Technical Writing That Gets Results

You already know what happened on the job. This course is about getting the person who reads your report, recommendation or quote to know it too, and to act on it while the motor is still on the bench.

A report can be right and still fail. The finding sits in paragraph 3. The price is in paragraph 4. The last line says "let us know how you would like to proceed," which asks the reader for nothing in particular. The plant manager reads the first screen and moves on. The buyer sets your quote under the other 2. The next tech calls you to ask what you meant. Nothing on the page was wrong. The reader just could not find the one line that mattered in the time they had.

This course fixes that on your own work. You rewrite 3 documents you actually sent in the last 6 months, check every number against the readings, the nameplate and the quote, and then hand each one to the person it was written for and find out what they took from it. That last step is the one that tells you whether the writing worked, and it is the one most writing courses never ask you to take.

It works whether you draft by hand or with AI. You build a 1 page voice file so AI drafts sound like you and your shop instead of like nobody in particular. You keep the guides, the templates and a review skill that gives you line by line feedback on the next document you write, long after the course is done.

Who it is for

The people whose documents decide what happens next:

• Service and repair techs and shop leads who write teardown findings, failure reports and repair order notes
• Field service techs whose report gets read on a phone by the customer, the office and the next tech at that machine
• Service writers who turn bench notes into something the front desk and the customer can follow
• Inside sales and quoting staff whose cover letter sits next to 2 other quotes on a buyer's desk
• Application engineers who write the repair or replace recommendation
• Service managers who want the whole shop's reports and quotes to read the same way

What you need to start: a job that produces documents other people act on, a handful you have already sent, and one reader for each who will answer 3 questions after reading your rewrite. No writing course needed first.

This is not a course on software documentation, user manuals, API docs, grammar drills or a career in technical writing. Other courses do those well. None of them gets a plant manager to sign off on a repair.

What you walk away with

• Your Reader Tested Portfolio. 3 of your own documents, each with the version you sent, the rewrite, the source check, the careful words check and the answers from the real person who read it. I review it myself and send notes back.
• The course kit, 19 files. A one page guide to keep at your desk, a one page diagram for each of the 4 document types, templates for the teardown report, service report, recommendation and quote cover letter, the careful words checklist, a practice teardown report, the style sheet and voice file templates, the check log and the portfolio rubric.
• The review skill for Claude. Paste in any document and it comes back with a verdict, the reader test answered only from what is on the page, and the changes to make first. If you do not use Claude, the one page guides do the same job by hand.
• Your voice file and team style sheet. One page on how you and your shop write: part names, units, the words you never use.
• Your check log. Every value you corrected, sorted by what kind of mistake it was, so you know what to check first on every document after the course.
• A 90 day plan. The next 2 real documents you will send that pass the reader test and the source check.
• A Certificate of Completion from The Tolbert School.

How the course runs

• Self-paced and online. Plan on about 25 hours over 6 to 8 weeks. Most of that time goes into your own documents, so it is work you were going to do anyway.
• 35 short lessons, 5 to 20 minutes each, in 8 modules plus a Start Here lesson.
• Most lessons end with a 5 question check. You need 80 percent to move on, and you can retake it as often as you like.
• A 20 question pre-test at the start and the same 20 questions at the end, so you can see what changed.
• Each document module ends with a Draft it, check it lesson, where you write the real document and check every value against its source.
• I review your finished portfolio against the course rubric. If a line falls short, it comes back with a note and you revise it.

What is inside

• Start here: the kit, the review skill, gathering your documents. You finish with the pre-test and your 5 to 10 best documents.
• 1. Who reads it and what they do next: the 4 readers, bottom line first, how much detail. You finish with a reader profile and your 3 before versions.
• 2. Plain language, bad news and your voice: short sentences, numbers and units, photo captions, bad news straight. You finish with your style sheet and voice file.
• 3. The teardown and failure report: what, why, cost, next on page 1, the evidence behind it, cause without blame.
• 4. The field and shop reader: found, done, left to do, unsafe and temporary first, repair order notes.
• 5. The recommendation: the decision first, repair or replace, the ask, the owner and the date.
• 6. The quote cover letter: what the buyer reads first, scope, exclusions, assumptions, lead time.
• 7. Careful words: fact, finding and opinion, must, should and may, words that promise, when to get a review.
• 8. Check, protect and test: your check log, customer data and AI tools, the reader test. You finish with your Reader Tested Portfolio, the final and your 90 day plan.

