0800 282 353 or +44 1372 364610
Productivity through Education®
 
 

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 specialised 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 organisation. 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:
  • Analysing 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
  • Organising using the audience's scenarios
  • Guiding research through explicit and tacit knowledge
  • Improving readability

Related Courses

  • 315 Developing User Requirements
  • 219 Business and Report Writing
  • 221 Writing for the Web
  • 342 Software Change, Configuration and Release Management
  • 322 Systems Analysis and Design Comprehensive Introduction
  • 194 Hands-On Visio: Effective Visual Solutions
  • 292 Communication Skills
  • 345 Delivering Dynamic Presentations
  • 212 Building an Effective Business Case

 
PMI R.E.P. logo is a registered mark of the Project Management Institute, Inc.
   Technical Writing Comprehensive Introduction

Upcoming Dates

27 - 30 Apr, 2010
London
31 Aug - 3 Sep, 2010
London
20 - 23 Dec, 2010
London

For complete schedule, please visit www.learningtree.co.uk
 
http://www.learningtree.co.uk/courses/uk319.htm
 
 
0800 282 353 or +44 1372 364610
Productivity through Education®
 
 

Technical Writing: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction

 
Course: 319   Type: Hands-On Training   Duration: 4 Days   PMI: 23
 
 
Course 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

  • Organising 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 signalling system

Designing Your Document

Audience-driven document design

  • Relating document structure to audience
  • Recognising 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://www.learningtree.co.uk/courses/uk319.htm
 
 
0800 282 353 or +44 1372 364610
Productivity through Education®
 
 

Technical Writing: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction Tuition

 
Course: 319   Type: Hands-On Training   Duration: 4 Days   PMI: 23
 
 

Course Fees
£ 1,825 Standard Fee
Savings Plans
£ 1,000Flex-Training Pass
£ 1,00010-Day Training Pass
£ 1,520Voucher 10-Pack
£ 1,645Alumni Gold Discount
 

Your Course Fee Entitles You To...

  • Class participation
  • Team workshops
  • Use of in-class hands-on equipment
  • Comprehensive course materials
  • Morning and afternoon refreshments
  • Course Completion Certificate
  • FREE participation in the Learning Tree Professional Certification Programmes (including related exams)
  
 

Tuition Savings Plans

Flex-Training Pass
  • 3 Courses for £2,995
  • As little as £1,000
  • Savings as much as 50%
  • 3 courses in 24 months
10-Day Training Pass
  • Save as much as £895 per course
  • Any combination of courses
  • Only £2,495
Training Vouchers
  • Save as much as £625 per course
  • Fully transferable
  • As low as £1,520 per course
Alumni Gold Discount Attend your first course and you will receive a personalised Alumni Gold Discount card, entitling you to save as much as £210 on each course you take in the following 24 months. Take just one course every two years, and you will be entitled to ongoing discounts...year after year. You save 10%.
* Exact savings may vary depending on courses selected.

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 fee.

Enrolling is Easy and Flexible!

Enrol 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://www.learningtree.co.uk/courses/uk319.htm