Hello.

I am consulting with a pharmaceutical firm who wants me to analyze their current technical writing state. They've had problems with their engineers submitting sub-par reports to the FDA and want a "tech writing 101" class.

Any recommendations re: where to start? Is there a needs analysis checklist I can use?

I've done a ton of tech writing, but never taught others in this field.

Thank you for your help.

As a former technical writer myself, I ask the question, why are they trying to make engineers better writers? The reason why we have technical writers is that engineers are engineers and not writers! As a writer, I can't imagine having to go to a training class to learn to be an engineer. I'd say, "Please no, no no! Shoot me first! I bet your engineers are thinking the same thing!

Good luck with that!
Marci

When I got my engineering degree the faculty stressed the importance of good tech writing. Unfortunately, any teaching of tech writing was taught in snippets here and there and not in a coherent way. Doing so would have helped me as I have needed my stills in technical writing, even as my career has moved to T&D.

You might check out techwr-l.com That site hosts a very long-running email list about technical writing (since long before the web and before the Internet was even called the Internet).

One of my clients offers a Tech Writing introduction to which I can refer you if you send me a PM.

For a content list I'd look at the course outlines of all the courses you can find on the web, talk to some techwriters to figure out what they thought was most important, and design from there.