Summary of Technical Writing Two
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Technical Writing Two covered the following intermediate lessons of
technical writing:
- Adopt a style guide.
- Think like your audience.
- Read documents out loud (to yourself).
- Return to documents well after you've written the draft.
- Find a good peer editor.
- Outline a document. Alternatively, write free form and then organize.
- Introduce a document's scope and any prerequisites.
- Prefer task-based headings.
- Disclose information progressively (in some situations).
- Consider writing the caption before creating the illustration.
- Constrain the amount of information in a single drawing.
- Focus the reader's attention on the relevant part of a picture or diagram
by describing the takeaway in the caption or by adding a visual cue to the
picture.
- Create concise sample code that is easy to understand.
- Keep code comments short, but prefer clarity over brevity.
- Avoid writing comments about obvious code.
- Focus your commenting energy on anything non-intuitive in the code.
- Provide not only examples but also anti-examples.
- Provide code samples that demonstrate a range of complexity.
- Make a practice of continuous revision.
- Provide different documentation types for different categories of users.
- Compare and contrast with something that readers are already familiar with.
- In tutorials, reinforce concepts with examples.
- In tutorials, note problems that readers may encounter.
Congratulations! You've completed the pre-class portion of
Technical Writing Two.
The in-class component of Technical Writing Two helps you practice technical
writing principles:
- If your organization offers the in-class portion of Technical Writing
Two, you are now ready for that class.
- If your organization doesn't offer the in-class portion of Technical
Writing Two, consider joining one of the free public courses listed on
the Announcements page.
Except as otherwise noted, the content of this page is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License, and code samples are licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. For details, see the Google Developers Site Policies. Java is a registered trademark of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
Last updated 2025-03-31 UTC.
[null,null,["Last updated 2025-03-31 UTC."],[[["\u003cp\u003eTechnical Writing Two emphasizes intermediate technical writing skills such as adopting style guides, understanding audience needs, and effective document structuring.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThis course covers techniques for clear and concise writing, including outlining, using task-based headings, progressive disclosure of information, and creating effective visuals with captions.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIt also guides on writing understandable code samples with relevant comments and providing diverse documentation for different user types.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eThe course involves a pre-class portion which you have completed and an optional in-class component for practical application of learned principles.\u003c/p\u003e\n"],["\u003cp\u003eIndividuals can participate in the in-class portion either within their organization or through free public courses if unavailable internally.\u003c/p\u003e\n"]]],["Technical Writing Two covers intermediate technical writing lessons, including adopting a style guide, understanding your audience, and using peer editors. Key actions involve outlining or free-form writing followed by organization, introducing document scope, using task-based headings, and progressively disclosing information. It emphasizes writing concise, clear code comments, providing examples and anti-examples, continuous revision, catering to different user categories, and comparing with familiar concepts. It also stresses tutorial structure and illustrative clarity.\n"],null,["# Summary of Technical Writing Two\n\n\u003cbr /\u003e\n\n| **Estimated Time:** 1 minute\n\nTechnical Writing Two covered the following intermediate lessons of\ntechnical writing:\n\n- Adopt a style guide.\n- Think like your audience.\n- Read documents out loud (to yourself).\n- Return to documents well after you've written the draft.\n- Find a good peer editor.\n- Outline a document. Alternatively, write free form and then organize.\n- Introduce a document's scope and any prerequisites.\n- Prefer task-based headings.\n- Disclose information progressively (in some situations).\n- Consider writing the caption *before* creating the illustration.\n- Constrain the amount of information in a single drawing.\n- Focus the reader's attention on the relevant part of a picture or diagram by describing the takeaway in the caption or by adding a visual cue to the picture.\n- Create concise sample code that is easy to understand.\n- Keep code comments short, but prefer clarity over brevity.\n- Avoid writing comments about *obvious* code.\n- Focus your commenting energy on anything non-intuitive in the code.\n- Provide not only examples but also anti-examples.\n- Provide code samples that demonstrate a range of complexity.\n- Make a practice of continuous revision.\n- Provide different documentation types for different categories of users.\n- Compare and contrast with something that readers are already familiar with.\n- In tutorials, reinforce concepts with examples.\n- In tutorials, note problems that readers may encounter.\n\nCongratulations! You've completed the pre-class portion of\nTechnical Writing Two.\n\nThe in-class component of Technical Writing Two helps you practice technical\nwriting principles:\n\n- If your organization offers the in-class portion of Technical Writing Two, you are now ready for that class.\n- If your organization doesn't offer the in-class portion of Technical Writing Two, consider joining one of the free public courses listed on the [Announcements page](/tech-writing/announcements)."]]
