Gain insights into technical writing, audience analysis, creating coherent paragraphs, iterative improvement, and mastering parts of speech and punctuation for impactful and well-structured communication.

The ability to structure your thoughts and write in a way that is both compelling and easy to follow is an essential skill in your corporate journey. Good writing can help you project a positive image and convince people.

This course starts by introducing you to technical writing how it differs from the other forms of writing, and the importance of understanding your audience. You’ll learn how to write meaningful and easy-to-follow sentences and bring these sentences together to create coherent paragraphs. The review-revise-edit process is covered next to emphasize the importance of improving your material iteratively. The course ends with a detailed discussion of the parts of speech and punctuation so that you can write well and avoid common mistakes.

By the end of the course, you will be able to write according to the needs and expectations of your audience. Your writing will be impactful and well-structured, and you will have in-depth knowledge of technical writing concepts.

Grokking the Technical Writing Process

# Overview

To write a good paragraph, we need to understand the basic elements of a paragraph and how each element contributes towards the formation of a complete, coherent paragraph structure.

A good paragraph consists of a #key# topic sentence: expresses the paragraph's central idea. #key#, preferably at the beginning. All other sentences develop, support, and explain the idea introduced in the topic sentence.

Research shows that readers understand the paragraph more quickly if the topic sentence is introduced in the beginning.




# Main body and structuring the paragraphs coherently

Each sentence in a coherent paragraph amplifies the idea of the topic sentence. We can form a coherent paragraph by:

- Staying on topic 
- Putting key terms in dominant positions

The main body of the paragraph expands on supporting details for the topic statement. It can be done through facts, examples, anecdotes, or even the writer's own analysis of the topic.

It is essential that the supporting sentences stay on topic and clearly relate to the topic sentence's main idea. If the supporting sentences are off-topic, the paragraph will not be coherent and clear.

Sometimes, when writing the main body, writers may find themselves repeating the same word over and over again within one single sentence or across multiple sentences. If you notice that you are repeating words, but do not know what to put in place of the repeated words, look up their synonyms. For example, in a paragraph that gives a chronological order of events, the writer may be tempted to use the word "then" at the start of each sentence. A better approach would be to use words like "at the start", "then", "followed by", "next", and "finally".


Learn about the basic elements of a paragraph and how each element contributes to a well-structured and coherent paragraph.

Introduction to Technical Writing

How to Get Started

How to Use Common Punctuation Correctly

How to Write a Good Sentence

How to Write a Good Paragraph

How to Review, Revise, and Edit

Conclusion

Appendix A. Parts of Speech (Recommended for ESL Writers)

Appendix B. Punctuation Continued (Recommended for ESL Writers)

Test Your Skills!

Basic Elements of a Paragraph

Overview