Technical Writing Course

INTRODUCTION

There is a body of research that addresses why people don’t read technical manuals. Highly skilled engineers and scientists often do not understand how to put the material into a form that lay people can understand. This applies to many other technical documents. This Technical Writing course helps anyone to develop their ability to write technical material for business, academic and general audiences. The course will help you improve your ability to write for a wide range of media, such as articles for magazines, newspapers and technical journals, technical reports, proposals, instruction manuals, marketing materials and much more. You will be able to Produce effective technical documents that are easy to read, understand and act upon.

TRAINING OBJECTIVES

By the end of this training course, participants will be able to:

·         Use a systematic approach to writing technical documents

·         Develop more efficient writing processes

·         Meet the needs of readers enabling them to achieve their own objectives more easily

·         Write clearly, succinctly and with a minimum of jargon

·         Structure the document for greatest impact and readability

WHO SHOULD ATTEND?

This training course is suitable for anyone who needs to write a technical document and is particularly relevant to:

·         Engineers and Scientists who need to write for a non-technical audience

·         Anyone moving into a role that includes technical writing as part of their job.

·         Managers who need to write technical information for non-technical audiences (such as committees, non-technical customers)

·         Marketing and PR specialists working in a technical environment

TRAINING OUTLINE

Day 1 - What are Technical Documents for?

·         Barriers and pitfalls of business communication

·         Characteristics of an effective technical documents

·         Understanding the readers’ needs and preferred style

·         Develop reference journal articles, manuals and white papers

·         Adopt an appropriate format for your document

·         Writing clear objectives for your document

Day 2 - The Writing Process

·         Generating ideas – Mind mapping and brainstorming

·         Sources of information and research techniques

·         Selecting and structuring the content – logical sequencing

·         Create sentences and paragraphs with clarity

·         Readability, sentences, paragraphs and Plain English

·         Dealing with jargon and appropriate words for your audience

·         Punctuation and grammar

Day 3 - Making a Case

·         introductions, conclusions, and other document sections

·         Structuring the recommendations and making a case

·         Tables, diagrams, figures and graphs

·         Managing your time and priorities

·         Writing Instructions and Procedures.

·         Creating chapters and headings to signpost the text

Day 4 - Developing your writing style

·         Polishing Your Writing and choosing words for maximum impact

·         Critical reading and how to respond to comments

·         Editing and using style guides

·         Proof reading and grammar checking

·         Writing for different platforms

·         Beta testing

Day 5 - Layout and Presentation

·         Presenting your report professionally

·         Design the appearance of your page

·         Numbering, references and document control

·         Briefing and commissioning designers

·         Types of document binding and their impact on useability

·         Your personal action plan beyond the course.