Technical Writing: A Comprehensive Hands-On Introduction

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Seminar Brochure

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 comprehend and utilize

Course benefits
Effective writing is a critical component of clear and concise communication. Technical documents that successfully explain information or give instructions to readers result in lower costs, speedier acceptance of new or revised systems, and improved user efficiency.

In this practical hands-on course, you gain the skills to assess the needs of your users and create technical documents for a variety of environments. You learn the mechanics of good writing, along with techniques for document design and page layout.

Who should attend
This introductory course is valuable for those who have to communicate information or instructions to others, or those entering the field of technical writing who need to create clear and concise high-quality manuals and white papers.

Hands-on training
During this course, you perform extensive exercises that provide in-depth hands-on experience. Exercises include:

• Analyzing your audience to determine how to explain effectively
• Applying a style guide to achieve consistency
• Editing to remove unnecessary verbiage
• Crafting a powerful tutorial
• Developing a document using specific writing styles
• Using graphics effectively
• Choosing the right words and building strong sentences
• Using the audience's scenarios to organize information
• Defining explicit and tacit knowledge when working with Subject Matter Experts
• Improving readability

Course content
INTRODUCTION TO TECHNICAL WRITING

• The purpose of technical writing
• Benefits of technical writing
• Avoiding the typical problems of the technical writer

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
• Experience
• 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
• The role of grammar
• 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
• Studies on 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
• Writing as a signaling system

DESIGNING YOUR DOCUMENT

• Audience-driven document design
• Relating document structure to audience
• User manuals
• Reference manuals
• 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

Sponsor Background:
About Learning Tree

Learning Tree International is a world leader in Hands-on training for Management and Technology Professionals. Since 1974, over 1,700,000 course participants from over 13,000 organizations around the world have enhanced their skills through intensive hands-on exercises under the guidance of expert instructors with real-world experience.

Virtually every major company and government agency has relied on Learning Tree to provide its managers and employees with the skills they need to succeed in their job functions.

10 Reasons to Choose Learning Tree

... over 1.7 million professionals have trained with Learning Tree

1 Benefit from 32 Years of Training Excellence

Learning Tree International has trained over 1,700,000 IT and management professionals and managers from more than 13,000 organizations around the world. Virtually every major technologyoriented organization and government agency has trusted and relied on us to provide their employees with the training they need to master the latest technologies and management skills.

2 Learn from Expert Instructors

Learning Tree instructors are active practitioners who average more than 20 years experience in their field. Because they use the very technologies and skills they teach, they've already solved the same problems you are likely to encounter, so you and your organization gain the knowledge from their years of hands-on expertise. In addition to their extensive real-world experience, our instructors only qualify to teach Learning Tree Courses after completing our rigorous industryleading screening and training program.

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Each of our intensive hands-on courses is designed to help you gain the skills you need-quickly and in depth. Our courses are taught in a collaborative, supportive classroom-based environment, not on a Web site where you get instruction in a vacuum. And when you return to work, you can apply your new skills, tools and techniques right away, so you and your organization reap the benefits immediately.

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Learning Tree Courses are developed around the principles of Active Learning, the most advanced and effective method of adult education. You are immersed in your subject through individual and group activities that significantly increase your understanding, retention and ability to apply new knowledge and concepts to maximum effect.

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Learning Tree was, is and will continue to be independent of vendor influences. That means you get training that is unbiased. We present an objective, evenhanded treatment of the pros and cons of new products, techniques and technology. You even learn about third-party alternatives that the vendors themselves would never tell you about.

Learning Tree Management Training

For over 32 years, Learning Tree has been dedicated to meeting the professional development needs of people like you. Now, more than ever, superior management, leadership and interpersonal skills are critical to individual and organizational success. And it is equally critical to be able to apply those skills in complex, technology-intensive environments.

Experience the Quality...of Learning Tree Hands-On Training

Learning Tree is committed to providing the most effective high-quality education for IT professionals and managers. Our high standards for Course Development, Instructor Training and state-of-the-art facilities provide a learning experience that ensures your training investment produces the results you and your organization expect.

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In our courses, you learn by doing. Our instructors do more than just lecture--they actively involve you in your training. Brief lectures are followed by hands-on exercises so that you master new skills right away.

Get Real-World Solutions from Expert Instructors

Learning Tree instructors are active practitioners who work full time in high-tech companies, R & D labs and other business environments where they use the very technologies and skills they teach. Because they have already solved the same problems you are likely to encounter, our instructors are equipped to share their real-world experience and practical solutions with you. Everything you learn is practical, relevant and up to the minute.

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