7 Best Professional Technical Writing Courses And Education Center
Any type of Technical Writing is Professional Writing and every type of Professional Technical Writing is Technical Writing. Sounds Confusing?
As we know writing is a hobby of many, writing engaging content like blogs and articles is the most trending thing today, but there is something known as Professional Technical Writing which is about writing only a technical and informative document or content. It is ranked among the top 4% of total educational courses in March 2021.
Globally Companies rely on the content they put up and so we have seen an increase in demand for Technical writers. It is a fantastic area to explore for those who have thorough technical knowledge about a particular subject and who wish to take up Technical writing as a profession.
What is Professional Technical writing?
Professional technical writing is writing a document that is used as an instruction in form of a manual, Instruction booklet, or any kind of Technical communication for that matter. It is a text with detailed information. Any document which requires skillful writing straight to the point and only related to the core subject is called Technical writing and in a much-dignified manner, it is called Professional Technical writing.
One of the best examples is the Instruction Booklet, Manuals, etc., Financial Report, Medical reports, Resumes, Technical reports, Memoranda, Press release, Product specification, Case study, Patents, Medical Instruction, Scripts, Magazine.
Technical writing is not about just having the knowledge and writing it on a piece of paper or in form of digital content, there is a lot that goes into it. One needs to have a high level of knowledge and the skill to put it across the target audience.
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Professional Technical Writing is useful for:-
- Web content writers
- Journalist
- Screenwriters
- Product manager
- Project Manager
- Military Personals
- Web Developers
- Librarians
- Engineers /Scientists
- Code developers
- Fiction writers
- Teachers
- Lab technicians
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Attributes of Professional Technical Writing / Do’s and don’t:-
Some things are very important which the Professional technical writer must always keep in mind while writing the document. Below are the main things he must focus on:-
Information should be factual and Precise:-
The information that is shared in the document is true, precise, and latest. Every sentence in the document or web content should have a meaningful purpose, if the information is not useful to the audience then do not include it in the document. It lacks credibility if the information is not factual or useful, which will unquestionably not serve the purpose of creating such a text.
Words such as I think, Suppose, or Maybe must not be a part of the text.
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Discourage Personal Pronouns:
When writing a Professional technical document always avoid using personal pronouns (Personal touch ) it. E.g I, we, you, me, mine, etc especially in reports and in papers to be published . It is also important that peoples name is not used in the report, it is not required. It just adds length to the document and anything which takes up unnecessary space should not be included.
Credit should only be given at the end of the report i.e Acknowledgement Page. Here the names of all the contributors or consultants should be mentioned. Professional technical writing is about writing text to the point.
- Concise Content: The content has to be concise. Everything written needs to have a purpose, information has to be to the point and fulfill the object of the project. One should always remember Professional technical writing is all about sharing knowledge and information, it is not for entertainment purposes. No technical writing is considered valid if the text is not Concise.
- Target Users:- The writing has to be directed towards the reader. E.g. If the document is a User Manual then it must aim directly towards the end-user and guide the user about how to use an Infrared camera. It should also include a glossary and define terms in the manual for easy understanding of the user.
- Format: The majority of Technical documents should have data presented in Tables, graphs, theory, Calculations, test results and all these must be presented systematically and briefly. If it’s science-based writing then including conclusions are a must, rest recommendations are always advisable. Also, Press release formats are all very important as a technical document.
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Top 7 Professional Technical Writing Courses and education center:-
To become a technical writer one need a professional qualification. A certificate, a diploma from a Premier Institute will open the doors to becoming a Technical professional writer. By pursuing a premium course one can become a full-fledged Technical writer, Below are the Best Education institutes to study the Subject.
1. IIM SKILLS:
IIM SKILLS which is located in New Delhi (Headquarter) provides professional technical knowledge through their technical courses. It offers technical writing master course, it prepares you to writes meaningful Technical document or content as below:-
- Press Release,
- Product description,
- Brochure
- Infographics,
- Website writing,
- Resume writing
- Informative Article Writing for News portal,
- Website contents -Digital Marketing content and techniques
You gain the best education and upgrade your knowledge at par with international standards. This course is available online and provides flexible batch timing. It becomes very convenient during lockdown to have access to this course.
Course Fees: INR 14900
2. Information Developers Foundation:
This Institute is a premier Institute for Technical writing. They have several branches across India – Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, and Hyderabad. It provides Training with placements
Course Content :
- Introduction to Technical writing
- Principles of Technical writing
- Responsibility and Different roles of Professional Technical writer
- Overview of software and tools
- Software development process- SDLC, DDLC
- Developing Documents and its Planning
- Information Architect
- Analyzing Audience
- Documents Structure – Formats and its Types
- Collecting Information and Analyzing Data
Duration: 100 Hours
3.Symbiosis Centre of Distance Learning (SCDL), Pune:
Symbiosis Centre of Distance Learning offers 18 Months Postgraduate Diploma in Technical Writing in Business Management. It is an Online course with Approx 100 seats available.
