1-800-THE-TREE (1-800-843-8733)
TRAINING YOU CAN TRUST
 
 

Technical Writing: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction

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

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

Related Courses

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

Upcoming Dates

Sep 30 - Oct 3, 2008
 Ottawa
Oct 14 - 17, 2008
 New York
Nov 25 - 28, 2008
 Toronto
Dec 9 - 12, 2008
 Washington, DC (Rockville, MD)
Jan 6 - 9, 2009
 New York
Jan 13 - 16, 2009
 Ottawa
Feb 3 - 6, 2009
 Washington, DC (Alexandria, VA)
Feb 10 - 13, 2009
 Washington, DC (Reston, VA)
Mar 24 - 27, 2009
 Toronto
Apr 21 - 24, 2009
 Ottawa
May 5 - 8, 2009
 New York
Jun 9 - 12, 2009
 Washington, DC (Rockville, MD)

For complete schedule, please visit www.learningtree.com
 
http://learningtree.com/courses/319pf.htm
 
 
1-800-THE-TREE (1-800-843-8733)
TRAINING YOU CAN TRUST
 
 

Technical Writing: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction

 
Course: 319   Type: Hands-On Training   Duration: 4 Days
 
 
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
 
http://learningtree.com/courses/319pf.htm
 
 
1-800-THE-TREE (1-800-843-8733)
TRAINING YOU CAN TRUST
 
 

Technical Writing: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction Tuition

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

Course Tuition
$ 2,650 Standard Tuition
Tuition with a Savings Plan
$ 1,580 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
 

 

Your Course Tuition Entitles You To...

  • Class participation
  • Team workshops
  • Use of in-class hands-on equipment
  • Comprehensive course materials
  • Morning and afternoon refreshments
  • Course Completion Certificate awarding Continuing Education Units
  • FREE participation in Professional Certification
  • FREE participation in College Credit programs (including related exams)
  
 

Tuition Savings Plans

Training Passport
  • 3 courses in 12 months
  • As little as $1,665 per course
  • Savings as much as 40%
  • Only $4,990
Flex Pass
  • 3 courses in 24 months
  • As little as $1,830 per course
  • Save as much as 35%
10-Day Pass
  • A NEW way to save on training
  • 10 days of training for one person
  • Save as much as $1,070 per course
  • Only $3,950
Training Vouchers
  • Save as much as $960 per course
  • Fully transferable
  • As low as $2,095 per course
Alumni Gold Discount Attend your first course and you'll receive a personalized Alumni Gold Discount card, entitling you to save as much as $295 on each course you take within the following 12 months. Take just one course each year and you'll be entitled to ongoing discounts...year after year!

Your Guarantee of Satisfaction

Unless you feel 100% satisfied that Learning Tree delivered even more than you expected, there is no fee for your course attendance. Our Guarantee of Quality lets you experience the value of the course--and then pay only if you feel the course was well worth the tuition.

Enrolling is Easy and Flexible!

Enroll by phone or online. If your plans change, just let us know and, without a fee, you can transfer to another course or cancel your enrollment. Pay after you've taken the course, and then only if you are 100% satisfied.
 
http://learningtree.com/courses/319pf.htm