Course Syllabus

Advanced Certificate Course in Structured Writing for Technical Documentation
Contact hours: 40 hrs

Zoë Lawson
zoelawson17@hotmail.com

Course Description

The field of technical writing has come a long way from writing clearly and concisely using a keyboard into a new world of structured writing and content management. Documents are no longer written and published as individual entities within a documentation set but rather written as data segments for reuse on systems that automate processes for controlling and managing the segments. Information is no longer published as a document solely for paper ouput, but for electronic access on PCs, cell phones, and other handheld devices. This means that the technical writer today must be familiar with the solutions that employ the features of structured writing for reuse, and the latest standard approaches for segmenting and storing information for output to multiple types of formats and access on different devices.

The course is designed to further your technical writing skills with use of XMetaL, XML and the DITA standard. It also introduces you to other writing standards, output options, and content management systems.

Outcome

By the end of the course, you will:

1. Know how to interpret a DTD (document type definition)
2. Use XMetaL as an authoring tool
3. Segment your data for maximum use and reuse among a documentation set
4. Use XML to tag your data
5. Learn about and use the DITA (Darwin Information Type Architecture) standard
6. Become familiar with the current trends in technical writing in addition to DITA; the S1000D standard, use of IETMs and CMS.

Required Book and Software

Introduction to DITA 2nd Edition Comtech Services, Inc. Order from: https://comtech-serv.com/product/introduction-to-dita-2nd-edition/

 Software  (free trial software download available online)

• Windows: XMetaL DITA
• Macs: oXygen DITA

Assessment

Your progress and understanding of the lessons is assessed based on the instructor’s evaluation of your written assignments, quizzes, contribution to the discussion, and a final project.

Start the class by clicking this Link.

Accredited University Certificate of Completion

Participants can choose to receive a certificate of completion at the end of the course. The cost of the Certificate and Processing will generally be $59.00 domestic and $69.00 International.  View more information.

Outline