Course Syllabus
Welcome to ENGL210: Technical Writing
Specific information about this course and its requirements can be found below. For more general information about taking Saylor University courses, including information about Community and Academic Codes of Conduct, please read the Student Handbook.
Course Description
Learn principles and practices of professional and technical communication, emphasizing audience analysis, clear organization, ethical and inclusive style, and document design for reports, proposals, instructional materials, and digital communications.
Course Introduction
This course builds core skills for professional and technical communication in workplace contexts. You will analyze audience and purpose, select an appropriate communication style, and identify strategies that improve clarity and concision in technical content.
You will also select page‑layout principles that improve readability, choose visuals that best support a given passage and purpose, and explain ethical and legal considerations that govern visuals and electronic communication. Instruction emphasizes inclusive, accessible writing that supports diverse readers.
Throughout the course, you will apply these skills to letters, reports, proposals, instructional materials, and digital communications. Through scenario‑based analyses and guided self‑assessments, you will analyze audience needs to shape proposal content, select effective organization and formatting for process and proposal documents, and evaluate whether style and content fit the task and audience. You will also consider how to use emerging writing technologies judiciously: designing clear requests to obtain useful drafts, checking sources and claims before use, and disclosing assistance when appropriate. These considerations are an important part of responsible, audience-focused use of emerging AI-assisted tools in workplace writing. By the end of the course, you will produce well‑organized, user‑centered documents that meet professional standards. It may be helpful to keep a dedicated notebook or document on your computer to respond to the writing prompts and reflections throughout the course.
This course includes the following units:
- Unit 1: Audience Analysis
- Unit 2: Internal Communication – Writing Memos and Emails
- Unit 3: External Communication – Formal Letters
- Unit 4: Using Visuals to Convey Information
- Unit 5: Process Documentation
- Unit 6: Writing Proposals
- Unit 7: Communicating Online
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, you will be able to:
- Select an appropriate technical communication style based on audience and purpose
- Explain the purpose and goals of workplace communication
- Use strategies that improve clarity and concision in technical content
- Select page layout principles that improve readability and navigability in professional documents
- Explain how visuals enhance technical communication
- Use effective planning strategies for developing technical documents
- Use effective revision strategies to improve clarity and coherence
- Differentiate between models of technical writing, such as instruction, description, definition, and summary
Throughout this course, you will also see learning outcomes in each unit. You can use those learning outcomes to help organize your studies and gauge your progress.
Course Materials
This course's primary learning materials are articles, lectures, and videos.
All course materials are free to access and can be found in each unit of the course. Pay close attention to the notes that accompany these course materials, as they will tell you what to focus on in each resource and will help you understand how the learning materials fit into the course as a whole. You can also see a list of all the learning materials in this course at this link: Resources.
Evaluation and Minimum Passing Score
Only the final examination is considered when awarding you a grade for this course. To pass this course, you will need to earn 70% or higher on the final exam.
Your score on the exam will be calculated as soon as you complete it. There is a 14-day waiting period between each attempt. You may only attempt the final exam a maximum of three times. Be sure to study in between each attempt! If you do not pass the exam after three attempts, you will not complete this course.
There is also a practice exam that you may take as many times as you want to help you prepare for the final exam. The course also contains end-of-unit assessments in this course. The end-of-unit assessments are designed to help you study and do not factor into your final course grade. You can take these as many times as you want to until you understand the concepts and material covered. You can see all of these assessments at this link: Quizzes.
Continuing Education Credits
The certificate earned by passing this self-paced course displays not only the program hours you completed, but also continuing education credits (CEUs) for documenting successful completion of courses that are designed to improve the knowledge and skills of working adults. Many industries value CEUs, and now your certificate reflects them clearly, and they may be used to support career advancement or to meet professional licensing standards. This course contains 5.9 CEUs.
Tips for Success
ENGL210: Technical Writing is a self-paced course, which means that you can decide when you will start and when you will complete the course. There is no instructor or an assigned schedule to follow. We estimate that the "average" student will take 59 hours to complete this course. We recommend that you work through the course at a comfortable pace that allows you to make regular progress. It's also a good idea to schedule your study time in advance and try to stick to that schedule as best as you can.
Learning new material can be challenging, so here are a few study strategies to help you succeed:
- Take notes on the various terms, practices, and theories that you come across. This can help you put each concept into context and will create a refresher that you can use as you study later on.
- As you work through the materials, take some time to test yourself on what you remember and how well you understand the concepts. Reflecting on what you've learned is important for your long-term memory and will make you more likely to retain information over time.
Technical Requirements
This course is delivered entirely online. You will be required to have access to a computer or web-capable mobile device and have consistent access to the internet to either view or download the necessary course resources and attempt any auto-graded course assessments and the final exam.
To access the full course, including assessments and the final exam, you will need to be logged into your Saylor University account and enrolled in the course. If you do not already have an account, you may create one for free here. Although you can access some of the course without logging in to your account, you should log in to maximize your course experience. For example, you cannot take assessments or track your progress unless you are logged in.
For more details and guidance, please review our complete Technical Requirements and our student Help Center.
You can access all course features directly from your mobile browser, but if you have limited internet connectivity, the Saylor University mobile app provides an option to download course content for offline use. The app is available for iOS and Android devices.
Fees
This course is entirely free to enroll in and to access. Everything linked in the course, including textbooks, videos, webpages, and activities, is available for no charge. This course also contains a free final exam which will award you a course completion certificate.
