Module 1: Introduction to Technical Communication
Technical Writing by Tiffani Tijerina is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
Technical Writing by Tiffani Tijerina is licensed CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 International
Define technical writing and technical communication and explain how they apply to real-world workplace scenarios.
Identify and describe the six key characteristics of technical writing, including audience focus, purposefulness, professionalism, ethical standards, design, and research orientation.
Evaluate examples of workplace documents to determine whether they meet the standards of good technical writing, including clarity, accuracy, completeness, conciseness, and correctness.
Analyze the legibility, readability, and comprehension of a technical document and explain how these factors affect usability for different audiences.
Apply strategies for creating usable documents, including audience analysis, plain language principles, visual aids, and feedback tools such as peer review or AI-based readability checkers.
*Explainer and knowledge check questions generated with Notebook LM, using Open TC 2e, Chapter 0 as the source content.
This is an external pin board with hundreds of posts from students (like you!) from all over the country, and it contains different types of technical documents. Peruse it, and if you feel inclined, add to it! I have been accumulating this resources for about nine years now. Note: you are not required to include your name. This Padlet is viewable by people anywhere in the world and students have contributed to it from several different institutions and in different states. If you do not want your information shared openly, do not include it on the post. This is an optional activity and is not graded/counted for credit.
More than Memos is a YouTube account with some really great analyses of different examples of technical communication. With each module, I'll assign you a video to watch with a different example. Enjoy!
Create a 2-3 minute video to introduce yourself. In this activity, we will practice creating concise, audience-centered videos tailored for a general, non-technical audience.
Introduce yourself to your peers and to the instructor.
Identify your strengths and areas for improvement in multimodal communication.
Identify potential interests within our course theme: emerging technology and ethical design.
This can be as basic or creative as you like. I expect that some students will write a script, record themselves, and make basic edits; I also expect that some students will also incorporate images, visuals, music, and other creative features. Both are acceptable for this activity.
I suggest uploading your video to YouTube and then posting the link or embedding the video into a post on the discussion board. Whether you use YouTube or another tool, ensure that the video is not set to private so that I and your peers can view it.