Duration: 1.5 Years
Course Content :
- A Brief Introduction to technical communication
- Technical writing Editing and style
- Life Cycle 1 & Life cycle 2 : Information Development
- Software tools
- Project management- Advance Fundaments and Concepts
- Technical communication
- Practices and principle of Management
- Methods of research
- Project Assignment
- Structure of Business Communication
Fees: 41,000
Eligibility: Graduate in any field.
This is one of the most value-adding and prestigious Technical writing courses in India today. A good opportunity to get the best technical writing knowledge.
4. Udemy:
Udemy offers many Online Professional technical writing courses.
The course specializes in: –
- Professional technical writing course for INR 12,800, Duration 17 hours
- How to write Software document, Online course for INR 420, Duration: 12 hours
- Coding for writers -Basic programming at INR 420, Duration: 2.5 Hours Online lecture.
- Writing and Editing Course: Mastery in proofreading and copy editing for INR 420, Duration 42 mins Online lecture
- Professional report writing, exclusively for Engineers for INR 420, Duration 1 hour.
5. Coursera:
Coursera offers a free online course to enhance technical skills. The course is offered in association with the Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT).
Course Curriculum: – It has 5 modules that cover the topic. On completion of the course, you will get a certificate instantly.
Course syllabus: –
- 1st the module covers a brief Introduction & Its Scope.
- 2nd Module covers the Audience, objective, Purpose, and measure in writing technical documents. It covers the challenges faced by technical writers in writing documents.
- 3rd Module: Teaches how you can use Visuals to communicate with your audience, aspect of visual, laid down guidelines to use graphical tools. This also teaches how to write a complex technical report.
- 4th Module: This module covers the Research part in -depth. It covers gathering information related to academics and workplace research. It focuses on gathering valuable, precise, and detailed information for medical & academic reports.
- 5th Module: Capstone Projects – It covers Navigation of patent Data, Tools used for gathering information /Data.
Duration of the course: 20 Hours
Fees: Free
6. Tech Total Soft System:
This is a Hyderabad cum Banglore based Institute that offers a wide variety of technical writing courses:-
- Certificate in technical writing Course: Duration is 30 days, Fees: 25000. Any graduate can apply.
- Crash course: Duration is 15 days, Fees: 25,000, Any Graduate can apply
- Full-time technical writing course: Duration is 3 Months, Fees: 50000. Any graduate can apply.
Course content: Why technical writing? its Process, Documentation process, Software development Life cycle (SDLC), DDLC, MS Visio- Image drawing tool, Snag IT – Picture capturing tool, Software tools used in technical writing, Graphic editor, Text editor-MS word, Grammar and editing, Adobe-Publishing tools, Research methodology
7. ECT:
ECT offers a Government recognized course in Content writing which includes Technical writing. It is a New Delhi-based institute. It has Online sessions with flexible batches.
Course Curriculum:-
- Technical writing
- Academic writing
- Business Writing
- Writing Tools Tips and techniques
- Specific report writing
Duration of the course : 3 months -32 hours course of Live training and Internship and placement assistance
Fees: INR 15000
Advance writing skills are taught during the sessions
Ethics to be followed in Professional technical writing :
Ethical writing is the key element in Professional writing, though it is hard for few writers to follow the same. But writers have no choice but to be ethical when they write Professional content. Throughout the career, one will be required to write sensible, accurate, and useful data and there is no escape. It is best to adopt an Ethical writing style to gain respect throughout the journey.
There are few things to keep in mind while writing Professional Technical content:-
1.Content is not Misleading:– One must not write anything or present any table, graphs that are not true. Any kind of twisting of numbers, wrong information to get more views and opinions is unfavorable. Presenting false data becomes easy and tempting when you have pressure on and have a deadline to meet. On Job, one cannot skip showing brief details like graphs and tables which represent accuracy.
2.No Manipulation:- Do not try to convince people to believe what is not correct. A great writer with fewer ethics can twist words and sound like it is something beneficial for all. In today’s world, the audience is smart enough to find out what you have written only benefits you and it may hint toward the writer’s bad intention. It becomes easy to get caught up in facts and forget the people involved. With every content and document, you create you need to keep it Ethical and true with no manipulations in it.
3. Do not Stereotype: In many cases stereotyping take place subconsciously since now, the workplace is careful to not openly discriminate. The writer may not be aware he is doing so. To avoid such a situation it is advisable to let a coworker proofreading the document just to make sure that there is no discrimination assumption made. There is an Online test link where you can check if there is any stereotype content. Here you can check if there are any subconscious biases.
