ENGL210: Technical Writing

In every career, you must be able to communicate effectively and clearly if you want to be successful. This course will provide you with a background in the practical, technical writing skills that are necessary in today's workplace. This course covers internal workplace communications,  external business-to-business and business-to-consumer writing skills, presentations and how to use visuals effectively, writing clear instructions and process documents, and using social media effectively.

Because the goal of this course is to improve your ability to write clear, comprehensible examples of technical writing, most subunits include short writing activities that will give you hands-on experience in many different writing tasks. Also, each unit includes a series of writing self-assessments that will allow you to evaluate your own writing based on specific criteria, and will provide examples and commentary on how to write successfully. This practical focus on specific writing skills will help you learn the writing skills you'll need in the workplace, and by the end of the course you will feel comfortable tackling a wide variety of workplace communications.

Imagine needing to make a phone call, but not knowing what number to dial. Beginning a communications project without first establishing your audience is a lot like that phone call without a phone number. If you don’t first know who you are communicating with, you are unable to determine what information they need and in what format. In this unit, we walk through the steps of audience analysis to determine who we are writing to, what they know, what they need to know, and the best ways to reach them.

When we first take on a writing project, we must first consider who we are communicating with. We should ask ourselves who they are, what they know, and what they need to know to take action.

After we conduct this audience analysis, the next steps in the process apply this analysis to writing choices. Different audiences require different approaches to word choice, tone, and formatting. We also use our audience analysis to anticipate issues and any concerns or questions the audience might have after accessing the communication we have created.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 11 hours.

Two of the most common forms of technical writing that you will encounter are the memo and the email. After completing an audience analysis, you must determine which form would be best for sending the message; memos and emails often rely on smaller amounts of information or requests for more information. In this unit, we cover the best practices for creating effective memos and emails.

Once the dominant form of communication in the workplace, memos typically serve as internal communication within an organization. Memos can update policies and procedures, announce meetings or organizational changes, or inform the internal audience as needed. Memos must typically be brief, concise, organized for readability, and addressed to targeted audiences with specific subject lines.

Emails, which often replace memos for internal communication, can be sent internally or externally. While this form of business communication must take into account the time constraints most readers face as a result of high email volume, people use emails to communicate issues both large and small. Emails must make use of strong subject lines, clear formatting, and concise writing. Email also presents some ethical challenges as the forwarding and BCC function enables you to easily share communications with larger audiences quickly and in a way that is documented for the longer term.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 10 hours.

While memos are used for internal communication and emails for both internal and external communication, formal letters are mainly used as an external means of communication. Understanding when a communications context requires the more formal delivery of a physical letter falls under the initial considerations of the audience analysis and design/formatting stages of the writing process.

Letters can range from friendly introductions to more formal announcements with accompanying legal documents. In their more serious capacity, letters seek to create a formal and documented chain of communication. 

Two main formats exist for letters: the block format and the indented format. Both require the recipient’s and sender’s full names and addresses. They begin with a formal salutation and end with a complimentary closing. Their formal structure helps to convey authority and credibility.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 11 hours.

Words are not the only way to present and share information with an audience. Technical writing often utilizes visuals to accompany written information and further deliver information to the audience. This unit leads you through the types of visuals available as well as the best practices for using them.

Visuals take many forms; they can be as simple as a photograph of a plant specimen or pie chart breaking down enrollment data or as complex as an embedded video or multi-page, hyperlinked, organizational chart. Visuals must be carefully selected to support the audience’s understanding of the topic.

Visuals, however strong they are on their own, must be integrated into the text of the document. The written word supports the visuals, and the visuals further exemplify the meaning of the text. The two work in tandem to support the main idea of the document.

This unit will also cover the important tools needed to properly label, title, and document visuals used in a given communications context.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 14 hours.

One of the most common formats of technical writing is the process document. The process document explains either how to do something or how something was accomplished. This can be used to teach people or to document a process for the record. These documents vary in level of formality based on audience, but they all share elements of formatting to keep the communication organized and effective. This unit takes you through the ways to create process documents.

Formatting is probably the first design concern for a process document. The writer must distinguish whether or not the audience will have the directions with them as they accomplish the task or if they must commit the task to memory. Beginning nursing students, for example, are taught the proper way to wash hands in a roughly 1,500-word document. This document details not just the steps of hand washing, but also explains why each aspect of the process is critical to overall hand washing success. This extra detail helps to embed the proper procedure into new nurses’ minds; they will, after all, be washing their hands countless times during the day without the instructions handy. Recipes, on the other side of the spectrum, anticipate that the audience will have them close by as they prepare the food; as a result, these feature lots of white space and step by step formatting.

Process documents must also pay special attention to anticipating potential trouble spots or questions from the audience. Anticipating these moments enables the writer to save time overall and increases the chances that the audience can complete the process without difficulty. Note that in this unit we will work through the writing process to develop complete process documents. We’ll start with planning before moving to initial drafting, then revising. Complete the assignments in order and retain your work as one assignment builds on the next.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 14 hours.

Proposals are another common form of technical writing. These reports can either be formal or informal depending on the context. Some examples of proposal can be simple estimates for home improvement projects to more complex and formal business plans. This unit covers how to craft proposals.

Like process documents, proposals also rely on formatting to help them convey professionalism and appeal to the audience. Appealing to the audience is key given the persuasive nature of proposal writing. Proposals seek to persuade the audience to take action on a requested item or task. 

Like other forms of technical writing, a proposal begins with an audience analysis and moves through the steps of planning, writing, and revision.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 12 hours.

As the Internet rapidly expands, so too does the opportunity for businesses to share information and reach audiences online. Technical Writers are increasing called upon to craft communications to reach the broad online audience. The unit explores the ways in which the Internet is used to communicate and how to apply the foundations of technical writing effectively to reach online audiences.

Reading from the Internet, and therefore writing for the Internet, presents certain challenges that the printed word doesn’t. The largest concern is the shortened attention span of Internet-based readers and the reduction in reading comprehension. Given the scrolling feature and the ease of clicking away, savvy writers for the Internet tailor their communications with headings, short paragraphs, clear and engaging visuals, and links for further development. 

Additional points to consider when writing for the Internet are how to use social media as a tool for both communications and marketing. Given how easy it is to share communication online, the technical writer should be well versed in the social media tools and the common practices for writing on each of interfaces. For example, what works on a blog post would not work in Tweet. The technical writer must learn how to translate the same idea for several different types of social media and in a way that reaches the intended audience.

Completing this unit should take you approximately 14 hours.