Technical writing

This 2-day training course is for people who develop or maintain large amounts of written information such as manuals, user guides, standard operating procedures, training materials or knowledge bases.

What will I learn?

You will learn the principles of Structured Writing, a proven set of tools and techniques for:

analysing the purpose of your documentation and the needs of your audience
organising information to meet audience needs, including different information needs of different users
presenting content based on information type
creating modular content for efficient reuse and ease of maintenance, and
structuring content so that it is easy to navigate and information is easy to find.

“

Best course I’ve been on in a while. Tactics provided an in-depth look at how to structure process and procedure documents.- Workshop participant, Genesis Energy

After the first day, I felt that the penny had dropped for me, and I realised that now I have a method and techniques at my disposal in the most challenging of projects. I can now see the wood for the trees!- Luke Pivac, Genesis Energy

An extremely stimulating and interesting training workshop — the information learned will be very useful in my and my colleagues' work.- Dee Hogenes, MAF

What is Structured Writing?

Structured Writing is a modular, topic-based approach to developing documents that are easy to write, read and use. It speeds up writing time, improves reader comprehension and enables content reuse. More about Structured Writing…

Benefits

This course enables you to:

tackle your documentation project with confidence
analyse requirements and plan your approach
organise large amounts of content so users can navigate easily and find information quickly
write more and better content in less time, and
develop modular, reusable content that is easy to maintain.

What does it cover?

Topic	Description
Introduction to Structured Writing	Benefits for readers and writers Structured Writing in practice
Analysis	Identifying the purpose of your writing Analysing your audience Planning the content
Design	Creating an outline Chunking your content Sequencing the information
Development	Using plain language Combining words and graphics Standard formats for standard types of information Reviewing and editing techniques
Applying Structured Writing at Work	Structuring common reports Policy and procedure writing
Worksheets	Analysis tools Outlining worksheet Review and editing checklists
Case study or own work	Applying your knowledge

Who teaches it?

Rhiannon Herrick is a highly regarded writer and trainer. She has extensive experience in developing documentation and delivering training in a variety of contexts nationally and internationally. Rhiannon is also a knowledge management and process mapping specialist and a skilled facilitator.