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Do you have an interest in, or a passion for, computers or technology?
Are you looking for job opportunities in IT/Software Industry?
Do you have interest towards writing and learning new technologies?
Are you looking for lucrative or alternate profession?
If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, then you owe it to yourself to consider a career in Technical Writing….
Technical Writers job
A Technical Writer is a professional writer who designs, creates, maintains, and updates technical documentation including online help, user guides, white papers,
design specifications, and other documents for a software or hardware product.A technical Writer’s job is to gather information from various sources, comprehend the technology, and put in simple and easy-to-understand language for end users.
“A survey conducted by the portal careercast ranks technical writing at 13 among the top best jobs in 2010.”
“CNN survey concluded that, in terms of “Quality of Life” and low-stress working conditions, Technical Writing ranks 5th in the USA.”
5 High-Paying, Low-Stress Jobs – http://finance.yahoo.com/news/pf_article_109521.html.
As one of the 50 Best Careers, this should have strong growth over the next decade – http://money.usnews.com/money/careers/articles/2010/12/06/best-careers-2011-technical-writer.
The boom in information technology and its allied fields has spurred a lateral demand for people who can understand and explain complex technologies to a diverse target audience.
Demand
“There is acute shortage of more than 50% of trained technical writers in Indian markets”
Demand for technical writers with expertise in specialty areas, such as information technology, engineering, medicine, or economics, is expected to increase because of the continuing expansion of technical and scientific information and the need to communicate it to others.
Jobs in almost every Industry
No matter which industry you’re considering for a career, it probably employs technical communicators. Technical communicators work in IT, ITES, Engineering, Medicine, Electronics, Government, Media, Publishing, Aerospace industry, and just about any field in which people must interpret and use technology. They are an indispensable part of today’s technological society
Desired Skills
The ideal candidate must have good writing skills and the ability to write in clear, concise and correct language. A good technical writer should be a quick learner to understand the subject and turn it into documents in easy-to-understand language.
Education:
· BE/B-Tech, MBA, MCA.
· Diploma, BSC
· MA/BA English
Salaries
The starting salaries for technical writers begin between Rs 20,000/- and Rs 25,000 and can go up to Rs 35,000 or more with a couple of years of qualitative experience.
How to land in this career – A professional certificate course in Technical Writing
About Course Details
Course Outline:
If you want to become a technical writer and wonder what the job and the profession may involve, this course will introduce you to an exciting and rewarding career in technical communication.
Course Syllabus:
For syllabus click http://www.techtotalsystems.com/Certificate%20Course%20in%20Technical%20Writing.html
For more info on Technical Writing related FAQ’S click http://www.techtotalsystems.com/Technical%20Writing%20Training%20Bangalore.html
For online Training aspirants: http://www.techtotalsystems.com/Onlinetraining.html
About Techtotal
TechTotal is a leading Documentation Outsourcing company serving more than a 100 Clientele globally. We are a pool of professional Technical Writers experienced in delivering both quality and quantitative documentation related to any product.
We are a team of committed professionals – mentors who have years of experience in both managing large and complex documentation requirements. Our technical writers are having proven exposure in developing content and documenting it.
TechTotal is known all over the country for high quality training coupled with reasonable costs and innovative learning modules.
We offer comprehensive and tailor-made courses of unbeatable quality at highly competitive market rates that many aspirants consider affordable. TechTotal has partnered with and serves top players in the market like Microsoft, Robert Bosch, ADP, Wipro, TATA etc. Our trainers are highly qualified and have been rated among the best in the Industry. We have state-of-the-art infrastructure to impart our learning modules effectively. TechTotal offers training modules for corporates and individuals as well as online and classroom training
Tech Total will play a key role and partner with you in all your efforts to conquer Technical writing, an innovative and ever-growing field. This field is only expected to grow further as there is a need for quality documentation services with new software’s and programs being launched every day with a diverse scope across Information technology, Nano technology, Biotechnology, Aerospace, Electrical and Electronic industries etc.
