Effective Writing for IT Professionals

Overview

Companies, teams, and individuals are measured by how well they communicate. This interactive workshop helps IT professionals produce more effective documents. It reviews technical writing techniques and processes and provides examples and templates for continuing use after the workshop. Company specifics, such as style guidelines, can be incorporated. Each topic is reinforced by written exercises.

Prerequisites

Good verbal and written English skills are required.

Audience

Information technology (IT) professionals who want to improve the effectiveness of their writing. This course can be customized for business professionals or mixed audiences.
Maximum number of participants: 12

Course duration

2 Days

Classroom Requirements

Room set up as horseshoe and large enough for individual and group writing activities and reviews. Overhead projector, flipcharts

Format

Presentation
Written Exercises

Objectives

After this course a student should be able to

Describe the types of documents that IT professionals develop and use
Apply the basic rules of good technical writing and avoid jargon
Identify the needs of different audiences
Use outlines for organizing document content
Summarize key points of verbal or written information
Use effective presentation formats
Write effective electronic mail

Course outline

Introduction
Technical Writing Overview

Pre-sales documents and proposals
System development life cycle documents
Business documents

Effective Technical Writing

Writing basics review: sentence structure, active and passive voice, person, punctuation, using the correct words
Common mistakes in technical writing

Writing for a Target Audience

Assessing the target audience
Assessing the audience�s needs

Using Outlines and Summaries

Outline formats and elements
Elements of effective summaries

Writing Effective E-mail

E-mail message guidelines

Using Effective Presentation Formats

Graphics and other presentation elements
Presentation guidelines

Conclusion

Success factors