TechComm Fundamentals Bootcamp Samples
The Society for Technical Communication’s TechComm Fundamentals Bootcamp provides a great overview of what technical communication is, key concepts and writing guidelines for technical communication, and how to get into the field. I believe this course has been substantial in my growing career as a technical writer.
Here are a few pieces of work from that bootcamp.
Prompt: Write a procedure for any household appliance
I created a procedure for brewing iced coffee with a Keurig machine. I described the tasks, highlighted hazards, and used images from Keurig’s own instruction manual to assist the user with the tasks.
Prompt: Create a quick-start guide
Quick start guides are visual reference tools to help the user perform common tasks. There was a lot of room for creative freedom in this assignment from start to finish: deciding what to make a guide for, creating the scenario, assembling (or even drawing) the visual assets, and putting it all together. For this assignment, I decided to have some fun and make a quick start-up guide for how to use a cassette player. I didn’t have access to Photoshop at the time, so apologies if it looks rough!
The course was rigorous and fast-paced, but I find myself applying what I learned to my work. This bootcamp is recommended if you’re considering if technical communication is for you, but don’t want to spend a lot of money nor have the time for longer courses.