The certificate courses offered by TechTotal are immensely valued in the job market providing professionals with a much needed boost for career transition.So why do you delay it in any further???? …Come and register with us….to master Technical writing.
For Registration/Demos
To fix a demo click http://www.techtotalsystems.com/index-4.html
Or For Hyderabad Aspirants
Call Mobile @ 9908363451/9989696902 – Rekha
Landline: 040 – 32434393
Mail: rekha@techtotalportal.com
Bangalore Aspirants
Call @ 9663015166/9989699562 – Shravan
Landline: 080 – 41179782
Mail: training@techtotalsystems.com
Corporate Headquarters:
TechTotal Soft Systems Pvt.Ltd.
#001, TechTotal Hub Buildings, Panjagutta, Hyderabad-82,
Andhra Pradesh, India.
Bangalore Branch Office:
# 147,4th Cross, Next to Shiridi Sai Baba Road, Cambridge Layout
Indiranagar, Bangalore-08,
Karnataka, India.
Email: info@techtotalsystems.com
Web: www.techtotalsystems.com
Portal: http://www.techtotal.co.in/
Blog: http://blog.techtotalportal.com
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TechTotal has become the ultimate destination for professional training and is considered synonymous with Technical writing. According to a research conducted by Yahoo, Technical writing has emerged as the number one profession of choice among the most lucrative fields in the next twenty years. Having successfully completed five years of our growth story in Hyderabad, we are envisioning to cater other geographical regions of the country that are at the forefront of services segment and digital age. The huge impact created by Tech Total in the domain of Technical writing, Instructional designing and E-learning heralds a new era in knowledge based companies.
Students and professionals all over the country usually come to our facility at Hyderabad to receive training. Otherwise they avail of the online training facility. However there has been a growing demand and requests to TechTotal from different sections of IT industry and students in Bangalore since last couple of years to establish a base in Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley.
These constant requests from the denizens of Bangalore has evoked considerable enthusiasm in our company to spread our wings further, contributing more to knowledge domain and the learning process. Tech Total is known all over the country for high quality training coupled with reasonable costs and innovative learning modules. In this endeavor to reach out to other urban regions of our country, we hereby proudly announce the commencement of our Bangalore operations. We offer comprehensive and tailor-made courses of unbeatable quality at highly competitive market rates that many aspirants consider affordable. TechTotal has partnered with and serves top players in the market like Microsoft, Robert Bosch, ADP, Wipro, TATA etc. Our trainers are highly qualified and have been rated among the best in the Industry. We have state-of-the-art infrastructure to impart our learning modules effectively. TechTotal offers training modules for corporates and individuals as well as online and classroom training. We will continue to deliver our highly acclaimed training services and update ourselves in a more creative environment that Bangalore offers.
TechTotal will play a key role and partner with you in all your efforts to conquer Technical writing, an innovative and ever-growing field. This field is only expected to grow further as there is a need for quality documentation services with new software’s and programs being launched every day with a diverse scope across Information technology, Nano technology, Biotechnology, Aerospace, Electrical and Electronic industries etc.
The certificate courses offered by TechTotal are immensely valued in the job market providing professionals with a much needed boost for career transition. So why do you delay it in any further???? …Come and register with us….to master Technical writing.
Contact Us for Registration
TechTotal Soft Systems Pvt Ltd
No: 147, 4rth Cross, Next to Shirdi Sai Baba Road
Cambridge Layout, Indiranagar
Bangalore – 560008
Mobile: 9663015166/9989699562
Email: training@techtotalsystems.com
Website: www.techtotalsystems.com
Portal: www.techtotal.co.in
Visit our new blog http://blog.techtotalportal.com
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Course Title: Certificate Course in Technical Writing
Course Code: TWC
Eligibility: Any Graduate
Duration: 30Days – Normal Track/ 15days – Fast Track
Also Available: Weekend Classes (Saturdays & Sundays) -7 Weekends Program
Timings: 10.00 – 12.00 PM, 02.00 – 04.00 PM
04.00 – 06.00 PM, 07.00 – 09.00 PM
Course Outline:
1. Technical Writing
2. Software Development Life Cycle – SDLC
3.Technical WritingProcess
4. Document Delivery Life Cycle – DDLC
5. Document Deliverables
6. SME Interviews and Project Planning
7. HTML & XML Intro
8. Writing Skills
9. Style Guide and Standards
11. Technical Writing Software Tools
12. Microsoft Word
13. Macromedia RoboHelp
14. Adobe FrameMaker
15. Snag IT
16. MS- Visio
17. PowerPoint
18. Photoshop
19. Reviews, Delivery and Publication
20. Resume Preparation and Certification
Course Modules Description:
1. Technical Writing
What is Technical Writing?
