Technical Writing Webinar Series
Agenda
Technical Writing Basics
Thursday, August 9, 2018, 12:00 PM – 2:00 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
Planning Documents
Thursday, August 9, 2018, 2:30 – 4:30 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
Writing Documents
Friday, August 10, 2018, 12:00 PM – 2:00 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
Revising and Editing Documents
Friday, August 10, 2018, 2:30 – 4:30 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
Webinar Instructions
All attendees must log-on through their own email – attendees may not watch together if they wish to earn continuing education credit. HalfMoon Education Inc. must be able to prove attendance if either the attendee or HalfMoon Education Inc. is audited.
Certificates of completion can be downloaded in PDF form upon passing a short quiz. A link to the quiz will be sent to each qualifying attendee immediately after the webinar. The certificate can be downloaded from the Results page of the quiz upon scoring 80% or higher.
Webinars are presented via GoToWebinar, an easy-to-use application that can be run on most systems and tablets. Instructions and login information will be provided in an email sent close to the date of the webinar. It is highly recommended that you download, install and test the application before the webinar begins by clicking on the link in the email.
GoToWebinar App requirements:
Windows 7 – 10 or Mac OSX 10.9 (Mavericks) – 10.13 (High Sierra)
Web Browser:
The two most recent version of the following browsers:
Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Apple Safari, Microsoft Edge
Internet Explorer v11 (or later) with Flash enabled
Internet connection: Minimum of 1Mbps Hardware: 2GB RAM or more
For more information visit the Support section at www.gotowebinar.com.
Credits
Architects:
8.0 CE Hours
AIA:
8.0 LUs
Engineers:
8.0 PDHs
Continuing Education Credit Information
HalfMoon Education is an American Institute of Architects-approved continuing education sponsor (No. J885) and is deemed an approved continuing education sponsor for architects in New York. These webinars are not approved for Florida architects. Other states do not preapprove educators or courses. Check each webinar for the number of continuing education hours available. HalfMoon Education is an approved engineer continuing education provider in Florida, Indiana, 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. These webinars offer engineer continuing education credit in all states that allow this learning methology. Check each course listing for the number of PDHs available. 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. Please see individual course listings for available credit approval.
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.
There are 4 Courses in This Seminar
