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TWIN is also formulating a Certificate Course in Technical Writing. We are
also interested in learning about inputs from the brilliant minds on this
list on what all we should offer in this program. We plan to do this
program in about 160 hours for newbies. What all should we teach in these
160 hours? Naturally, we will leave out the handson Tools part. Like we
plan to teach Windows Help, but not actually expect the students to grasp
handson knowledge about it. The idea being that he/she can do so on the job
or through self-learning. We hope that this course will create new
technical writers and we hope that our tech writers can be highly productive
in their jobs within a month or two -- rather than 6-12 months which it
normally takes for a newbie to learn the ropes.
A big debatable point for me is whether to include Grammar as a part of the
program? If so, how much? We are planning to provide only introduction to
web, and online.
Naturally, please do not clutter this list with your responses. Please send
them to me and Jan directly. I plan to put a summary of responses received
on the TWIN autoresponder -- where anyone can pick up the summary by just
sending an email (will post this info when ready).
Yes, we have been doing our homework and have had a look at several programs
(recommendations are welcome). However, getting feedback from those on the
field is very important. This we hope will make our course absolutely
current.
As Technical Writers and/or Technical Writing instructors, could some of
you on this list please tell me what you think are the most helpful and
necessary components of teaching beginners about technical writing?