Role of a Technical writer
Principles of Technical Writing, Documentation deliverables
Printed documentation and Online Help Systems
Working with images and illustrations.
2. Software Development Life Cycle – SDLC
Software Development Life Cycle
How Software is developed, tested, maintained and retired
How products are installed, configured, customized and deployed
Relating software product features and business benefits
Working with programmers and testers
Understanding software requirement specifications
Analyzing product architecture
Documentation development life cycle
Types of documents associated with software products
Different types of software and applications.
3. Technical Writing Process
Understanding Audience/Readers
Collecting and Organizing information
Drafting information verbally and visually
Producing Information.
4. Document Delivery Life Cycle – DDLC
Document development process
Estimating Technical Documentation
Documentation Planning
Selection of Tools
Information Architecture
Templates and Page design
Audience Profiling
Task Analysis
Content Development
Elements of Style
Technical Reviews
Editorial Reviews
Formatting and pagination
Document Conversions
Content Publishing
Quality Control
Content Maintenance.
5. Document Deliverables
Types of Software/Hardware documents
End-User documents
a. User Manual, Administrator Guide, Online Help Files
b. Quick Reference guides, Release Notes, Read Me Notes
c. Training Presentations, Deployment /Installation Guide
Technical Documents
a. Functional Requirement Specification (FRS)
b. System/Software Requirement Specification(SRS)
c. Application Program Interface (API)
d. Design/Architecture Documents, Project Plan
Marketing and Web Documents
a. Case Studies
b. White Papers
c. Proposals/ Success Stories
d. Product Briefs/Brochures.
6. SME Interviews and Project Planning
1. Role of SME
2. SME objectives
3. SME interviews
4. Purpose of SME interview
5. Types of SME’s
6. Technical Writer and SME interactions
7. How to conduct SME interviews?
8. Modes of communication with SME
9. How to gather information from SME
10. How to create documentation Checklist
11. SME reviews
12. How to create project plan
13. Tips for conducting SME interviews.
7. HTML & XML Intro
1. Why HTML
2. HTML Document Structure
3. HTML Tags
4. HTML importance in Technical writing
5. Styles and CSS
6. Why XML for Technical Writers
7. XML Vs HTML
8. Introduction to XML
9. Introduction to DITA and single sourcing
8. Writing Skills
1. How to write clear and concise sentences
2. How to Write Steps, Instructions and Procedures
3. Organizing the content
4. Using simple words/Plain English
5. Logical sequence of Writing
6. Writing Sentence and Paragraph
7. Words to Avoid in Technical Writing
8. Document Flow
9. Tone and Rhetoric
9. Style Guide and Standards
1. What is Plagiarism
2. Steps to ensure Plagiarism free content
3. Types of Style Guides
4. Documentation Standards
5. Microsoft Style Guide for Technical Publication (MSTP)
6. Plan your writing
7. Document Conventions.
10. Grammar
1. Punctuations and Mechanics
2. Capitalization
3. Active Voice and Passive Voice
4. Writing clearly and concisely
5. Editing content, grammar and syntax
6. Proof Reading
7. Grammar Practice and Assignment
8. Email Etiquettes
11. Technical Writing Software Tools
Microsoft Word – Text Editor
Adobe RoboHelp – Help Authoring
Adobe FrameMaker – Content Publication
Snag IT – Image Capturing
Ms Visio – Image Drawing
PowerPoint – Training Presentation
Adobe Photoshop – Image Editor.
