The following table describes the difference between technical writing and business writing.
| Business Writing | Technical Writing |
| Is pre-sales document. | Is after-sales document. |
| Is sales tool. | Is help tool. |
| Attracts business. | Sustains business. |
| Language may reflect creativity. | Must be limited to facts only. |
| Language must be informative. | Language must be illustrative. |
| Language may be decorative and impressive. | Language must be plain and simple. |
| May or may not follow writing style guide. | Must follow industry standard writing style guide. |
| Proofread is carried out from experience only. | Proofreading is done through review checklist. |
| Writers need not possess technical knowledge. | Writers must possess technical knowledge. |
| Writers must possess over all knowledge of the products they write on. | Writers must possess in-depth knowledge of the products they write on. |
| They need not use the products themselves. | They must use the products themselves first. |
| They need not be part of development team. | They must be part of development team/QA. |
| Is used independent of the product package. | Is one of the components of the product. |
| They use few tools such as CMS or so. | They may use specialized authoring tools such as Adobe FrameMaker, RoboHelp, SnagIT, Microsoft Visio, and other similar tools. |