Technical Writing

Course Starts: March 19, 2012

Day & Time: Monday/Thursday:  9:30am.-12:30p.m.

Length: 15 weeks; meeting twice a week

Academic Hours: 100

Instructor: Dr. Mati Schwarcz of Yeda

Cost: 7500 ₪ + 200 ₪ Non refundable Registration Fee.

Payment by Cash, Check or Credit Card. All fees must be paid up to one week before the course starts. If paying by Credit Card, tuition may be paid in installments of no less than 250 ₪ /mo for a maximum of 10 months.  If paying by check, checks must be paid in advance and can be post dated until the course completion date. Cash – tuition must be paid in full before the course begins. (For exceptions please call our office)

The course provides the student with the knowledge and skills required to work as a technical writer in a hi-tech company.

The course consists of the following modules: Technical Writing, Desktop Publishing, and Technology

Technical Writing Module -10 lessons

This module teaches basic principles of gathering and organizing information, audience assessment, and proper content and style of writing for users of technical systems.

Lecture 1: Principles of Technical Writing

• What is Technical Writing?
• How is technical writing read and used?
• Technical writing as a form of writing
• Structure of Technical documents
• Use of Titles, signposts, etc.
• Content of Technical documentation (Content Types)
• Style of Technical documentation
• Sentence structure and punctuation
• Word choice
• Active/Passive Voice
• Appropriate tense
• Concrete writing
• What kind of information is needed for a particular explanation.
• Understand and recognize the various kinds of explanatory writing patterns.
• Integrate different types of explanations to construct a unified, effective argument.
• Write a well constructed explanatory paragraph.
• Understand the structure of a User’s manual.
  • Construct a detailed outline of a complex system that can be used as a guide for writing and organizing the manual.
  • Understand how to use an outline to generate a rough estimate of the length of the manual.
  • Structure of Writing Patterns
  • Rhetorical goals of various paragraph types
  • Rhetorical Models for Sections of a User’s Manual
  • The Structure of a User’s Manual

Lecture 2: English Grammar

Lecture 3: Writing Procedures

• Identifying procedures
• Scope
• Structure of Operating Procedures
• Writing short explanations
• Editing and Revising procedures

Lecture 4: The User Interface

• What’s an interface?
• What is a GUI?
• GUI terminology
• Writing procedures and explanations using appropriate interface terminology

Lecture 5: Writing Explanations

Lecture 6: Revising Paragraphs and Larger Sections

• Constructing a well-written, easy to understand paragraph.
• How to organize technical material into a logical flow of paragraphs.
• How to simplify writing so that it is more accessible to a wider audience.
• Techniques for revising and rewriting documentation.

Lecture 7: Learning a New System and Information Design

• Understand how to learn any hi-tech system.
• Understand the overall structure of a User’s manual.

Lecture 8: Writing Longer Explanations and Chapter Overviews

Lecture 9: Writing Introductions and Overviews

• Structure and content of an Introduction for a manual that introduces the product and prepares the reader for the rest of the manual.
• Structure and content  of an Overview for a technical manual

Lecture 10: Gathering Information

• Relationship between information and documentation.
• How to gather information from written documents.
• How to gather information by interviewing key people in the organization.
• How to categorize information and use it effectively in your documentation.

Desktop Publishing Module -10 lessons

The course teaches proper formatting for effective technical documentation. A range of software tools and techniques are covered.

Lecture 1: Principles of Desktop Publishing

Basic principles, markup languages, basic building blocks of desktop publishing systems, how desktop publishing is used in technical communication.

The second half of the class will be devoted to learning the basic Word interface – menus, toolbars, and common editing activities.

Lecture 2: Formatting and Page Design 1

This lesson introduces students to the principles of creating an effective page design. Students learn about the basic elements they need to control, as well as concepts of typography (which deals with font/typeface).

In the lab, students will start work on formatting several documents – the completion of the work is assigned as homework.

Lecture 3: Formatting and Page Design 2

This lecture covers other elements of page design, the most important being the use of space and alignment.

The second part of the lesson (in the lab) introduces students to one of the most important activities of page design for a technical manual – the setting up of a hierarchy of title styles. We’ll use Microsoft Word’s Outlining feature to set up the underlying title hierarchy on which the manual’s structure will be based.

Lecture 4: Screen Captures, Tables, and Script Text

This lesson teaches how to create a number of elements important in many technical documents. Screen captures are “snapshots” of the actual screens that users work with – they are an important part of operating instructions, especially those with a GUI interface. Tables are one of the most important elements for organizing technical information – they provide a quick way to take a lot of information and organize it so that it is easy to find. Script text, the running text at the side of a page, provides a good looking way to help orient the reader and relieve some of the pressure of having to read a lot of technical information a GUI interface.

Lab: practice of the above techniques

Lecture 5: Drawing with Word

Students learn to use Word’s drawing tools to produce complex drawings and illustrations.

Lab: we’ll practice the techniques, but students are required to complete the exercises as homework.

Lecture 6: Navigation and Document Structure

This lesson teaches how to correctly implement navigation features in your document: page numbering, table and figure numbering, section numbering, cross references, Table of Contents, index, and other navigation elements.

Lecture 7: Document Management

Templates,  Field Codes, Working with Multiple Files, Managing graphics, and other advanced topics.

Lecture 8: PowerPoint

Technical Communicators use Microsoft PowerPoint for a wide variety of purposes. Technical Writers use it to produce training slides and tutorials, and technical presentations, while MarCom people use it to create sales presentations and product demos.

This lessons covers the essentials of PowerPoint and enables students to try out the techniques in the lab. Creation of a full PowerPoint presentation is assigned as homework.

Lecture 9: Single Sourcing, DITA, and XML

Using free, open course technologies, we’ll explore the use of single sourcing to better manage complex documentation environments, DITA for greater control over documentation structure, as well as some basic XML used to structure technical documentation.

Students can freely download the programs from the internet to practice at home, in addition to using them in the lab.

Lesson 10: Publication programs

FrameMaker – the lecture will demonstrate how to produce technical documentation with FrameMaker. Students can download a demo version from Adobe to practice and complete assignments at home. This lesson will also cover producing PDF files with Adobe Acrobat.

Technology Module -5 lessons

The technology module teaches an understanding of three core technologies on which most hi-tech systems are based: digital computers, software, and data communications. The course takes the student from the logic behind computers, through Assembler programming concepts, higher level languages, software development, communication concepts, the development of data communication, standards and protocols, and current data communication issues and technologies.

Lesson 1: Computers and Digital Processing

This lecture introduces students to the concepts on which modern computing is based: logic, binary arithmetic, and the basic components and functions of today’s computers.

Lesson 2: Computer Architecture and Technical Documentation

This lectures takes a more detailed look at the electronic circuitry of the computer and how this allows the computer to process programs and data. We’ll be looking at Assembler programming, as well as how to document such things as microprocessors and instruction sets.

Lesson 3: Principles of Software Technology

By themselves, computers cannot do much – they need a set of instructions to carry out the many complicated tasks for which they are capable. These instructions are called “software programs” and this lesson introduces students to the principles of software and its creation. Along the way we’ll learn about algorithms, programming languages, how to read a program, and a number of terms and concepts that students need to know when you come to document programs.

Lesson 4: Software and Documentation

This lesson continues to expand the students’ understanding of software as well as teaching how to write standard documentation for software engineers and programmers.

Lesson 5: Data Communications

This lesson deals with technologies that enable sending and receiving large quantities of information. We’ll start by looking at the conceptual basis of modern communication; we’ll then be able to use our conceptual framework to understand specific technologies that are prevalent in data communications today.