We offer courses in several different educational modes.
Combination of pre-class and instructor-led
The following courses consist of a combination of the following:
- Pre-class work that students do on their own
- An instructor-led session
Students do the pre-class work before attending the instructor-led session. The pre-class components introduce topics; the instructor-led components integrate and practice those topics. That said, even if students never take the instructor-led session, the pre-class work by itself provides significant educational value.
| Title | Summary | Pre-class time | Instructor-led time | Link to pre-class work |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Technical Writing One | Learn the critical basics of technical writing. | 2 hours | 2.5 - 3.0 hours | Pre-class |
| Technical Writing Two | Learn intermediate topics in technical writing. | 1.5 hours | 2.5 - 3.0 hours | Pre-class |
Self-study
The following course is self-study only:| Title | Summary | Time | Link to course |
|---|---|---|---|
| Writing Helpful Error Messages | Learn to write clearer, more effective error messages. | 1.5 hours | Course |
Self-study or instructor-led
The following course is available in both self-study and instructor-led formats. Both formats cover similar (though, not quite identical) topics:
| Title | Summary | Time | Link to self-study | Link to instructor-led |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tech Writing for Accessibility instructor-led | Develop skills for making documentation more accessible to all. | 1.5 hours | Course | Course info |
Run your own instructor-led classes
Google provides all the materials needed to run your own instructor-led sessions. If you'd like to facilitate instructor-led sessions for your organization, see Facilitating Technical Writing Courses.
Target audience
The target audience for most of these courses is as follows:
- Software engineers
- Software engineering or computer science students
- Engineering-adjacent roles (such as product managers)
Although we don't explicitly aim these courses at technical writers, many technical writers or people training to be technical writers find these courses useful. Tech Writing for Accessibility is particularly useful for technical writers.
Other languages
These technical writing courses are only available in English. True, many of the lessons in this course are relevant to other languages. However, certain recommendations that are helpful in English become culturally or grammatically incorrect when translated.