Learning Tree International

Management Training

1-888-THE-TREE (1-888-843-8733)
 

Request Info

Salutation

First Name

Last Name

Job Title

Department

Mailstop

Company

Address

P.O. Box

City

State

Zip Code

Country
List

Work Phone

Extension

E-mail

A representative will contact you to follow up your request.

Privacy Statement

 

Technical Writing:
A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction


Course 3194 Days

  E-mail   Print   Q&A   PDF   Facebook   Twitter

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
  • Determining information needs with the OODA loop

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 the 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

<< Back to Writing and Presentation Skills Course List
 

Related Courses


PMI R.E.P. logo is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
 
Technical Writing:  A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction
Hands-On Training

Course Dates

Sep 7-10Reston, VA enroll
Sep 28-Oct 1New York enroll
Oct 12-15Rockville, MD enroll
Nov 9-12Toronto enroll
Nov 16-19Chicago (Schaumburg) enroll
Nov 30-Dec 3Atlanta enroll
Dec 7-10Ottawa enroll
Dec 7-10Alexandria, VA enroll
Jan 25-28New York enroll
Feb 1-4Philadelphia enroll

More Dates and Locations.

On-Site &
Custom Training

Bring this or any Learning Tree course to your location or have it customized for your organization.

Tuition

$ 2,890 Standard Tuition
Tuition with a Savings Plan
$ 1,623Premium-Pass
$ 1,833Training Passport
$ 2,250Voucher 10-Pack
$ 2,573Government Discount
$ 2,600Alumni Gold Discount
 
Technical Writing:  A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction

Course participants developing an effective manual for a complex application.


The most recent 100 evaluations scored this course:

  (3.78/4.00)

 
"I found the Learning Tree Course to be very well presented in a way that was easy to follow and understand. The exercises and activities were relevant and helpful."

– L. Ruddock
Ministry of Finance

 
The Theory and Business Application of Knowledge Management
 
Ten Questions to Ask Your Training Provider - Position Paper

CPE 23 Credits PMI 23 PDU 2 Hour(s) College Credit