Tech Writers Master Class

Course Curriculum

Chapter 1: Introduction to the Tech Writers Master Class

Lecture 1: Welcome to the Tech Writers Master Class!

Lecture 2: The Case for Writing Great Technical Documents

Lecture 3: Janet vs. the Pill Bottle

Lecture 4: A Brief History of the English Language

Lecture 5: Two Views of Writing Technical Documents

Chapter 2: Analyzing Your Readers

Lecture 1: Understanding Your Readers

Lecture 2: Classifying Your Readers

Lecture 3: How Small Details Make a Big Difference

Lecture 4: Writing Strategies for Different Readers

Lecture 5: Useful Links

Chapter 3: Getting Ready to Write

Lecture 1: Deciding What to Write

Lecture 2: Document Formats

Lecture 3: Typical amounts of time to collect information and write your document

Lecture 4: Interviewing Skills

Lecture 5: Bring Order to Your Document with an Outline

Chapter 4: Writing with Style

Lecture 1: Style Guides – Your Safety Net

Lecture 2: Writing Styles You Can Use

Lecture 3: Your Personal Writing Style

Chapter 5: Achieving Lexical Precision

Lecture 1: Choosing the Right Words

Lecture 2: Using Technical Words

Lecture 3: Correcting Common Word-Choice Mistakes

Lecture 4: More Troublesome Words

Lecture 5: Useful Links

Chapter 6: Writing Powerful Sentences

Lecture 1: What is a Sentence?

Lecture 2: Powerful Sentences

Lecture 3: How to Write Powerful Sentences

Lecture 4: Passive Voice – Is it Really Bad?

Lecture 5: How to Get Rid of Foggy Writing

Lecture 6: Grab Your Readers' Attention

Chapter 7: Write Paragraphs that Flow

Lecture 1: The Structure of Good Paragraphs

Lecture 2: Paragraph Writing Strategies — Getting the Results You Want

Lecture 3: Solving Paragraph Problems

Chapter 8: Adding Graphics to Your Documents

Lecture 1: How Graphics Affect Your Readers

Lecture 2: Conventions for Using Graphics

Lecture 3: Charts: What Kind to Use

Lecture 4: Other Types of Graphics to Use

Chapter 9: Document Design

Lecture 1: What is Document Design?

Lecture 2: How to Use Your Document’s Elements

Lecture 3: Sample Page Layouts

Chapter 10: The Anatomy of Great Technical Documents

Lecture 1: Write Great Instructional Documents

Lecture 2: Write Great Reports

Lecture 3: Templates You Can Download

Lecture 4: Write Great Proposals

Chapter 11: Making Your Documents the Best They Can Be

Lecture 1: Getting the Words Right

Lecture 2: Levels of Edit — a Tried and True Methodology to Use

Lecture 3: Document Reviews

Lecture 4: Usability Testing