating planning research results for non-technical audiences, and/or synthesizing the results of a public engagement process (e.g., Blueprint Jordan River, 2008).

Academic planning researchers may share many of the same motivations as practicing professional planners. In addition, according to the Journal of the American Planning Association (JAPA, 2019), planning scholars typically “do at least one of the following:

• • Contribute to the theoretical and conceptual foundation of planning;
• • Improve the link between planning and successful policy implementation;
• • Advance the methods used in planning practice and planning research;
• • Explain empirical relationships important to planning;
• • Interpret noteworthy physical, economic, and social phenomena that have spatial dimensions; or
• • Analyze significant consequences of planning approaches, processes, and contexts

Myers and Ryu exemplify’ many of these goals in their award-winning 2009 JAPA article, Aging Baby Boomers and the Generational Housing Bubble. This article is an excellent example of clear, important research coupled with clear, effective writing. The authors explain their work with succinct but entertaining prose:

We aim to identify the point at which boomers will begin to offer more homes for sale than they buy. . . . We project when this will occur in all 50 states . . . (and) we discuss the planning implications of these possible futures.

—Myers & Ryu, 2008, p. 18

Along with such peer-reviewed journal articles, other scholarly writing products for technical or specialized communication include books, conference papers, and chapters in edited volumes. This book contains dozens of relevant examples.