Effective Technical Writing in the Life Sciences – bullet-proof your technical documentation

RAPS - This course has been pre-approved by RAPS as eligible for up to 6 credits towards a participant's RAC recertification upon full completion.

Overview

Technical writing is defined as simplifying the complex. Implied in this deceptively simple definition is an entire range of skills and characteristics that touch upon a broad range of human performance characteristics and needs. 

An effective technical writer must consider many aspects of the craft to be truly effective. Writers, must adopt and apply the form and style of the industry in which they work as there are differences, for example, between the documents written for a pharmaceutical production operation versus the creation of scientific journal articles. Writers must understand their audience in terms of their needs and abilities and the level of explanation that they require as well as their command of the language in which the material is written. They must have a complete and unwavering dedication to accuracy and consistency. Technical writers must understand and be skilled at collaboration as that is how accuracy is achieved – by harvesting information from subject matter experts.

This virtual seminar will begin with a general discussion of technical writing and its role within the life sciences. Technical writers produce a variety of technical documents that are required to manage and direct regulated operations and to meet regulatory requirements. We will spend some time in this webinar discussing those document types, their importance, and the consequences of the messages are unclear or misunderstood.

After setting the stage for this content, we delve into the writing process beginning with the audience and how the audience must be analyzed to determine the level of writing that must be employed to complete the document.

We will also address the most effective techniques for extracting information from SMEs as well as those techniques that work best when observing procedures and activities to be documented.

We will end this webinar with the mechanics of technical writing ranging from planning and organizing the content through grammar, spelling and punctuation ending with writing simplification.

Why Should You Attend

Even with the advent of technology, we still communicate with the written word. 

Unfortunately, technical writing is not a skill that is given much emphasis in college curriculums if any. Technical writing is a skill life sciences workers are assumed to have and are expected to demonstrate at a level of skill usually beyond the capability of most. Unfortunately, most readers of technical writing are in the “same boat.” They “don’t know a good one when they see one.”  At the end of the day, in most cases, you have mediocre writing at best that may or may not convey the message intended.

This virtual seminar will walk you through the technical writing process from start to finish. Each critical aspect of writing technical documents for the life sciences will be addressed with the goal of helping you become better technical writers. The tips and skills presented can be applied immediately and will be evident in the very first document that you write after this virtual seminar.

Agenda

This seminar will address the following:

• What is technical writing, and what role does technical writing play in the life sciences?
• Technical writers in the life sciences – what do they write – types of medium
• Analyzing the audience
• Analyzing the information – working with Subject Matter Experts
• Planning the content
• Formats, consistency and styles
• Non-native audience considerations
• Grammar, spelling, punctuation, numbers and symbols
• Simplify your writing
• Ensuring accuracy

Who Will Benefit

Anyone in the life sciences that is tasked with writing technical material to include standard operating procedures and work instructions