12. Microsoft Word – Word Processing Tool
1. About Microsoft word
o Introduction
o Features
2. Starting the Application
3. Accessibility, Formatting Text
4. Font and Paragraph settings
5. Bullets and Numbering, Cross-references
6. Borders and Shading, Styles and Formatting
7. Template Creation, Creating Sections
8. Working with Table, Bookmark &Hyperlink
9. Generating Table of Contents & Table of Figures
10. Header and Footer, Footnote and Endnote
11. Working with Reviewing toolbar
12. Toolbars, Shortcuts, Protecting the Document
13. Watermarks/Columns/Change Case
14. Generating Index, Auto text and AutoCorrect.
13. Macromedia RoboHelp – Help Authoring Tool
About Online Help
Planning an Online Help, Understanding RoboHelp Interface
Creating your First Help project, Working with Topics & Folders
Working with TOC, Index, & Glossary, Generating Output
About Types of Layouts, Applying Template and Style Sheet
Controlling CHM Window and Skins
Working with Links, Pop-ups, Triggers, and Drop-downs
Working with Graphics and Text boxes
Creating Related Topics, See Also and Keyword Link
Playing with Marquee, Triggers, and Splash Screen
Creating Dropdowns, Expanding, Hyperlinks and Popups
Changing the primary layout, Tools in RoboHelp Html
Creating and Working with Tables, Creating and Displaying Browse Sequence
Creating Manually/Automatically Multiple TOCs, Indexes, and Glossaries
Single Sourcing – Conditional Build Tags and Batch Generation
Creating Context-sensitive Help, Importing Files & Skins, and Merging CHM
Understanding the Project Source Folder and Files
Generating Reports.
14. Adobe FrameMaker – Technical Content Publication Tool
Introduction
Usage of FrameMaker
FrameMaker v/s MS Word
Getting Started, Accessibility
Creating/Importing Documents
Saving New File Formats
Basic Text Formatting
Working with Tags, Tables
Tools Palette, Drawing Tools
Working with Paragraph and Character Designers
Working with Frames, Anchored Frames and Alignments
Working with Body, Master and Reference Pages
Page Designing and Defining Variables
Hyperlink, Cross Reference, Pop-Ups and Image Mapping
Generating Table of Contents, Index and Glossary
Creating Books, Conditional Text and references
Document Conversions.
15. Snag IT – Image Capturing Tool
About Snag IT
Introduction
Features
Starting the application
Image Formats, Batch Convert Images
Exploring the Program Window
Capture Profile, Image Capturing Modes
Creating WebPages, Creating simple Demos
Companion Applications
Snag IT Editor
Snag IT Studio
Catalog Browser.
16. MS- Visio – Image Drawing Tool
Introduction to MS- Visio
Using various technology images
Creating DFD’s and Architectural Diagrams
Synchronization of images
Creating different file formats
Special Merits, Installation sequence
Types of shapes, Behavior of shapes
How to Get shapes, Templates stencil
Connection shapes, Staking shapes
Group/ Ungroup, Text Adding
Data Linking, Data Graphics
Auto Linking, Hyper Linking
Save type – formats
Importing into Word.
17. PowerPoint – professional presentation tool
Importance of Presentations
Saving PowerPoint
Working on Slide Master
Applying Design Templates
Custom Animation and slide transition effects
Action buttons and hyperlinks
Slide layouts, Movies and Sounds
Insert & edit clip art
Create a slide background using a picture
Customize graphical bullets
Insert and format a table into a slide
Add an animation scheme to selected slides
Rearrange slides, Slideshows
Customize slide backgrounds and templates.
