Technical Writing for the Information Professions

This course has two primary foci: how to present technical information in forms readily useable to a broad audience of laypersons and professionals, and how to communicate to reach audiences with unequivocal meaning and intent. Students are expected to understand and appreciate these needs and be able to organize and manipulate information in a professional context using organized writing, graphic aids, and through the writing of abstracts, procedures, manuals, and white papers. Students will acquire the ability to convey technical concepts to a general audience of lay persons without reduction of the meaning and intent of the information. Within the technical context, students are expected to understand the principles of information technology as they apply to the presentation of concepts, ideas, procedures, and instructions.