Technical Writing Certification Course

Module One: Preparation

• Establish your purpose
• Identify your audience or readers
• Consider the context
• Determine your scope of coverage
• Select the medium

Module Two: Research

• Brainstorm to determine what you already know
• Conduct research
• Take notes (note-taking)
• Interview for information
• Create and use questionnaires
• Avoid plagiarism
• Document sources

Module Three: Organization

• Choose the best methods of development
• Outline your notes and ideas
• Develop and integrate visuals
  • Consider layout and design
  • logic errors
  • positive writing
  • voice
• Check for ethics in writing
  • biased language
  • copyright
  • plagiarism
• Check for appropriate word choice
  • abstract / concrete words
  • affectation, jargon, and plain language
  • cliches
  • connotation / denotation
  • defining terms
• Eliminate problems with grammar

Module Four: Writing a Draft

• Select an appropriate point of view
• Adopt an appropriate style and tone
• Use effective sentence construction
• Construct effective paragraphs
• Use quotations and paraphrasing
• Write an introduction
• Write a conclusion
• Choose a title

Module Five: Revision

• Check for unity and coherence conciseness
  • pace
  • transition
• Check for sentence variety
  • emphasis
  • parallel structure
  • subordination
• Check for clarity
• Review mechanics and punctuation
  • abbreviations
  • capitalization
  • contractions
  • dates
  • italics
  • numbers
  • proofreading
  • spelling