Course Description:
The Technical Writing Course is designed to help individuals improve their writing skills in the technical field, including technical communication. The course covers techniques for planning, writing, and editing technical documents and emphasizes identifying the target audience, selecting appropriate document formats, and using visuals and graphics effectively.
Participants will learn how to convey complex subject matter clearly and accurately and create informative content that their readers will understand and use.
Who Should Attend
Anyone in a technical profession who needs to write reports, including IT staff and engineers.
Duration
5 Days
Course Level: IntermediateCourse Objectives
In this course, you will learn how to:
- Write effective technical documents, manuals, and white papers.
- Assess your audience and develop documents to meet their needs.
- Explain information clearly and accurately.
- Use diagrams, tables, charts, and other graphical tools effectively.
- Create informative content that your readers will understand and use.
Course Overview
Module 1: Introduction to Technical Writing
- Effectively communicate technical information
- Manage common writing problems
Module 2: The Writing Process
- Eliminate misconceptions that stall technical writing, such as writer’s block
- Drive your document design with scenarios
- Align your goals with the readers’ goals
- Identify implied knowledge
Module 3: Ensuring Clarity and Readability
- Differentiate between the three levels of information: operational, tactical, and strategic
- Determine information needs with the Observe, Orient, Decide, Act (OODA) loop
- Create sentences with clarity and build clarity through sentence focus
- Solve common grammar problems in technical writing
- Evaluate readability using the Given/New technique
- Ensure consistency with a style guide
Module 4: The Mechanics of Writing
- Select the appropriate words to connect with your audience and convey your message
- Edit for conciseness, accuracy, and quality
- Organize data to support readers' scenarios
- Determine when to use a list to highlight points
- Use tables for highly structured data
- Build cohesive documents with the Given/New approach
- Apply useful headings to support skimming
Module 5: Designing Your Document
- Relate document structure to the audience with audience-driven document design
- Develop reference manuals and write white papers
- Differentiate between post-positive and pragmatic documents and implement the appropriate document format
- Structure introductions, conclusions, and other document sections
Module 6: Developing the Look of Your Document
- Design the appearance of your page, including fonts, alignment, and white space
- Convey information with graphics, photos, and drawings