18. Photoshop – Image Editing Tool
Introduction to Photoshop
Cropping images and editing
Using advanced tools for creating architectural diagrams
Explore the Photoshop Environment
Basic Photo Corrections, Selections
Basic flow mode for editing images using Photoshop
Retouching and Repairing
Work with selections
Creating layers, Mask and Channels
Correcting and Enhancing
Slice and Link an Image
Creating Rollovers, Animate GIF Images
Painting and Editing
Basic Pen Tool Techniques.
19. Reviews, Delivery and Publication
What is a review cycle
Types of Reviews
Who are the different people involved in a review
How to implement reviews
Life cycle of reviews
Delivery modes
Delivery methods
Printable Document and Online Documents
Editing, formatting Proof Reading techniques
Format documents to enhance communication and visual appeal
Version Control System.
20. Resume Preparation and Certification
Students Query handling
Mock interviews and industry orientations
Writing Assignments, monitoring and Feedback
Online Test
Certification.
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Sep 11
16
Articulate Training @ TechTotal
Posted in Posts and Articles by .
When meeting someone for the first time at a social event, one question inevitably comes up: “So, what do you do?” When I respond that I’m an instructional designer, they typically hear something about structure and design and follow up with a question about the engineering or construction fields. As I think about it, though, perhaps that isn’t too far off the mark. Designing learning solutions is sort of like creating the blueprint for a construction project. If every detail isn’t accounted for during the design or blueprint phase of the project, the end result will either be less than perfect or cause costly rework.
Good instructional design matters because money matters.
Training employees is costly. When you account for materials, travel, time off the floor or off the phones, etc., the costs add up. The instructional design must be sound if there is to be a positive return on investment. Skilled facilitators can do much to make a course enjoyable and meaningful, but if that course isn’t thoughtfully designed in a way that will improve or enhance employee performance, it’s like throwing money out the window.
Good instructional design matters because time matters.
Time matters to learners and time matters to organizations. A skilled instructional designer will ensure that learning is performance-based and that the course content is no more and no less than what is required to improve specific job performance. A professional instructional designer will ask the right questions to determine the best solution(s), what content is critical to improve or enhance performance, the best sequencing of that content, and the best way to deliver that content so that it meets the learner’s needs and the business’s objective.
Finally, good instructional design matters because people matter!
In addition to the hard dollar costs of training, there are soft dollar costs—the cost to the reputation of the organization and employee satisfaction. One mediocre course is sometimes all it takes to turn people off and create the assumption that all learning offerings from the organization will be the same. Conversely, if a learner sees direct and real personal value (e.g., can sell more, can handle challenging customers more confidently and effectively, can perform tasks more efficiently, etc.), he or she will be eager to learn more. We’ve all seen statistics about the cost of employee turnover. While bad training probably isn’t a direct cause of employee turnover, it is one very controllable factor that can affect employee satisfaction either positively or negatively.
Because people matter is the primary reason I continue to practice my craft of instructional design. As long as I can continue to share with people I meet that “I’m an instructional designer. I design and develop learning solutions that help organizations improve profitability and help employees do their jobs better and enjoy them more,” then I’ll keep practicing
Posted by : Steve Wade, November 16, 2010
Source: http://www.acceleratedbr.com/blog/why-good-instructional-design-matters/
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Duties and Responsibilities of an Instructional Design Specialist
An instructional design specialist uses communication technology and other content mediums to help learners and teachers transfer knowledge efficiently and effectively. In order to make these important evaluations, instructional design specialists determine the current state of a learner understanding, define the end goals and create a media-based medium to assist during the transition. Effective instructional design has a pedagogical foundation and may take any one of a number of forms. Other important job duties are demonstrated by these CareerBuilder.com advertisements:
- Works with identified subject matter experts and course instructors to develop quality content that improves our existing curriculum. Also analyzes data from completed satisfaction surveys to improve overall quality of our programs.’- Keystone Mercy
- ‘The successful applicant will also have the responsibility of planning and conducting regular needs assessments, analyzing data, as well as designing courses.
