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Course details

Technical Writer

Learn what technical writers do and the habits that make documentation useful. You improve the docs of Nightjar, a small uptime-monitoring service, from its jargon-filled README to research-backed how-to guides.

Ready to learn6 sections · 23 lessons
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Course curriculum

What Technical Writing Is4 lessons

Find out what technical writing is and who does it, where a technical writer sits in a product team, the many forms the work takes, and how the career grows from pages to whole documentation systems.

  1. What Technical Writing Is — and Who Does It12 min
  2. The Technical Writer's Role in a Team12 min
  3. Forms of Technical Writing12 min
  4. Growing as a Technical Writer12 min
Required Skills3 lessons

Build enough technical understanding to test what you document, use language precisely enough that readers never have to guess, and organise a message so the point arrives first.

  1. Technology Expertise — Understand Before You Explain12 min
  2. Language Proficiency — Precise Words, Clear Sentences12 min
  3. Written Communication — Point First12 min
Tooling4 lessons

Write in Markdown, propose doc changes through Git branches and pull requests, let editing and originality tools flag problems you then judge, and choose where each kind of content should be published.

  1. Markdown — Structure in Plain Text14 min
  2. Git — Docs That Change With the Code14 min
  3. Editing Tools and Originality Checks12 min
  4. Publishing Tools — Choosing Where Content Lives12 min
Best Practices5 lessons

Plan every page around a named reader and a clear goal, structure it for scanning, give it a title that tells, use story and honest product mentions well, and end with a next step and trustworthy references.

  1. Personas and Objectives — Reader and Purpose First13 min
  2. Content Structure — Built for Scanning12 min
  3. Crafting Great Titles12 min
  4. Storytelling and Subtle Selling13 min
  5. Calls to Action and References13 min
Content Research4 lessons

Turn support tickets, community questions, keyword volume and search trends into a ranked list of topics, and use a simple topic score to choose what to write next.

  1. Support Request Evaluation — Mining the Tickets13 min
  2. Communities and Forums — Listening Where Readers Talk12 min
  3. Keyword Volume and Search Trends13 min
  4. Topic Score — Choosing What to Write Next14 min
Types of Technical Content3 lessons

Write the words inside the product, the explanatory prose that says what a feature is and how it works, and task-focused how-to guides that take a reader from goal to verified result.

  1. Product Content — The Words Inside the Product12 min
  2. General Product Prose — Explaining How It Works13 min
  3. How-to Guides — From Goal to Proof15 min