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WRD 204: Technical Writing (Spring 2026)
Technical Communication, unlike academic writing, examines how professionals use expertise to offer informed opinions to colleagues and clients. This course emphasizes applied knowledge and the technical genres that make it usable. Beyond the university, engineers, scientists, and other subject-matter experts (SMEs) regularly facilitate the understanding of invested audiences and provide practical, usable information. To do this, SMEs adopt a precise, structured style with standardized conventions to inform and influence the audience(s) that they address. Through these genres and norms, technical writers are able to drive social change and empower others in the wider world. This practical approach focused on clear and precise intervention is at center of this course, and after taking the class, you should be able to position yourself as a credible and effective expert in your field.