ABSTRACT
Scientific and technical writing splits broadly into have-to-do and wantto-do writing, but there is no clear divide between the two. Research workers must report new findings; engineers, industrial chemists, computer programmers and others, especially if they work in an industrial or commercial environment, often have to prepare reports for management and for colleagues, and write articles for trade or professional journals as well as memos and letters that convey technical information. Thousands of people, many technically qualified, produce instruction manuals for equipment or for computer software. These are usually have-to-do tasks; the people who do them, have-to-do writers.
