Technical writing is one kind of creative writing. Using knowledge of facts, audience, and situation, the technical writer recreates reality in a technical report. Concepts of reality and creativity currently operative in philosophy, the physical sciences, cognitive and developmental psychology, history of science, rhetoric, and linguistics provide a theoretical basis for this creative approach to technical writing and confirm that imagining and reasoning are related rather than mutually exclusive thought processes.

Borrowing from scientific logic, the technical writing teacher can demonstrate differences between the way researchers/writers problem solve and the way readers comprehend written reports that are roughly parallel to the differences between deductive and inductive logic. As three pyramid theories of writing and their application in university and industry classrooms demonstrate, learning both systems of logic and how to transpose one into the other enables students to understand and structure their information from their readers’ viewpoint. In this logical context, opening with the conclusion finally makes sense to most writers.