Technical Writing Foundations Course

Available for groups as a self-paced online course, instructor-led virtual or instructor-led onsite training, and for individuals as a self-paced online course.

Download the Outline

Learn exactly how this course will help your team or you quickly become a better technical writer in weeks.

Technical-Writing-Foundations-Outline-Thumbnail

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to technical documentation. This course provides a flexible framework that encourages critical thinking and discernment in your approach to technical writing. It also includes personalized feedback on your actual technical writing.

This writing training is essential for analytical positions that need to review and summarize information and recommendations into technical documents—engineers, scientists, medical writers, and many senior positions.

Each course lesson progressively improves a different facet of your technical writing skills and dives into Statements of Work, Policies, Procedures, Reports, and Specifications Documents.

If you mostly write technical reports (or have already taken this foundational course), see our Technical Report Writing Course here.

INDIVIDUALS

$645

Online self-paced course available for individuals.

GROUPS

Online self-paced course and instructor-led training can be customized to match your needs. Group discounts apply.

workers-with-technical-document

Technical writing skills gained:

  • Reduce writing time writing by at least 25%.
  • Synthesize complex, technical information and present it understandably to readers.
  • Ensure content conveys information for business decisions within a readily absorbed format.
  • Write an executive summary that tightly summarizes content.
  • Use correct grammar and punctuation to create polished and professional technical documents.

Individual written feedback for every student

Personal feedback from an expert instructor takes any technical writing program to the next level. To truly improve writing habits and create strong writing skills, both course instruction and feedback on actual writing are needed.

Our feedback includes both subjective and objective feedback, in addition to a personal grammar diagnosis and additional helpful resources.

Objective feedback:

  • Is the document based fully on reader's needs and perspective?
  • Is the technical document logically organized?
  • Does the reader have all the information needed (and none that is not needed) to achieve the objective of the document?

Subjective feedback:

  • Is your tone neutral and professional?
  • Is word choice clear, strong, and persuasive?
  • Can you cut any unnecessary words?
  • Are there any grammar errors?

Flexible technical writing training to meet your needs.

Online course for individuals or groups

Online, self-paced training allows individuals and teams to train on their schedule with 24/7 access to the course. This online training method has flexible deadlines for busy professionals and groups across different time zones to all receive the same training.

Technical Writing Foundations Online Preview Screenshot

Virtual instructor-led course for groups

Virtual training allows for highly engaging instruction, exercises, and discussion in a professional setting. Learners complete activities in breakout rooms with fellow students, break down documents individually, and are encouraged to participate in conversations and ask questions about these essential skills.

Onsite instructor-led course for groups

In-person training is highly interactive, with many individual and shared activities. Groups work together at your location to deconstruct documents, deep dive into individual writing concerns, plan an upcoming document, and more.

Schedule a call to find out more about group training options
professional-technical-writing-certificate-on-computer-v3

Certificate of Completion

Participants will earn a personalized digital technical writing certification of completion after finishing this course. This can be displayed on a LinkedIn profile, downloaded to print and hang, or mentioned in a résumé.

What is included in this course?

This technical writing course is split into several detailed lessons including video lessons and online resources.

Getting Started

An Introduction and Self-Assessment

Review the objectives and breakdown of the course content. Share your specific course goals, and tell us about the technical documents you write.

Lesson 1

6-Steps to Effective Technical Writing

Learn a practical framework for writing any technical document. This six-step writing process helps you understand the strategies needed to write a clear report, SOP, procedures document, user manual, etc. This process will allow you to spend 30% less time on every document you write while considering your target audience. This applies to all documents conveying technical information.

Lesson 2

Organizing a Technical Document

Organize your technical documents for clarity. Nothing is worse than getting a technical document that is difficult to understand. This lesson includes tips and tricks on how to organize the beginning, middle, and end of your technical documentation and make it clear for your reader.

Lesson 3

Statement of Work

Learn how to apply the 6-Step Process to a sample statement of work technical document. This includes audience analysis, generating content, drafting, and more.

Lesson 4

Policies and Procedures

Understand the nuances of writing policies and procedures. This lesson enables you to understand if all other documents (specifications, SOWs, etc.) adhere to the policies and procedures of your organization and how they fit into the overall operations.

Lesson 5

Conveying Technical Information in Internal Reports

Reports can feel overwhelming because there are so many variations. Learn how to assemble a well-organized technical report.

This lesson also looks at the important consideration of writing an executive summary.

Lesson 6

Specifications Documents

In this lesson, you'll learn the purpose of a specifications document and how to plan an effective specifications document. You'll learn the difference between these technical documents and internal reports and review a sample specifications document.

Lesson 7

Format Considerations

Technical information is dense. Learn formatting techniques to create a visually appealing, easy-to-scan document that helps your reader easily understand complex, technical information. Think of an instruction manual and how critical it's formatting is.