Job Requirements
Instructional design specialists generally have a master’s degree in an educational specialty or in a technology concentration. Most hiring organizations require that these specialists have a substantial work history in teaching or sometimes in that particular company’s industrial sector, if it is a private company rather than an educational institution. Other job requirements may be similar to these, which are listed on Monster.com:
- Should have seven or more years of experience creating training programs that include but are not limited to classroom training, e-learning and web based training. Also should have designed training materials for blended learning..’- UnitedHealth Group
- A bachelor’s degree in Education, Organizational Development or Curriculum and Design is strongly preferred. Experience within an IT department required.’- TEKsystems
Employment Outlook
Instructional design specialists should enjoy an exceptionally good job outlook, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (www.bls.gov). The job growth rate for this profession is going to be much faster than average, as organizations as varied as schools and hospitals search for ways to efficiently convey rapidly changing information to students and employees. Prospective instructional design specialists should seek graduate work in curriculum and instruction, as well as courses in communication. The median annual salary for these specialists, according to the BLS, is between $52,000 and $70,000, depending on whether the applicant is looking for a position in the public or private sector.
Source : http://diplomaguide.com/articles/Instructional_Design_Specialist_Career_Info.html
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Instructional Designer
Instructional Systems Designer
Instructional (Multimedia) Developer
Instructional Systems Developer
Source : http://jonathansid.blogspot.com/2009/06/various-roles-of-instructional-design.html : Posted by Jonathan Atleson
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Aug 11
2
Instructional Design Theories
Instructional Systems Development (ISD)Instructional systems development is a set of procedures for systematically designing anddeveloping instructional materials. It has been described in a number of sources .ISD is a set of procedural steps.
The emphasis isprimarily on what to do, rather than on how to do it, or why it works. ISD has many varietiesbut all involve five basic phases: analysis, design, development, implementation, and evaluation.ISD is not instructional design theory.
Instructional design theory is a set of prescriptions for determining appropriate instructionalstrategies to enable learners to acquire instructional goals. ID theory is prescription-based and isfounded in learning theory and related disciplines. The emphasis is on what works rather thanon the steps to carry out the design and development process.
ID theory is sometimes nestedwithin ISD.The type of ID theory addressed in this paper is based on the Gagné assumptionthat there are different kinds of instructional goals and that different instructional strategies arerequired in order for the learner to most effectively and efficiently acquire a given kind ofinstructional goal. All ID theory based on this assumption consists of three components:
Instructional Transaction Theory
Merrill & ID2 Research Grouppage 2descriptive theory of the knowledge and skill1 to be learned, a descriptive theory of instructionalstrategies required to promote this learning, and a prescriptive theory that relates knowledge andstrategies.
Descriptive theory identifies the concepts used to describe either the knowledge tobe learned or the strategies to be used to promote this learning.
Prescriptive theory consists of if… then … prescriptions of the form: if [kind of knowledge outcome] then [specificinstructional strategy]. That is, if the learner is to acquire a particular kind of knowledge orskill then the instruction must employ the instructional strategy that is appropriate for promotingthe acquisition of that kind of knowledge.
Source: http://mdavidmerrill.com/Papers/TxBased_KO.PDF
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Jul 11
26
Developing An Instructional Design
A Framework Describing Learning Approaches A number of consistent elements appear to emerge from the literature which describes the conditions under which students can be encouraged to seek understanding and comprehension as distinct from surface level learning in instances where generic skills development is being sought.
Three encompassing elements which appear to be consistent within the majority of researchers’ descriptions include a need for settings: to encourage and promote self-regulated learning; to support and encourage reflection among learners; and to demonstrate degrees of authenticity and relevance of the content and learning processes.
Self-Regulated Learning
Learning strategies that promote self-regulated learning and a degree of intellectual independence are those where students are encouraged to engage with learning activities that are self-directed and autonomous.
Reflection
A second element that is consistently included in descriptions of learning settings that promote knowledge construction and deep learning relates to the encouragement and support of reflection among learners.
Authenticity
A third element that frequently emerges in descriptions of learning settings that support knowledge construction and deep learning.
Source : http://www.ascilite.org.au/conferences/auckland02/proceedings/papers/073.pdf
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