Ch 13: Technical Manual Writing Process Lesson Plans
About This Chapter
Weekly Syllabus
Below is a sample breakdown of the Technical Manual Writing Process chapter into a 5-day school week. Based on the pace of your course, you may need to adapt the lesson plan to fit your needs.
| Day | Topics | Key Terms and Concepts Covered |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Structure, types and purpose of technical manuals | Examine the organizational structure, purpose and content of manuals; Types of technical manuals, including policy, procedure, operations, operator's, owner or user, service and maintenance, training, field and lab |
| Tuesday | Print manuals and e-manuals | Understanding print manuals and e-manuals and the benefits for each, depending on the audience |
| Wednesday | Manual writing issues | Issues that occur in manual writing, including updates and usability |
| Thursday | Standard operating procedure (SOP) | Purpose, content and organizational structure of standard operating procedures |
| Friday | Understanding the writing process for manuals | Prewriting, writing, rewriting, role of single sourcing, guidelines in writing manuals, manuals for transnational audiences, role of design in producing manuals |
1. The Purpose, Content & Structure of Manuals
As work tasks and tools become more complicated, well-developed manuals become ever more necessary and prevalent. In this lesson, you'll learn about manuals, including their purpose, content and structure.
2. Types & Purposes of Manuals
Watch this video lesson to learn about the many different kinds of manuals you can expect to come across at work. You will see that you have manuals for doing various tasks and you have manuals that you give to customers.
3. Comparing Print Manuals & E-Manuals
When considering how to distribute manuals for a new product, one of the first questions that has to be asked is whether a print manual or an e-manual will be used. In this lesson, we compare the two types.
4. Issues within Manual Writing
Manual writing is a crucial part of making any product really usable to the final customer. However, as this lesson will demonstrate, there are a number of issues that the technical writer needs to be aware of.
5. Standard Operating Procedure (SOP): Purpose, Content & Structure
Standardization is key to efficiency and productivity in the business world, and necessary in the technical and scientific realm. In this lesson, you'll learn about standard operating procedures, including their purpose, content, and structure.
6. The Writing Process for Manuals
Writing a manual is one of the most important technical writing tasks imaginable. As you can imagine, it has to be quite a bit more than just a simple 'how-to.' In this lesson, we look at how to make the best manual possible.
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Other Chapters
Other chapters within the Technical Writing Syllabus Resource & Lesson Plans course
- Technical Writing Basics Lesson Plans
- Prewriting Lesson Plans
- Writing Technical Documents Lesson Plans
- Technical Editing & Rewriting Lesson Plans
- Parts of a Technical Document Lesson Plans
- Usability Testing & Technical Writing Lesson Plans
- Informal Technical Reports Lesson Plans
- Formal Technical Reports Lesson Plans
- Business Reports and Proposals Lesson Plans
- Technical Correspondence Lesson Plans
- Writing Resumes & Cover Letters Lesson Plans
- Technical Instructions Lesson Plans
- Proposal Writing Process Lesson Plans