Upon successful completion of the course, students will be able to: define technical communication and examine its characteristics; choose the right tone and select the best words for a message using nondiscriminatory language, active verbs, and active voice in business communication; identify the purpose of messages and adapt messages for the selected audience with a focus on the different channels of communication, primary and secondary research, and methods for assessing validity of sources; determine how to achieve clarity in technical communication and identify five patterns of organization used for clarity; distinguish between formal and informal reports and compare different report types (e.g., progress reports, research and lab reports, incident reports, recommendation reports, feasibility reports, and evaluation reports); contrast technical descriptions and definitions and outline the purpose of introductions, conclusions, and recommendations; assess the different types of correspondence and communication (e.g., e-mails, print communication, memos, instant and text messaging); evaluate types of resumes and the purposes for letters of employment; demonstrate how to follow the writing process to create instructions and evaluate technical instructions; differentiate between different types of manuals (print versus e-manual), assess standard operating procedure, and demonstrate how to follow the writing process to create manuals; and analyze the content and structure of proposals and compare the different proposal types.