Communicating technical concepts to non-technical readers is one of the most difficult writing challenges technical staff face on the job. When non-technical readers fail to gain a basic understanding of technical concepts, projects can go over budget or even grind to a halt. To gather information about their needs, and to explain specifications and functionality to non-technical readers, technical staff need finely honed writing skills.

What you will learn:

• How technical and non-technical readers differ in their motivation to read technical documents
• How to use analogies, examples, and definitions to make technical topics easier for non-technical readers to understand
• How to incorporate graphics that will help explain complex topics to non-technical readers
• How to write to manage non-technical readers’ expectations about project schedules and deliverables
• How to write to solicit information from non-technical readers
• How to make your writing scannable

Course length: one day or half day