Effective Technical Communication Training Class

1. What is technical writing

2. What are technical communications?

• Technical writing vs. business writing


• The history of technical communications


• Types of technical communications


• Role of the technical communicator

3. Your writing style

• Understanding your writing strengths and weaknesses

4. The communication loop

• Sending the message


• Receiving the message


• Barriers and filters

5. Getting started

• Setting up for success


• Defining your objective


• Identifying your team


• Making your team effective


• Understanding your audience


• Types of audiences


• Identifying the audience


• Identifying the right communication method


• Message formats


• Time-value of formats

6. The writing process

• Create a plan


• Understand every task that needs to get done


• Assign tasks


• Develop the timeline


• Write the purpose statement


• Brainstorming and the sticky-note technique


• Outline the document


• Tips for the "writestuff


• Dealing with writer's bock

7. The five Cs of writing

• Clarity
  
  
  
  • Clearly communicating ideas
    
    
    
    • Topic sentences
    
    
    • Paragraph length
    
    
    • Paragraph development
    
    
    
    
  
  
  • Effective sentence structure
  
  
  • Appropriate word choice
  
  
  
  


• Conciseness
  
  
  
  • Eliminating repetition and wordiness
  
  
  
  


• Correctness
  
  
  
  • Grammar
  
  
  • Spelling
  
  
  • Punctuation
  
  
  • Ethical and accurate citations
  
  
  
  


• Coherence
  
  
  
  • Continuity of ideas
  
  
  • How coherence and clarity relate
  
  
  
  


• Completeness

8. Visual cues

• White space


• Fonts and text layout


• Using consistent headings


• Using bullets and other visual cues


• Effective tables, grids, and graphics

9. Oral communications

• Best practices for effective presentations

Anyone who wants to improve his or her ability to communicate technical information.