The fundamentals of technical writing | MUNI 2023

During the spring semester 2023, we start a pilot project to teach the basics of technical writing at the Faculty of Informatics, Masaryk university. You can find more information as follows.

Disclaimer: This is a pilot version of the course.

General information:

Course objectives:

• Give students an overview of the technical writing industry, acquire knowledge and skills that are required for a technical writer job role.
• Prepare students to work with technical writers if they are working as developers.
• Prepare students to write better documentation for their future projects.
• Train purposeful, minimalist writing and clear communication.

Course overview: https://research.redhat.com/courses/muni-techwriting-spring2023/

Information only for MUNI students - spring 2023

For information about assesment, homework and grading, see Information for MUNI students - spring 2023

Lecture Overview

The lecture overview is only tentative.

1st lecture: Introduction to technical writing: 14th February 2023

• Definition and purpose of technical writing, comparison between different writing styles, a day in the life of a technical writer, types of technical documentation and their specifics, target audience.
• Link to the presentation: Introduction slides

2nd lecture: Style: 21st February 2023

• Accessibility, readability, findability, minimalism, modularity, and structure; user focus and information flow, style guides.
• Link to the presentation - Style slides

3rd lecture: Soft skills: 28th February 2023

• Definition of soft skills; empathy, ethics, cultural awareness, communication skills, curiosity, proactivity, editorial skills, time management.
• Link to the presentation - Soft skills slides

4th lecture: Hard skills: 7th March 2023

Part 1. Hard skills

• Definition of hard skills in technical writing, why we need them, product knowledge - engagement with the development team, understanding user personas, teamwork across QE, product owners, engineers, support teams, planning for tech writing, how to create technical content, content strategy, agile. In the second part of the lecture you will learn about languages to structure the text.
• Link to the presentation - Hard skills slides

Part 2. Tooling

• Prerequisites for this lecture:
  • Bring laptop with working operating system to which you have access.
• Introduction to tooling: markup languages and editors.
• Link to the presentation - Tooling - part 1 slides

5th lecture: Tooling: 14th March 2023

• Prerequisites for this lecture:

  • Install AsciiDoctor on your computer. For details, see AsciiDoctor installation instructions.
  • Sign up for a GitHub account.
  • Set up Git and SSH keys on your computer if you work from the command line. For details, see Git configuration instructions.
  • Alternatively, use the GitHub web interface.

• Introducing single sourced and modular documentation, advantages of using markup languages with ability to set attributes and use conditions, overview of text editors, version control systems, and publishing tools, creating and generating documentation using AsciiDoc and AsciiDoctor

• Link to the presentation - TBA

6th lecture: Usability: 21st March 2023

• Usability of documented products, 10 usability heuristics, usability of documentation deliverables.
• Link to the presentation - TBA