Course Outline
Pre-Requisites
We highly recommend bringing a laptop to class should you prefer working on your device or bring an external drive if you wish to save the documents completed during the in-class exercises.
Lessons
Learn the tools and techniques you need to elevate your technical communication skills and ensure effective communication.Successfully communicating technical information carries a unique set of challenges. You have to convey complex and highly specialized concepts to audiences that may have only a partial understanding of what you're talking about (or may not understand at all), and these technical concepts can often have dramatic real-world effects. To operate effectively in this environment, you need to optimize your writing abilities.
In this course, you'll learn tools and techniques that will help you communicate technical information more clearly, more concisely, and with better outcomes. You'll use the 6 Cs to improve your writing style, including appropriate tone and voice. Use the Path to Understanding communication model to identify your audience and their needs and to determine how to meet your communication objectives.
You'll also learn how to assess your audience's level of technical understanding and tailor your communication to meet it. Additional topics include how to communicate to all levels of the organization; the purpose of jargon -- when to use it and when not to; how to use visuals to underscore your written content; and how to write detailed, yet highly readable documentation that can be used by downstream users. You'll also learn principles for creating documentation for different modalities.
What You'll Learn
• Adjust your writing style to meet the needs of both technical and non-technical audiences
• Use graphics to create impact and enhance readability of technical documents
• Interview technical experts to get the best information for producing technical content
• Write clear, concise, and helpful user guides, FAQs, glossaries, and other technical communication products
Who Needs to Attend
Business professionals, IT Project Managers, Project Managers, Project Coordinators, IT Project staff, Business Analysts, System Analysts, IT directors
Prerequisites
We highly recommend bringing a laptop to class should you prefer working on your device or bring an external drive if you wish to save the documents completed during the in-class exercises.
Outline
1. Write a Baseline Email
2. Apply Best Practices
• Business writing
• Business style
• Business writing best practices
• 6 Cs
3. Assess the Audience
• The writing process
• Planning your message
• Setting a communication objective
• Assessing your audience
• The path to understanding
• Analyzing your audience
• Identifying stakeholder needs and preferences
4. Plan the Content
• Planning your message
• Structure
5. Find the Language Convention Problems
• Language conventions
• Grammar basics
• Misplaced modifiers
• Punctuation
• Capitalization
6. Build Effective Sentences and Paragraphs
• Structuring sentences
• Transitions
• Structuring paragraphs
• Word choice
• Usage
• Literally
• Meaning and connotation
• Words to use carefully
• Active vs. passive voice
• Bullets vs. numbering
• Trim your writing
7. Write a Product Description
• Product descriptions
8. Explain a Topic to a Lay Audience
• Principles of technical communication
9. Interview for Technical Information
• Writing instructions
• Conducting interviews
10. Use Graphics Effectively
• Characteristics of good graphics
• Considerations when using graphics
11. Define Terms
• Best practices for defining terms
• Glossaries
• In-line definitions
12. Apply a Style Guide
• Standards
• Style guides
13. Write a Set of FAQs
• FAQs
• Common questions
14. Revisit Your Email Writing Skills
Cancellation Policy
We require 16 calendar days notice to reschedule or cancel any registration. Failure to provide the required notification will result in 100% charge of the course. If a student does not attend a scheduled course without prior notification it will result in full forfeiture of the funds and no reschedule will be allowed. Within the required notification period, only student substitutions will be permitted. Reschedules are permitted at anytime with 16 or more calendar days notice. Enrollments must be rescheduled within six months of the cancel date or funds on account will be forfeited.
Training Location
Online Classroom
your office
your city,
your province
your country
I would never take another course that starts at 11AM and goes to 9PM again. The way the course was laid out really took away from the capturing of what was presented as it was 5-6 hours of watching a screen before getting to the actual labs. There has to be a better way to lay out this particular course. In my previous course, the lectures were broken up by labs which worked out fantastic and kept you engaged in the course. There were days when in order to actually complete the labs, would go over the 9PM day end time frame. Was able to get the primary labs done, but if you want to get all the content completed, you cannot complete it in the window of this course, you will need to come back on your own time.