Technical Writing 101 Introduction to Technical Writing

7/25/2019 Technical Writing 101 Introduction to Technical Writing

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See video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4zIQ6F_iMI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4zIQ6F_iMIhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F4zIQ6F_iMI


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18+ years of experience as a technical communicator. Vice President, Society for Technical Communication (STC) Written and designed documentation for software products in

the documentation, media, industrial automation, simulation,

and pharmaceutical industries. Speaker at STC, WritersUA, tcworld, LavaCon, and CIDM on a

variety of topics. Articles published in STC Intercom, tcworld magazine,

TechCom Manager, WritersUA website, and the ContentWrangler.

Technical Writing Instructor, Community College of AlleghenyCounty


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What is Technical Writing? Technical Writing Deliverables

Types of Technical Writing Considerations Examples and Resources


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Technical writing is writing that helps userssolve problems with technologies and technicalsubject matter.

(Jeff Grabill, Georgia State University)


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US Dept of Labor, Bureau of Labor StatisticsOccupational Outlook Handbook, 2010-11Edition

http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos319.htm
http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos319.htmhttp://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos319.htm


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Software documentation Medical Writing

Policies and Procedures (HR) Grant Writing Scientific Writing


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Manuals (including EPUB and PDF) Online Help (including versions for mobile devices) Quick Reference Guides Tutorials Training Materials Release notes (software documentation only) Troubleshooting Guides Installation Guides API Reference documentation (software documentation only) Videos Podcasts


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Translation Standards

Internal standards (style guide) Industry standards, such as HIPAA/FDA, Sarbanes-

Oxley, ISO Accessibility


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Word Processing Help Authoring Tools (Help and manuals)

Presentation Project planning Flow charting Graphics


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Software and Hardware: http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iphone_user_guide.pdf http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/ http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspx http://helpcentral.componentone.com/Documentation.aspx http://www.catgenie.com/customer-service/manuals/

Engineering Reports: Writing Engineering Technical Reports:

http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/ce-trpt/ owl.english.purdue.edu/media/ppt/20061207031120_647.ppt

http://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/2_AssessmentTasks/assess_tuts/technical_reports_LL/samples/Aerospace%20Engineering%20sample%20report.pdf

Training Materials: http://www.astd.org/ http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_4.htm http://managementhelp.org/trng_dev/trng_dev.htm
http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iphone_user_guide.pdfhttp://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iphone_user_guide.pdfhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspxhttp://helpcentral.componentone.com/Documentation.aspxhttp://www.catgenie.com/customer-service/manuals/http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/ce-trpt/http://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/2_AssessmentTasks/assess_tuts/technical_reports_LL/samples/Aerospace%20Engineering%20sample%20report.pdfhttp://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/2_AssessmentTasks/assess_tuts/technical_reports_LL/samples/Aerospace%20Engineering%20sample%20report.pdfhttp://www.astd.org/http://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_4.htmhttp://managementhelp.org/trng_dev/trng_dev.htmhttp://managementhelp.org/trng_dev/trng_dev.htmhttp://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_4.htmhttp://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_4.htmhttp://www.e-learningguru.com/articles/art3_4.htmhttp://www.astd.org/http://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/2_AssessmentTasks/assess_tuts/technical_reports_LL/samples/Aerospace%20Engineering%20sample%20report.pdfhttp://www.dlsweb.rmit.edu.au/lsu/content/2_AssessmentTasks/assess_tuts/technical_reports_LL/samples/Aerospace%20Engineering%20sample%20report.pdfhttp://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/ce-trpt/http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/ce-trpt/http://writing.colostate.edu/guides/documents/ce-trpt/http://www.catgenie.com/customer-service/manuals/http://www.catgenie.com/customer-service/manuals/http://www.catgenie.com/customer-service/manuals/http://helpcentral.componentone.com/Documentation.aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspxhttp://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/default.aspxhttp://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/word-help/http://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iphone_user_guide.pdfhttp://manuals.info.apple.com/en/iphone_user_guide.pdf


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FLOSS Manuals http://en.flossmanuals.net/ Free manuals for free software (One Laptop Per Child,

Sugar learning platform)

WikiHow http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Page Document how to do anything.

Wikipedia http://www.wikipedia.org/ Wikipedias 16 million articles (over 3.4 million in English)

have been written collaboratively by volunteers aroundthe world, and almost all of its articles can be edited byanyone with access to the site.
http://en.flossmanuals.net/http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Pagehttp://www.wikipedia.org/http://www.wikipedia.org/http://www.wikihow.com/Main-Pagehttp://www.wikihow.com/Main-Pagehttp://www.wikihow.com/Main-Pagehttp://en.flossmanuals.net/


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Professional Organization: Society for Technical Communication stc.org

Articles about Technical Communication:

EServer Technical Communication Library tc.eserver.org Articles about all things tech comm: writing, workplace,

usability, web design, organizations, editing, documentation,careers

Book Technical Writing 101 by Alan Pringle and Sarah OKeefe (2009)
http://www.stc.org/http://tc.eserver.org/http://tc.eserver.org/http://www.stc.org/


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Technical Writing 101 Introduction to Technical Writing