#14592
Linked to this page are 6 high-school-level exercises that teach (through worked and scaffolded examples) how to write good technical descriptions. Also included is a set of description-writing guidelines on which these exercises depend. The summary table below links to two versions of each exercise: * A plain version suitable for classroom use as is, and * An annotated version that: * spells out the goal of each exercise and the writing issues that it addresses, * compares the exercise with others in this set, * suggests effective, relevant teaching strategies, as well as extended activities, and * notes the specific 1998 California English-Language Arts content standard(s) that the exercise most strongly supports.
Girill, T.R. STC East Bay (1999). Academic>Course Materials>Writing
#18710
An intensive training session on how to write clear, crisp, persuasive copy for letters, memos, proposals, reports, and other business documents.
Bly, Robert W. Bly.com. Academic>Course Materials>Writing>Business Communication
#18709
An intensive training session on how to write clear, crisp, technically accurate copy for letters, memos, proposals, reports, articles, papers, and other technical documents.
#14282
Process explanations have become an important part of the workplace. However, professionals don’t create process explanations only for auditors. Process explanations are used to communicate sequential activities to a variety of audiences and for many different reasons. As Technical Communication, 5e illustrates in Chapter 12 (“Creating Process Explanations”), several forms of process explanations exist, though they have some common characteristics that you should be familiar with. In this exercise you will revise a set of detailed instructions into a process explanation. You have to decide what type of information is most appropriate for your audience and the purpose of your document.
Burnett, Rebecca E. Thomson (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Writing
#27490
Introduction to Technical Writing
An introduction to technical writing, with outlined notes about writing clearly.
Gallagher, Karin. rpbourret.com (2000). Academic>Course Materials>Writing>Technical Writing
#14277
Organizing Sentences into Paragraphs 
This exercise will give you practice in organizing sentences into effective paragraphs. This computer file contains 12 sentences that you need to group, order, and connect so that you can create coherent, cohesive paragraphs.
Burnett, Rebecca E. Thomson (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Writing
#22279
A PDF document intended as a resource for teachers who want help describing the memo to students. This (relatively lengthy) sample memo attempts to make an all-too-familiar document strange again by explaining what it is and how to use it.
Zuidema, Leah A. Michigan State University (2003). Academic>Course Materials>Writing>Technical Writing
#24156
Slides to Teach Technical Writing
Given on this site are free PowerPoint slides to teach technical writing. These slides come from The Craft of Scientific Writing (3rd ed., Springer, 1996). More than 400 instructors around the world have requested these slides.
Alley, Michael. Virginia Tech (2002). Academic>Course Materials>Writing>Technical Writing
#25038
Teaching Technical Communication 
Course materials and teaching suggestions for the Technical Communication classroom (as taught at New Jersey Institute of Technology); website contains current assessment criteria and goals.
Johnson, Carol Siri. New Jersey Institute of Technology (2003). Academic>Course Materials>Writing>Technical Writing
#20497
The assignment in this unit is to learn about technical reports, their different types, their typical audiences and situations, and then to plan one of your own. Specifically, your task in this unit is to pick a report topic, report audience and situation, report purpose, and report type.
McMurrey, David A. Illuminati Online (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Reports>Technical Writing
#24116
The format in technical writing is similar to the pyramid technique used in journalism. Information is presented quickly to the reader with the most important details in the first sentence or two.
Scott, George A. TechWriter!. Academic>Course Materials>Writing>Technical Writing
#14265
Writing for Different Audiences
For this exercise, you will be looking at as many as four texts about Java, a programming language that has recently become a phenomenon because it allows programmers to make interactive pages on the World Wide Web. You’ll examine and discuss the way these different texts approach their different audiences, then construct an article, pamphlet, or brochure about Java for an audience you choose.
Burnett, Rebecca E. Thomson (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Writing
#25578
Writing for the World Wide Web
This is a course about writing and the World Wide Web in at least two different and related ways. First, we will be reading, 'browsing,' and writing about the World Wide Web in order to understand how the web works rhetorically. Second, we will be creating web sites that are good examples of effective web sites.
Krause, Steven D. Eastern Michigan University (2005). Academic>Course Materials>Web Design>Writing
#10783
Describes the two types of abstracts: informational and Descriptive, then gives some tips on how to write effective report abstracts.
#14279
Regardless of what industry you work in, as a professional communicator you will encounter the difficulty of defining a new or unfamiliar term for your readers. How will you explain a new concept like random access memory? How would you even know where to begin? Technical Communication/4e presents several options you have for writing technical definitions, providing examples of both short and extended definitions. For this exercise you will construct a technical definition for a specific audience. The strategy you choose for defining the concept depends on the audience(s) you select, that audience’s need(s) for the information, and the type of document in which the definition would appear.
Burnett, Rebecca E. Thomson (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Writing
