Technical Writing CourseMaking complex context understandable and easy to read
Clear and concise writing is a must for any technical writer. 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.
Employees 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.
Main Focus
The main focus of this tailormade course lies on:
- Writing clear, effective technical documents, including user manuals and technical reports:
Drafting and planning the outline around the identified reader’s needs. Using the adopted tools and mechanisms to produce the document’s outline.
- Assessing the target audience and develop documents to meet their needs:
The Pyramid Principle provides the writer with the perfect tool to produce structured and effective documents. It also helps identifying the reader’s needs.
- Choosing the appropriate writing style to communicate to specialized audiences:
Helps participants to write effective and structured introductions, executive summaries and conclusions that provide the reader with a context and framework.
- Building effective sentences, paragraphs and sections that explain information clearly:
Shows participants how to provide information in a logical and structured manner.
- Employ diagrams, tables, charts and other graphical tools effectively:
Tips and tricks on how to apply the organisation’s style guide on a sentence level.
- Creating informative and interesting content that your readers will understand and use:
Tips and tricks on how to apply the organisation’s style guide on a sentence level.
Approach
To make sure that the content is relevant to the participants’ needs, the course is highly participative, combining theory and practice throughout the day.
During this course, participants 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 around the reader’s requirements;
- Guiding research through explicit and tacit knowledge;
- Improving readability.
Course Duration
We usually run this as a one or two day programme.
Testimonials
Martin Mühlbach
During the course I noticed that you train with enthusiasm for your work and dedication to the course participants. Opposite to other trainers I have experienced, you really made a difference and went out of your way to train us and provide guidance. I wish to thank you for the support and valuable input you provided during the course! In my post-course evaluation of the trainer I gave you 5 out of 5 points! Hope to train with you again soon.
Regards
Martin
Václav Jablonski
“I would like to mention how much I appreciated your knowledge and expertise in this course. The documentation is also precious and very well prepared. This course completely fulfilled my expectations and was totally helpful”
Jane Worthington
“I followed the Written Communication course that Sylvia does a couple of years ago. I consider the course a must for anyone interested in communicating effectively in writing. The course is very well structured and delivered. Sylvia has a direct teaching style which also involves active participation and learning through doing. I greatly appreciated Sylvia’s focus on changing our thought process to make sure that our writing is well organized and to the point.”
Solange Mercier
“I just wanted to say thanks again for the great course! – I have been going through the handouts you gave us and I find them very useful”
Helmut Springfeld
“The workshop was excellent! I got a good impression of what was required for well-written documents, in terms of planning, structuring and paragraph writing. The practical examples for structuring documents I could immediately put into practice!”
Consuelo Ordoñez Garza
“I would like to thank you again for the really useful course and training you offered us in Frankfurt last week. It was indeed the most useful one I have had since I was employed by the bank. Excellent course materials and excellent teaching approach by you as the course trainer. I’m looking forward to applying what I have learnt.”
Bianca Miller
“Your seminar was like a Tiramisu. I enjoyed every layer of it”