Headings, white space, typography, visual structure, and the best graphical representation of data are addressed.

Lesson 8

Clarity and Word Choice

Make sure your technical communication is a pleasure to read with concise and clear language that presents complex technical information competently and confidently.

This module ensures that your sentences are accurate, easy to reach, and engaging.

Lesson 9

Professional, Confident Tone

Depending on the technical document you're writing, your style and tone may vary. In this section, we will teach you how to write with a competent, polished, confident tone for your specific document.

Lesson 10

Grammar and Syntax

Access different web-based grammar tools and learn how to apply a grammar and correction strategy to your particular grammar errors.
View the full course outline and list of resources

What will writing look like after this training?

clarity-icon
Complex information is conveyed clearly.
time-icon
Writing time is significantly reduced.
organized-icon
Well-organized, relevant content is included.
format-icon
Designed and formatted to be easy to read.
bad-news-icon
Any executive summary is tightly summarized.
writing-icon
Writer’s block is avoided through planning.
readability-icon
Information is tiered appropriately.
persuasion-icon
Persuasion is clear and effective.
professional-icon
Competent, clear, and professional.
grammar-icon
Grammar errors are identified and corrected.

This course’s expert instructors

Kara Latz headshot

Kara Latz

As a multilingual American, Kara has a unique perspective of the English language. She is an instructor and technical writing professional.

Four years ago, backed by an Emory B.A. degree, Mercer University MBA, and her hands-on experience from a 20-year career in corporate America, Kara endeavored to engage in her true passion to help companies and people bolster their company and personal brand image through writing.

Kara resides at Lake Oconee, GA with her husband, three children, and two dogs. She is an active volunteer with the local Boys and Girls Club and high school Career Coaching.

Read more >>

Bailey Lang headshot sq

Bailey Lang

Bailey is a professional writer, editor, and accountability coach with more than a decade of experience. 
 
She began her career in marketing communications for a global HR outsourcing company before taking a detour into academia. She earned her MA in rhetoric and writing at the University of Findlay and then completed her Ph.D. in rhetoric and writing studies at Bowling Green State University. Along the way, she wrote and published a book, numerous peer-reviewed journal articles, and more. 
 
When she’s not writing or editing, you'll find her reading, hiking, or knitting. 
ElisabethO_Headshot

Elisabeth O'Quinn

Elisabeth has a unique combination of business and business writing acumen, with an extensive background in effective writing, editing, and content marketing management.

She has supported a wide range of businesses, writing blog articles, white papers, presentations, and editing business documents. She has supported many of our clients with rave reviews of her writing feedback, helping countless participants with their technical writing certifications.

Elisabeth lives in Georgia with her cat and rescue pup. In addition to writing, she loves traveling with her twin sister, learning German, and creating watercolor prints.

Read more >>

grace-cuddy

Grace Cuddy

Grace has extensive experience in Instructional Solutions' online English courses and also works with individuals and groups from several international companies across Europe as a business writing coach. She is an expert in business writing and loves to help students advance their technical writing careers or new technical writing jobs.

She is bilingual in English and Spanish and has a keen sensitivity to global writing. She has a strong background in corporate communication and management and successfully developed cross-functional writing and communication processes in a large corporate team. She has also helped professional engineers and firms develop professional training programs.

She enjoys yoga, travel, and dance. She splits her time between New York City and Madrid.

Read more >>

Course feedback and testimonials

left-quote Created with Sketch.
This training helped me immensely for writing reports and emails for future coordination with clients and experts.

Project Engineer

HWA, Inc.
left-quote Created with Sketch.
I enjoyed participating in a group setting because it allowed me to interact with the rest of the group and made the webinar much livelier. I also had the opportunity to brush up on my grammar and syntax skills and apply them to technical writing.

President

Greensite Engineering, Inc.
left-quote Created with Sketch.

This was a fantastic class, and the discussion of user requirement documents and project status reports was illuminating. I can see already how much time I will save using these techniques.

Business Analyst

Liberty Mutual Insurance Group
left-quote Created with Sketch.

I love that the course provided additional resources that I can continue to use as reference material.

Analyst

Transocean
left-quote Created with Sketch.

This course taught me how to break down the writing process so that I could write an easy-to-follow report tailored specifically to my clients' needs.

Senior Associate

Industrial Economics
left-quote Created with Sketch.

I learned very valuable tips such as what to avoid when writing and how to follow a process. I will surely apply what I've learned when I write emails and risk assessment reports in the future.

Senior Regulatory Affairs Manager

Novo Nordisk

Become a better technical writer.

Sign up today or schedule a discussion to become a stronger technical writer.

INDIVIDUALS

$645

Sign up today and start learning how to become a better technical and business writer.

GROUPS

We offer customized and flexible online, virtual, and onsite courses, workshops, and classes that match your company’s needs or technical writing certification program.