1. Technical Writing Foundations

• What are Technical Communications?
• Technical Writing vs. Business Writing
• The History of Technical Communications
• Types of Technical Communications
• Role of the Technical Communicator

2. Your Writing Style

• Your Writing Style
• Your Writing Approach
• The Communication Loop
• Sending the Message
• Receiving the Message
• Barriers and Filters

4. Getting Started

• Set Up for Success
• Define Your Objective
• Identifying Your Team
• Making Your Team Effective
• Understand Your Audience
• Types of Audiences
• Identifying the Audience
• Identify the Right Communication Method
• Message Formats
• Time-Value of Formats

5. The Writing Process

• Create a Plan
• Understand Every Task That Needs to Get Done
• Assign Tasks
• Develop the Timeline
• Write the Purpose Statement
• Brainstorming and the Sticky-Note Technique
• Outline the Document
• Tips for the "Write" Stuff
• Dealing with Writer's Block

6. The Five Cs of Communication

• The Five Cs
• Clarity
• Communicating Ideas Clearly Using Paragraphs
• Avoiding Ambiguous Pronoun References
• Moving Misplaced Modifiers
• Avoiding Nominalizations and Adjectivizations
• Using Active and Passive Voice
• Writing in Plain English
• Conciseness
• Correctness
• Punctuation
• Citations
• Coherence
• Completeness

7. Visual Cues

• White Space
• Fonts and Text Layout
• Headings
• Bulleted and Numbered Lists
• Tables and Figures

8. Oral Communications

• Why a Presentation?
• Best Practices for Effective Presentations
• Guidelines for Writing Presentations
• Format the Presentation Slides
• Deliver Effective Presentations