While following ethical practice it’s also important to address unethical practices, the hardest part is to raise the voice against an unethical practice that one may come across. But is important to discuss how their act is affecting others and why. Amicably the stereotyping issues can be resolved.
Understanding the Audience and their Type
Technical document or content is only meaningful when it is designed for the right audience. There is a need to understand your audience. When a technical writer communicates the researched data he should be clear who is the receiver of his content. The document must convey the information in a tone that the audience understands. Hence while planning, writing, and while reviewing the information audience is the most important part of the project. The audience may have a different educational background, interests, requirements. All this needs to be taken into consideration while writing technical details.
Let’s understand the type of Audience:-
1. Experts: This kind of customer or audience is the one who knows the theory, latest news, and everything about the product and service inside and out. These people already have in-depth knowledge of designing, testing, and consumer insight. They hold Masters degree, Ph.D. and already have established career in the respective field.
2. Technicians: These are the people who operate, repair, or maintain the item designed by experts. They have pure practical knowledge and full in-depth information on the functionality of the product.
3. Executives: These are the audience which mainly deals with the document, they are the first receiver of the technical document – Business report, Finance report- CEO, Resume- Hiring Manager, proposals- Committee Members, etc.
4. Gatekeepers:- These are professionals who will see if the document is valid, true, meaningful, and ethical. They are the supervisors who check if the document written by the writer serves the purpose or not. E.g Lawyers, Auditors, Consultants, Any supervisor
5. Nonspecialists: They are people with the least knowledge about the topic, They want to know about the product, read about it and gain knowledge, update themselves, they may be just curious to know about the topic e.g Laypeople. Here the glossary at the end of the document should be included for all technical terms so that it is easy for naïve users to understand what it means. This is required especially while writing user manual and Instruction booklet documents, A step-wise process is also useful for this group of audience.
The writer must frame his document keeping his audience in mind so that the information is relevant and useful for his end-user.
Career Scope of Professional technical writing :
Earlier Technical writing was only for writing Manuals, Instruction booklets but gradually the market has evolved. Now we see it reaching places like Aeronautics, electronics, Mass communication- Journalism, Medical -Pharma, IT, Human Resource, Finance, Sales & Marketing, Education sector. Due to digitalization this has become possible and attracted more work opportunities for professional writers.
With the Boom in Technology, New Innovative product, and Security apps launch there is going to be more and more opportunity, and since technology is upgrading day by day this is never going to disappear from the world Map. During the lockdown, we witnessed all social media sites were flooded with courses like Coding for Children, Machine learning, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, etc now you can envision the scope and its market growth. All these require a Qualified writer to write technical content.
The manufacturing sector in India is showing great progress. With government support and initiatives coming in we will see this further expanding with more and more job opportunities in the coming future. Apart from this, after the retirement of the senior group, the job prospect for people studying technical writing will undoubtedly be high.
Whether one gets hired by an MNC or a small startup company, the job will require you to work for fixed working hours and some may even get the leverage to Work from Home. In few cases, one may be required to work overtime on weekends also, but that depends on the nature of work assigned to him. For most entry-level jobs, the Role of a Technical documenter is the nature of work prevailing in Manufacturing, Public relations, etc.
Technical writers are required to work with product managers, hardware Engineers, the Customer relation department for consumer durable products, Lawyers, top management. Research institutes and scientists also closely work with these professionals. From 2018 to 2028 a growth rate of 8% is expected for technical writing
This is the best start a fresher can have after completing the course from a premium institute. A fresher can earn Rs.30000 p.m as a starting salary and as he gains expertise and more information and knowledge his salary will shoot up with time. As the writer may advance in his career he will be responsible for handling more complex projects.
Some of the top companies Hiring Technical Writers are as below:-
- Cognizant, Wipro, Oracle, Infosys
- NIIT, Aptech
- Nokia, Huawei, Alcatel
- Adobe, Dell, LG, Cisco
- Citec, Unisys, Symphony
On completing external training provided by the Organization with certification and with an equivalent professional qualification the maximum monthly salary that a professional technical writer can earn is INR 1 Lakh p.m. Is’nt that a lucrative and interesting Job? As already mentioned above Technical writing is ranked as one of the best among the top 4% Courses in March 2021.
Once the Resume is updated with the Diploma /Certificate the candidate can update his skills in Job portals like Naukri and monster .com a random search also helps in finding amazing job opportunities across India and abroad.
Finally, a career in technical writing is rewarding especially when we consider the CTC that an individual gets. It is a prestigious career where you focused only on the advance & technical part.
It adds value to your existing qualification and earns respect, especially among immediate, extended family and friends. Gone are the days where writers were seen as an artist and creative writer. Today a technical writer has the skill, style, expertise, and advance technical knowledge and knows how to present it before his Audience.
For someone who has a quest for knowledge and loves to read lots of data like graphs, reports, tables, they can always consider learning technical writing from those above-mentioned Institutes.