Technical Writing Two introduction (original) (raw)

_Technical Writing Two_helps technical people advance their technical communication skills.

Target audience

We've aimed this course at people who have completedTechnical Writing One. If you've never taken any technical writing training, we recommend completing Technical Writing One before taking this class.

Learning objectives

This course focuses on several intermediate topics in technical writing. After completing both the pre-class and instructor-led components of this class, you will know how to do the following:

• Choose among several different tactics to write first drafts and additional tactics for writing second and third drafts.
• Use several techniques to detect mistakes in your own writing.
• Organize large documents.
• Introduce a document's scope and any prerequisites.
• Write clear figure captions.
• Pick the proper information density for technical illustrations.
• Focus the reader's attention to selected parts of a technical illustration.
• Establish context through a "big picture" technical illustration.
• Create useful sample code that demonstrates a range of complexity.
• Identify different documentation types.
• Develop a systematic approach to describing complex technical topics.
• Empathize with a beginner audience and write a tutorial for them.
• Use LLMs to generate, edit, format, and summarize technical documents more efficiently.

It takes years of focused practice to become a great engineer or a great technical writer. This course will improve your technical writing but won't instantly transform you into a great technical writer.

Pre-class and instructor-led components

The course consists of the following two components:

• Pre-class
• Instructor-led

(You are viewing the start of the pre-class component.)

The instructor-led component enhances the lessons taught in the pre-class components. That said, even if you never attend the instructor-led component, the pre-class lessons on their own still provide a valuable educational experience.

Hardware and network requirements

Although this course is optimized for a laptop or desktop, you may take the course on a tablet or phone. Note that you'll do a lot of typing during the instructor-led component.

You need an internet connection to take the course. You cannot download the course. The course is not available on tangible media.

The pre-class component contains a few short videos, all of which are optional viewing. If you want to skip the videos, then you can take the course on a low-bandwidth internet connection.

Next unit: Self-editing