1-800-THE-TREE (1-800-843-8733)
 

Technical Writing: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction

 
Course: 319     Type: Hands-On Training     Duration: 4 Days

Quick Enroll    

You Will Learn How To
  • Write clear, effective technical documents, including user manuals and technical reports
  • Assess your target audience and develop documents to meet their needs
  • Choose the appropriate writing style to communicate to specialized audiences
  • Build effective sentences, paragraphs and sections that explain information clearly
  • Employ diagrams, tables, charts and other graphical tools effectively
  • Create informative and interesting content that your readers will understand and use

Course Benefits
Success in business relies on clear and concise communication, making those who possess effective writing skills a valuable component to any organization. In this practical hands-on course, you gain the skills to assess the needs of your users and create documents that explain technical information. You learn the mechanics of good technical writing, along with techniques for document design and page layout.

Who Should Attend
Individuals who need to effectively communicate technical information or instructions to others, or those entering the field of technical writing who need to create clear and concise manuals or papers.

Hands-On Training
During this course, you perform extensive hands-on exercises, including:
  • Analyzing your audience to meet their needs
  • Applying a style guide to achieve consistency
  • Editing to remove unnecessary verbiage
  • Crafting a powerful tutorial
  • Developing a document using specific writing styles
  • Choosing the right words and building strong sentences
  • Organizing using the audience's scenarios
  • Guiding research through explicit and tacit knowledge
  • Improving readability

Course 319 Content
Introduction to Technical Writing
The purpose of technical writing
  • Benefits of effectively communicating technical information
  • Dealing with common writing problems
The Writing Process
Getting ready to write
  • Eliminating misconceptions that stall technical writing
  • Driving your document design with scenarios
  • Focusing on a document's purposes
Assessing your audience
  • The investigation process
  • Identifying your purpose and the reader's purpose
  • What the audience brings to the table
Covering the knowledge domain
  • Exposing tacit knowledge
  • Knowing when you've "covered it all"
Ensuring Clarity and Readability
Writing technically
  • Organizing information to meet the reader's needs
  • Keeping the sentence focused
Architecting sentences that communicate
  • Creating strong subjects
  • Building sentence variety
  • Punctuating for clarity
  • Solving common grammar problems in technical writing
Managing style in technical writing
  • Evaluating readability using the Given/New technique
  • Ensuring consistency with a style guide
  • Eliminating reader recycling
The Mechanics of Writing
Technical writer's tools
  • Structuring information with tables and lists
  • Selecting the right words
  • Two strategies for rewriting
Writing in the right style
  • Official
  • Primer
  • Nominal
  • Telegraphic
  • Selecting the most effective style
Editing for quality
  • Knowing when and what to edit
  • The editing triage
  • Editing throughout the document process
Maintaining document structure
  • Developing cohesive documents with Given/New and transitions
  • Applying useful headings to support skimming
  • Structuring information around the reader's scenarios
Methods of explanation
  • Available writing styles
  • General to specific
  • Effect and cause
  • Problems-methods-results
  • Order of importance
  • Compare and contrast
  • Writing as a signaling system
Designing Your Document
Audience-driven document design
  • Relating document structure to audience
  • Recognizing the varieties of user manuals
  • Developing reference manuals and white papers
Determining the document types
  • Post-positive vs. pragmatic documents
  • Employing document formats, such as STOP
Building documents
  • Tutorials and standard operating procedures
  • Designing Playscript and Minimalist tutorials
  • Structuring sentences and sections
  • Handling introductions and conclusions
Prototyping the document
  • Testing the document for success
  • Levels of prototypes
Developing the Look of Your Document
Designing the appearance of your page
  • The technical document reading process
  • Fonts
  • White space
  • Alignment
Conveying information with graphics
  • Chunking the document
  • Employing photos, drawings and graphs
  • Focusing graphics

Related Courses

The PMI R.E.P. logo is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
  
 
Request More Info

Salutation

First Name

Last Name

Company

Zip Code

Country
   Codes
Work Phone

Extension

E-mail

A representative will contact you to follow up your request.
Privacy Statement

Save as much as $1,000 on a Voucher 5-Pack!

Technical Writing:  A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction
Upcoming Dates

Technical Writing:  A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction
Bring Learning Tree On-Site

Course Tuition
$ 2,650 Standard Tuition
Tuition with a Savings Plan
$ 1,660 10-Day Pass
$ 1,665 Training Passport
$ 1,830 Flex-Pass
$ 2,095 Voucher 10-Pack
$ 2,385 Alumni Gold Discount
$ 2,360 Government Discount
 

 

Technical Writing:  A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction
Technical Writing:  A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction
Course participants developing an effective documentation package for a software application.
The most recent 100 evaluations scored this course at:

  (3.80/4.00)


CPE 23 Credits PMI 23 PDU 1 Hour(s) College Credit
Customer Service or Enroll: 1-800-843-8733