Technical Writing Modes: Course Contents, Workings, Policies
In this course, you learn about and practice essential technical writing skills such as adapting documents for specific audiences; formatting with headings, lists, notices, highlighting, tables and images; crafting a simple readable, engaging writing style; adding images and tables to your documents; cross-referencing images, tables, and related information; and creating and including standard content for reports and instructions.
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Course Objectives
In this course, you:
- describe the audience (and its type) for your technical documents, and adapt contend and writing style that specific audience
- work over your rough draft to achieve a simple readable, engaging writing style
- create meaningful, task-oriented headings in your documents
- when necessary, format text with bulleted and numbered lists
- add properly formatted and positioned images and tables with titles, captions, and labels as necessary
- in instructions, use notices for situations involving danger to people, minor nonfatal injury to people, damage to equipment or data, failure of the procedure, or emphasis or exceptions
- use industry-standard highlighting (bold, italics, alternate font, or color) according to a highlighting scheme that you construct or one that is required
- write introductions to instructions and reports with standard expected content
- include standard expected components of reports, formatted properly
You use videos and transcripts of those videos to learn these tasks, e-mail your instructor when you have questions, and send your work to the instructor for review.
Example Units
Technical Writing Jobs
Technical writing job posts indeed.com August 2022 excerpt (popup). Possibly $35,000 per month is a typo.
Course Cost
Course cost: $175 US; you can use Microsoft Word or SoftMaker TextMaker (the basic version which is free). (OpenOffice is not an option.)
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Course Workings
Once we receive your payment for this course, a schedule is set up for you with due dates based 3 days from receipt of your payment.
For each unit:
- you do some reading, watch some videos to learn concepts and procedures for that unit. (You can skip units for whatever reason, but if you need a recommendation, your instructor will mention those omissions.)
- you then practice the concepts and procedures of that unit. The videos show you step by step how to do the practice work for that unit.
- you send the practice work to your instructor, who reviews and comments, and if necessary explains revisions needed. You repeat the revision–review cycle until your instructor signs off. (You can choose not to revise—it's youur course, your money.)
- Toward the end of the course, you build a technical reports and revise as necessary.
Here are the policies for this course:
- You have 56 days to complete the units of this course.
- You are welcome to work ahead of the schedule you see on your schedule page for this course. If you foresee needing extra time, contact admin@mcmassociates.io
- You can choose whether to take this course for a letter grade or pass–fail.
- No refunds will be granted after the third day that you have access to this course.
- Unless results are automatic, your instructor will review, comment on, and return your work within three days of receipt. Expect an e-mail confirmation that your instructor has received your work.
- Your instructor is available many hours per week to answer your questions and provide other help. Setting up an appointment works best.
- The topics in this course are the most important at beginning and intermediate levels. You can request units on other topics; your instructor will consider adding them.
- Your instructor will gladly provide you with a letter describing the quality of your work in this course.
- Your instructor will make reasonable efforts to ensure your success in this course but can make no guarantees concerning your writing or career success outside of this course.
You can have your performance in this course evaluated in one of these two ways:
Letter grades:
- A: All studies and projects completed and approved by your instructor.
- B: All studies and projects completed and approved by your instructor except for the sentence-style unit.
- C: All studies and projects completed and approved by your instructor, except for the sentence-style unit and one of the writing projects.
- D: All studies and projects completed and approved by your instructor, but not the sentence-style unit or any writing project.
- F: Anything less than the above.
Pass–fail:
- Pass: All studies and projects completed and approved by your instructor.
- Pass: All studies and projects completed and approved by your instructor except for the sentence-style unit.
- Pass: All studies and projects completed and approved by your instructor, except for the sentence-style unit and one of the writing projects.
- Fail: Anything less than the above.
Information and programs provided by admin@mcmassociates.io.