Course Description
This course consists of 20 learning hours, including 2 hours of virtual live mentoring sessions. Students are encouraged to dedicate an average of 5 hours per week to complete the course.
This course will help you communicate clearly and effectively with supervisors, clients, and colleagues. You will identify and build on your existing written communication strengths, developing the skills and confidence needed to write with clarity and purpose in technical and professional contexts.
Course Outline
- Module 1: Know Your Audience [Audience analysis]
- Module 2: Communicate with Non-technical Experts
- Module 3: Get Organized [Document organization process]
- Module 4: Create Clear Technical Description
Weekly: Students will engage in a range of interactive online learning activities, including (i) participating in discussion forums, (ii) completing writing tasks to support virtual mentoring sessions, and (iii) attending two live mentoring sessions during the course. These live sessions, with the course instructor, will provide opportunities for clarification, feedback, and in-depth work on writing strategies.
What You Will Learn
- Analyze and evaluate audience characteristics, including needs, expectations, and expertise, to tailor content and tone for maximum clarity and impact.
- Apply strategies for translating technical information into accessible language that fosters understanding and informed decision-making among non-technical stakeholders.
- Design a logical and reader-friendly document structure that enhances coherence, facilitates navigation, and supports the communication of complex ideas.
- Produce precise and comprehensible technical descriptions that effectively convey complex processes, systems, or concepts to diverse audiences.
Notes
This course is offered in collaboration with Smartfirm and is hosted on their Learning Management System (Moodle). While the course is primarily self-paced, it includes two mandatory live virtual mentoring sessions, scheduled on Wednesdays at 7:00 p.m. AT via TEAMS (unless a change is indicated by the instructor). As an instructor-led course, participants will have access to guidance and support from the instructor throughout the duration of their studies. All course requirements must be completed by the designated end date. Attendance at synchronous sessions is compulsory, and in the event of illness or other extenuating circumstances, participants are required to notify the instructor.
By enrolling in this course, you will be automatically enrolled in the Certificate in Technical Writing.
Recommended For
- Anyone interested in enhancing their writing skills at or for work
- Engineers
- Project Managers
- Technical Team Leads
- Technical Consultants
- Government Employees
Testimonials
"Great course, great structure, very helpful for anyone wishing to improve their technical writing skills.” ~ Darren Hilchey, Sepracor Canada Limited
"This course has been a wonderful experience for me. Taking the technical writing certification program was the first time in over 25 years that I have been a student. All my apprehensions about being too old, or being away from learning for so long were quickly erased as the course instructor proved to be a wonderful mentor with this program. Thank you to Dalhousie, and the course instructor. This course has made me a better writer, and given me tools to advance my career."
"This was my first online course with Dalhousie University, and I had a very positive and memorable experience. This program was well-structured, featuring a combination of textual and video explanations of technical writing, along with relevant examples and techniques."
"As someone who writes training material, this course helped me with making things, clear, concise and logical. Moreover, I have learned a lot about document design."
"I enjoyed this course and the material that it covered for technical writing essentials. I'm someone whose never been overly confident with my writing skills and wanted to explore more learning opportunities to gain further skills and develop more techniques to become a better writer. I feel like I'm walking away from this course with some new ideas on how to incorporate what I learned into my writing style for further career development."
Applies Towards the Following Certificates
- Certificate in Technical Writing : Required course