Whether you’re writing technical documentation, training curriculum and materials, or eLearning scripts, this book delivers instruction and practical experience. You will find lessons on the writing process and structure; identifying and thinking like your audience; facilitating the conversation between SMEs and the reader; promoting the WOW factor; keeping “the voice” active, accurate… and short; avoiding common grammar mistakes; identifying and eliminating deadwood; writing narratives that will hook your audience; and writing step-by-step procedures that make the most of the learner’s time and effort.

You will need a VitalSource account to access this digital book. You can find this workbook here in pdf format or here in ePub format.

Here's what's covered:

Section 1: Planning to Write

At the end of this section you should be able to:
• Outline one or more possible processes for writing training documents and scripts
• Identify two ways to work with a subject matter expert
• Write a formal learning objective
• Identify a Wow factor
• Identify three different writing styles used in training documents
• Start your own in-house style guide

Section 2: Grammar Workshop

At the end of this section you should be able to:

• List three common problem areas in grammar and punctuation
• Use quotation marks appropriately in training documents
• Use verbs correctly with different kinds of compound subjects
• Correctly use or omit commas and hyphens with adjectives

Section 3: Writing Workshop

At the end of this section you should be able to:

• Identify active versus passive sentences
• Name several examples of redundancies and wordy phrases
• Use or suggest plainer words
• Revise wordy sentences to be more concise

Section 4: Writing Step-by-Step Procedures

At the end of this section you should be able to:

• Name at least three ways to make step-by-step procedures clear
• Write clear and logical steps that separate the “what” from the “how-to”
• Add step results where needed in a procedure
• Name two ways to direct a learner to navigate to an on-screen object or tool
• Given a subject matter expert’s instructions, create a clear, well-formatted step-by-step training procedure

Section 5: Writing Narratives

At the end of this lesson you should be able to:

• Describe the purpose of an introductory narrative
• Name the best location for the technical term you are introducing
• List at least five examples of “encouraging words”
• Given information from a subject matter expert, identify the real world problem to be solved and what is in it for the reader, and write a concise and motivating introductory narrative

Section 6: eLearning Scripts and Storyboards

At the end of this lesson you should be able to:

• Describe two ways to format an eLearning script
• Describe a typical plot line for soft skills training
• Create a storyboard for soft skills