Certified Technical Writer

Planning to Write

• The Quest
• Technical Writing Theorems
• Technical Writing Can Be Creative
• The Value of Technical Communication to You
• Comparing Technical Writing to Engineering and Science
• Summary

Audience

• General Considerations
• Experience and Expertise
• Breadth of Audience
• Native Language
• Audience Motivation
• Medium and the Message
• Becoming the Audience
• Summary of Audience

Documentation Plans

• Document Specifications (Doc Specs)
• Doc Specs: Sample
• Documentation Project Plans

Writing: General Principles

• Words
• Consistency
• Verbs
• Adjectives
• Adverb
• Nouns
• Pronouns: He, She, and They
• Pronouns: You
• Pronouns: It and They
• Fluffy Phrases
• Commonly Confused Words

Sentences

• Active Voice and Passive Voice
• Active Voice Is Better
• When Is Passive Voice Okay?
• Short= Sweet
• Causes of Long Sentences
• One Sentence = One Thought
• Parenthetical Clauses

Paragraphs and Sections

• Sentence Transitions
• Section transitions
• Paragraph Length
• Paragraph Transitions
• Sections
• Summary of Paragraphs and Sections

Lists

• Introduction to Lists
• In-Sentence Lists
• Bulleted List
• Elements in Bulleted Lists
• The Length of Each Element
• Numbered Lists Directions
• Directions
• Parallel Lists

Tables

• Principles of using Tables:
• Column & Row Headers
• Units of Measure
• Arrangement of Columns and Rows
• Parallelism in Tables
• Amounts of Text in Cells
• Rules
• Coloring
• Shading
• Captions
• Know-how!

Graphics

• Time Series
• Extra Detail in Online Graphics
• Before and After
• Callouts versus Embedded Text
• Graphics That Orient Readers
• Screenshots
• Color Blindness
• Block Diagrams
• Text That Supplements Figures
• Technical Photography
• Line Art Enhances Technical Photographs
• Big Picture First, Then Details
• Layout: Controlling Focus
• Layout: Keeping Eyes on the Page
• Layout: White Space

Professional Secrets

• Explanations of Formula- Based Rules
• Examples
• Examples By Metaphor
• Examples for Programming Documentation
• Questions-and-Answer Format Example
• In Other Words
• Tone
• Pace
• Footnotes and Other Digressions
• Beyond the Obvious
• Precision Descriptions
• The Hardest Part of Writing

Writing: Specific Kinds of Documents

• Manuals
• Manual Style: Cookbooks
• Cookbook Example: Installing the Carambola Server
• Manual Style: Tutorials
• Tutorial Example: Getting Started with HTML
• Manual Style Guides
• Guide Example: Creating HTML Headers
• Manual Style: Reference Manuals
• Reference Example: The Pr1me Utility
• Manual Style: Nonverbal Manuals
• Online Help: Overview
• Online Help Examples
• Release Notes
• Release Note Example: Carabola Web Server Version 3.7

Web Sites

• Plans
• Home Page: Specify Purpose and Audience
• Home Pages: Engage the Reader’s Imagination
• Home Pages: Set the Tone
• Page Templates
• Navigators and Search Boxes
• Hyperlinks in Body Text
• Secondary Pages
• Text in Web Sites
• PDF versus HTML

Proposals

• The Proposal before the Proposal
• Adherence to the Proposal Template
• Proposal Element
• Proposal Element: Cover Letters
• Proposal Element: Abstracts
• Proposal Element: Contingency Plans
• Types of Proposals
• Proposals for Revolutionary Ideas
• Research Proposals
• Research Proposals: Significance Statements
• Research Proposals: Objectives and Hypotheses
• Research Proposal: Design and Methods
• Book Proposals
• Book Proposal: Example Marking Section
• Business Plans
• Internal Planning Documents
• Business Proposals
• Business Proposal: Example
• High-Level Technical Specs
• High-Level Technical Spec Example

Lab Reports

• Title Page
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Materials
• Experimental Procedure
• Results

PowerPoint Presentations

• Organizing a Presentation: The Big Picture
• The Number of Slides
• The Opening Moments of a Presentation
• Introductory Slides: The Traditional Approach
• Mechanics: Fonts and Backgrounds
• Audience: The Theory of Relativity
• Graphics
• The Complicity of a Graphic
• Different Kinds of Learners
• PowerPoint Speech: Overcoming Fear

E-Mail

• The Essence of the E-Mail Problem
• Guidelines for writing E-mails
• Before Hitting the Send Button
• After the First Miscommunication

Editing and Producing Documents

• Editing: What Is It Really?
• Technical Editing Peer’s Work
• Copyediting a Colleague’s Document
• Media for Technical Editing
• Technical Editor’s Role and Responsibilities
• Bug-Tracking Systems

Fonts and Typography

• Font
• Serif and Sans- Serif Fonts
• Serif and Sans-Serif in Soft Copy
• Consistency and Convention
• True- Type versus Post Script Fonts

Punctuation

• Commas
• Colons
• Semicolons (;)
• Dashes and Hyphens
• Hyphens
• Periods
• Quotation Marks (“”)
• Apostrophe (‘’)