technical writing

This article discusses about the boom in Technical Writing and Tips on choosing a good Technical Writing Institute

Technical Writing has been around for almost a decade. However, quite recently, it has acquired widespread attention in India. The number of people interested in becoming a technical writer has increased following many openings for Technical Writers and Technical Documentation Specialists.

The recent technical writing boom in India has sprouted quite a large number of Technical Writing Institutes in India. Bangalore being the IT capital, has Technical Writing Certification Institutes which offer a course from anywhere around Rs 10,000 to Rs 50,000 in a duration of 15 days to 3 months. A seasoned or an experienced Technical Writer may wonder what on earth these institutes teach. Well, if there are students willing to pay, there would be institutes willing to ask for such fees when there is nothing really to learn on technical writing from an institute.

All that is required for becoming a technical writer is:

1. Good or Excellent writing skills
2. Basic Knowledge of Computers and Programming Languages
3. Knowledge of HTML, XML, CSS and Photoshop are an advantage

If you do not have the basic writing skills, it is not recommended to purse a technical writing career.

100% Job Placement

A common statement while enquiring a course center would be, “We provide 100% Job Placements”. Well, that’s a lie.

Kavitha, who recently finished her technical writing course in a center in Bangalore India, mentions with regret, “I was told that they would provide me 100% job placement with a whole lot of other promises. But when I finished my course, there was no information about placements. When I went along with my batch mates and asked them, they mentioned that they will only guide us how to get a job and asked us to update our resumes in Naukri, Times Jobs and Monster. This was disappointing. Don’t we know how to update our resumes in job portals?” She further stated, “In the end, they did not even provide a course completion certificate rather a participation certificate after spending 30,000 rupees. It was a huge mistake I chose this institute“

Crash Courses

Do not join crash courses. You would just end up spending the money in few days instead of months. You would not be able to coupe with the speed and end up confused. Always take time while learning. You need time to learn, practice and prepare to become a technical writer.

Facilities

Check how the center is equipped to provide you all the training that is required. If the center has few computers and the student strength is outnumbered, it’s just not the right technical writing center you need to choose. The center should also have at least the most important softwares:

1. Robohelp
2. Frame Maker
3. Adobe Photoshop
4. Visio

Make sure that they also provide all required study materials. Remember you are shelling out a 5 digit fees and that’s no small a number. You need to get for what you pay.

Syllabus

An ideal technical writing course would start with the basics of writing, the difference between a content writer and a technical writer and basic writing tips, tricks and techniques.

The technical aspects of a syllabus would touch html, xml, css and should spend sufficient hours to make a newbie aware of what they are. The course should end with excellent training on Robo Help, Frame Maker and Visio – the three most common Technical Writing Tools.

If the technical writing institute is also willing to teach you Photoshop and some basic designing and formatting tips it is an added goodie to your course package.

And finally, it’s the English writing skills that finally counts. Technical Writing is just not for everyone. You can enjoy your job and excel in this lucrative career if you have a real passion for writing.

Technopoint India offers technical writing training, technical documentation and instructional design services in Bangalore, India.

Course Cost: Rs-30,000.
Duration: 2 Months
Location: TechnoPoint
#1657,10th Main, Jeevan Bhima Nagar Main Road, HAL III Stage,
Bangalore – 560 075,
Karnataka, India

The course is split into Five modules:
Module 1: Fundamentals of Technical Writing and Grammar (60 hours)
Module 2: XML and FrameMaker (30 hours)
Module 3: HTML and RoboHELP (30 hours)
Module 4: Advanced MS Word (15 hours)
Module 5: MS Visio (15 hours)

The course is basically designed for the following:
• Build & leverage professional reputation
• Get results working with various personalities
• Maintain focus in stress situations
• Achieve maximum productivity and effectiveness in your organization
• Achieve results in communication, be it internal or external customers
• Work productively within the political environment of your organization
• Build & present persuasive proposals
• Communicate effectively using simple, concise language
• Eliminate the roadblocks that undermine your ability to communicate effectively

The suggestions below can help you collect information and write quality content at great speeds.

1. First collect all the information you can get for all the topics and paste them onto a word document. The raw data should be at least twice the size of what is required
2. Gather content from different sites and verify the content authenticity. Do not stick to one site alone even if the site contains a large number of information.
3. The first Para or introduction should always be creative, imaginary and influence the person to read further. It should not be like a definition or similar to reading a history book.
4. Try to have equal content for all sub topics
5. See to that there are not more than 3 sentences in a paragraph
6. Make sure a sentence is no longer than two lines
7. Try to give 20 words more than what they require but not anything more than that
8. First try to finish the required content in time and if there is still more time, add further content or rework on the content
9. Try to have subtopics, lists, images if permitted
10. Format the content properly with bold, italics, bullets and proper fonts wherever applicable