Summary of Technical Writing Two

Congratulations! You've completed the pre-class portion of Technical Writing Two, which covered the following intermediate principles of technical writing:

Section Lesson
Self-editing
Adopt a style guide.
Think like your audience.
Read documents out loud to yourself.
Organizing large docs
Determine whether to organize a large amount of information into a single long document or a collection of shorter documents.
Outline first. Alternatively, write free form and then reorganize.
Introduce a large document by explaining what it covers.
Choose headings that describe the task your reader is working on.
Illustrating
Consider writing the caption before creating the illustration.
Constrain the amount of information in a single drawing.
Focus the reader's attention on the relevant part of a picture or diagram by describing the takeaway in the caption or by adding a visual cue to the picture.
Creating sample code
Create sample code that is accurate, clear, short, easy to understand, and well-commented.
Consider providing not only examples but also anti-examples.
In tutorials, provide code samples that demonstrate a range of complexity.
Using LLMs in tech writing
Construct detailed prompts by defining a role for the LLM, a target audience, a document type, and a specific goal.
Revise documents by prompting an LLM to reorganize content, copy edit for errors, and identify stylistic or logical issues.
Generate concise summaries by identifying the summary's purpose, target audience, and style.

The in-class component of Technical Writing Two helps you practice intermediate technical writing principles.

If your organization offers the instructor-led portion of Technical Writing Two, you're now ready for that class. If your organization doesn't offer the instructor-led portion of Technical Writing Two, note that Google occasionally offers the course. See the Announcements page for details.