Technical Writing Strategies

This course introduces some of the features of technical and professional discourse including prewriting, drafting, revising, peer review, visual design, audience and genre analysis, and editing. Technical Writing Strategies covers major technical and professional projects, such as business letters and memos, technical descriptions, instructions, graphics, reports, proposals, and manuals.

- About This Course
Instructor Resources (available with log-in)
- Lecture PowerPoints and Notes
- Pre-Term Assessments
- Audience Centered Communication Assessment
- Language and Tone Assessment
- Visuals Assessments
- Websites Assessments
- Memo Assessment
- Writing Letters Assessments
- Descriptive and Prescriptive Reports Assessments
- Classification and Partition Reports Assessment
- Informative Presentations Assessment
- Research Assessment
- Problem Analysis Assessment
- Summaries and Responses Assessments
- Proposal Assessments
- Feasibilty Report Assessments
- Rules of Writing Assessments
- PDF
- Sample Syllabus
- Donald McMurrey's Text
- Planning Reports (Annotated)
What is Technical Writing?
- Why It Matters: Technical Writing
- Academic Writing Versus Technical Writing
- Contexts of Technical Information
- Basic Assumptions and Potential Complications
- Legal Issues and Communication
- Cross-Cultural Communication
- Video: What is Technical Communication?
- Video: International Business Cross-Cultural Communication
- Putting It Together: Ethics and Writing
Audience-Centered Communication
- Why It Matters: Getting to Know Your Audience
- Ethics and Technical Communication
- Appreciating Technical Communication Audiences
- Rhetorical Nature of Technical and Professional Writing
- Video: Don’t write like a robot. Prove you are human.
- Putting It Together: Definition Rules
Document Design
- Why It Matters: Document Design
- Revising to Enhance Readability
- General Design Concepts
- Visuals Overview
- Visual Instructions
- Using Video
- Putting It Together: Photos and Illustrations
Language and Tone
- Why It Matters: Avoiding Confusing Terms
- Communication and Style Constraints
- Tone, Language, and Appeal
- Writing A Summary
- Using Active Voice
- Sentence Structure
- Putting It Together: The Cost of Poor Communication
Web Design Considerations
- Why It Matters: Web Sites Overview
- Considerations for Web Site Writing
- Website Design
- Technical Descriptions and Definitions
- Putting It Together: Formatting and Layout Introduction
Memos
- Why It Matters: Memos Overview
- Purpose and Format of Memos
- Structure and Format of Memos
- Internal Business Communication
- Putting It Together: Basic Memo
Letters
- Why It Matter: Letters Overview
- Example Letters
- Professional Letters
- Business Letters
- Letters with Specific Business Purposes
- Putting It Together: Effective Business Emails and Letters
Reports, White Papers, and Press Releases
- Why It Matter: Reports Overview
- Report Design
- Composing Business Reports and Proposals
- Procedure and Process Reports
- Instructions and Process Reports
- Examples of Instructional and Process Reports
- Video: Casio SE-S10 Instructional video
- Video: Multistate Independent Expenditures
- Classification Reports and Partition Reports
- Organizational Patterns
- Comparing and Contrasting
- Press Releases and White Papers
- Press Release Inverted Pyramid
- Putting It Together: Sample Report
Informative Presentations
- Why It Matters: Instructional Presentation Overview
- Presentating to Inform
- Informal Reports
- Putting It Together: Preparing An Informative Speech
Research
- Why It Matters: Research Overview
- Conducting Research
- Why Cite Sources?
- Creating a Citation
- APA Style In-Text Citations
- APA Style Reference Lists
- Academic Integrity in Technical Writing
- Avoiding Plagiarism
- Problem Analysis Overview
- Putting It Together: Integrating Sources
Summaries and Responses
- Why It Matters: Summaries and Responses Overview
- Summaries and Paraphrases
- Reviewing
- Video: Keep It Short and Simple
- Putting It Together: Summarizing in the Workplace
Proposals and Feasibility Reports
- Why It Matters: Proposal Overview
- Preparing Business Proposals
- Formatting a Business Proposal
- Putting It Together: How to Write a Business Proposal
- Why It Matters: Feasibility Report Overview
- Preparing Feasibility Studies
- Putting It Together: How To Conduct a Feasibility Study
Persuasive Presentations
- Why It Matters: Persuasive Presentation Overview
- Functions of the Presentation to Persuade
- Writing To Persuade
- Preparing a Presentation
- Video: How to Write the Opening of a Persuasive Presentation
- Putting It Together
Rules of Writing
- Why It Matters: Rules of Writing Overview
- Review of Punctuation Marks
- Editing
- Punctuation, Mechanics, Capitalization, and Spelling Introduction
- Hyphens
- Apostrophes
- Quotation Marks
- Semicolons, Colons, and Dashes
- Commas
- The Period
- Parentheses
- Abbreviations and Acronyms
- Expressing Temperatures and Numbers
- Capitalization
- Everyday Words that are Commonly Misspelled
- Terms that are Commonly Misspelled in Technical Writing
- Putting It Together: Smart Business Writing Made Simple

Copyright

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Technical Writing Strategies

Table of Contents

Instructor Resources (available with log-in)

What is Technical Writing?

Audience-Centered Communication

Document Design

Language and Tone

Web Design Considerations

Memos

Letters

Reports, White Papers, and Press Releases

Informative Presentations

Research

Summaries and Responses

Proposals and Feasibility Reports

Persuasive Presentations

Rules of Writing

Copyright

Lumen Learning