Technical Communications Course:
Content/outline:
This course aims to develop the writing and communication skills of engineering staff and is delivered by an engineer with 18 years industry/research experience.
The ability to create technical documents that are well structured, logical, and precise is a fundamental skill for Engineers and Scientists. This course provides an opportunity for attendees to reflect and review their own technical writing skills and habits. In addition to technical writing this course extends to communication using digital tools such as instant messaging, project trackers, and team collaboration.
This course applies Problem Based Learning using the Miro collaborative tool and is highly interactive. Use will be made of published documents such as ISO standards, websites, IFU's and papers as examples.
Participant Profile: Project managers, Engineers and Technical Staff who author or review technical documents.
Duration: 2 days x 2.5 hrs per Virtual workshop + 1.5 self-directed work
Venue: On-line on Wednesday mornings starting October 20th
Course Description:
This virtual 2-day programme will help learners improve their technical writing and communication. Day 1 focusses on reviewing different forms of technical writing, writing styles, conventions, and best practice. Day 2 extendd these principles to digital forms of communication such as instant messaging, collaboration, and project tracking. Attendees will be invited to review their own technical documents and how they currently utilize digital communication tools (email, messaging, etc.), identifying areas for improvement.
Learning Outcomes:
- Familiarises attendees with basic principles of good technical writing & style including the use of diagrams and other forms of graphical communication.
- Introduces attendees to the structure & building blocks of different technical documents as applicable in different document types (protocols, reports, technical papers etc.).
- Improves communication through appropriate use of instant messaging, email and wiki portals.
Day 1
- Structuring your writing to produce high quality documents.
- Making your writing clear and concise.
• Handling style, tone, and voice.
• Handling typography, images, tables, captions.
• Approaching various engineering genres.
• Managing your time when drafting, collaboration and reviewing.
Day 2
• Getting to know your communication and tracking tools.
• Good Document creation, sharing and collaboration habits.
• Effective email practice; what's its role vs. messaging and teams portals.
• Sharepoint/wiki pages as portal for projects and organizational information.
• Instant messaging, best practice, and potential pitfalls.
Trainer Profile: Dr. Martin Goodman has 18+ years' experience as an R&D Engineer both in academia and Medical Device Industry. His PhD was completed at Glasgow University department of Mathematics & Statistics. Martin also holds an MEng in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Sheffield.