Proposal and Technical Writing
Agenda
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Proposal Writing
August 10, 2016, 11:00 AM – 3:30 PM CDT (including a 30 min. break)
Proposal Types and the Writing Process
Internal proposals
External proposals
Solicited proposals
Unsolicited proposals
Grants vs. contracts
The writing process
Invention
Capture plan creation
Proposal team creation
Solicitation document analysis
Boilerplating
Composition
Freewriting
Outlining
Storyboarding
Drafting
Revision
Review
Editing for length
Structural editing
Copyediting
Production
Planning Documents
August 17, 2016, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM CDT
Effective technical communication characteristics
• Ensuring accuracy, clarity, conciseness,
coherence, and appropriateness
Defining purpose and audience
• Identifying the document purposes and assessing
your audience’s needs and expertise
Organizing and planning
• Developing work strategies to set priorities
and to make the best use of writing time
• Creating project plans outlining specific details for a predictable
and logical structure to help your audience understand technical information
Revising and Editing Documents
August 17, 2016, 1:30 – 3:30 PM CDT
Editing for grammar and style
• Choosing the right words and technical terminology
• Using the punctuation and mechanics correctly
• Ensuring clarity (ambiguity, awkwardness, logic errors, positive writing, voice)
Reviewing content
• Checking accuracy, completeness, and effectiveness
• Checking unity and coherence
• Ethical issues
Writing Documents
August 18, 2016, 11:00 AM – 1:00 PM CDT
Writing
• Adopting an appropriate style and tone
• Using effective sentence construction
• Constructing effective paragraphs
• Building sentences and paragraphs
• Using sentence variety (emphasis, parallel structure, subordination)
Designing documents
• Page layout and design considerations
Graphics
• Creating and integrating visuals
Technical Writing Basics
August 18, 2016, 1:30 – 3:30 PM CDT
Correspondence
• Business letters: formats and types of business correspondence
• Memos and electronic mail: advantages
and disadvantages of internal communication
Best Practices in Technical Documents
• Document elements: using formats to establish the order
of content in document front matter, body, and end matter
• Document types: correspondence, specifications,
reports, instructions and proposals
Credits
Architects:
12.0 HSW Contact Hours
(AIA: 12.0 HSW LUs)
Engineers:
12.0 PDHs
HalfMoon Education is an AIA-approved continuing education sponsor (No. J885). Architects please note that the Proposal and Technical Writing series will not be offering HSW credits and may be for information purposes only in states that require all HSW coursework. HalfMoon Education is an approved continuing education sponsor for architects in Florida and is deemed an approved sponsor in New York. All of the courses in these series offer PDHs to professional engineers in all states. Check each listing for the specific number of PDHs offered. HalfMoon Education is an approved engineer continuing education provider in Florida, Indiana, Louisiana, Maryland, New Jersey (Approval No. 24GP00000700), New York (NYSED Sponsor No. 35), North Carolina, and North Dakota. Other states do not preapprove educators or courses. Participation and knowledge retention will be verified for these webinar events, certificates of completion will be provided, and LUs will be reported to the AIA.
Speakers
Dr. Mark Decker, PhD
Professor and Department Chair in the Commonwealth University of Pennsylvania’s English DepartmentMr. Decker teaches Technical Writing and Writing Technical Manuals in support of the Professional Writing minor. Dr. Decker has PhD and MA degrees in English from The Pennsylvania State University (2001, 1997) and he graduated summa cum laude in English from Utah State University (1995).
While an undergraduate, Dr. Decker worked for several years as a staff writer for Aerotech News and Review, an aerospace and defense industry trade newspaper published in Lancaster, California. During graduate school, Dr. Decker was a member of the Leonhard Center for Technical Writing Initiative, a collaboration between Penn State’s Department of English and College of Engineering designed to promote an exchange of ideas between technical writing instructors and the scientific and engineering communities. Dr. Decker also taught Business Writing, Technical Writing, and an Advanced Technical Writing course that enrolled graduate students from technical and scientific disciplines.
After graduate school, Dr. Decker spent four years at the University of Wisconsin-Stout, where he taught Technical Writing in support of that school’s major in Technical Communication and served as the advisor for the student chapter of the Society for Technical Communication. Dr. Decker has given presentations at several national and international conferences and has published both a book and a co-edited book as well as several scholarly articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia chapters.