You rewrite 3 of the 4 document types, whichever 3 you actually write. Each of the 4 has a practice document if it is not one of yours.

What makes it different

• Your documents, not made up exercises. You rewrite 3 things you actually sent, to a real reader, about a real job.
• The real reader grades it. You hand each rewrite to the person it was written for and ask 3 questions: what happened, what are you being asked to do, and by when. It is scored on whether they understood, not on whether they agreed.
• Written from the shop. The examples are fluted bearings, cracked output shafts, a 14 week drive and a jumper nobody wrote down. Nothing here was borrowed from a software manual.
• AI as a tool you check. AI writes smoothly and sounds sure, and on technical work it also invents readings and part numbers. You learn to use it and to catch it, number by number, against the test sheet, the nameplate and the quote.
• The documents other writing courses skip. The teardown report, the repair order note, the repair or replace recommendation and the quote cover letter, together, in one course.

By the end

Your next report gets read and acted on. The plant manager knows what failed and what to approve from the first 3 lines. The buyer knows what you are offering, what it costs and when it ships. The next tech knows what is left to do and what was left temporary. And you know every number on the page came from the job.

Free preview: Lesson 1.1, Who reads it

A drive cabinet kept failing. The real problem was the wrong fuses, and that fact was in the report, correct and complete, buried in the middle of the page. The crew never found it in the time they had, so they kept putting in the same wrong fuses. Watch the first lesson free and see what the same facts look like written for the person who had to act on them.

Your instructor

Dr. Carl Lee Tolbert has spent 30 years in plants and industrial distribution on drives, motors and reliability, writing the same service reports and quotes you do. He started as a Navy gas turbine electrical technician, so he knows how a note reads at 2 a.m. on a running plant. He came up through the trade to Vice President of Engineering, and today he is Director of Marketing and Senior Application Engineer at Malloy Electric, a motor, gearbox and drive repair company, where teardown findings and repair quotes are daily work. He is also an Assistant Professor at Truett McConnell University, where he teaches and chairs doctoral writing, and he writes the FieldNotes articles on drives and power quality. He is the author of 5 books, including 10 Immutable Laws of the Industrial Distribution Specialist. He trains and coaches the people who write the documents a plant actually acts on.

Questions buyers ask

Do I have to use AI? No. Every lesson works by hand. If you do use AI, you learn to check it.

Do I need Claude? Only for the review skill. If you do not use Claude, the one page guides in the kit do the same job by hand.

I do not write all 4 kinds of documents. You do not need to. You rewrite the 3 you actually write.

My customer information is confidential. You take out customer names, prices and drawings before you share anything, and Module 8 covers what stays out of AI tools your company has not approved.

What if I cannot reach the real reader? Use someone in the same role who was not on the job, and note that you did.

Does the reader have to agree with my recommendation? No. The reader test checks whether they understood what happened, what you asked and by when. A reader who understood and chose the other option still means the document worked.

Is this a certification? No. You receive a Certificate of Completion from The Tolbert School when you finish every lesson and pass the final. It is not a professional certification and does not carry CEUs or PDH.

How long does it take? About 25 hours over 6 to 8 weeks, at your own pace.

• Name the reader who has to act on a document and the decision it should lead to
• Put what happened and what you need from the reader in the first 3 lines
• Decide how much detail this reader needs to act, and cut the rest
• Write numbers, units, part numbers and as found and as left readings so nobody misreads them
• Write a teardown report a buyer can act on from page 1
• Back the finding with evidence anyone can check, and state the cause as proven, likely or possible, without blaming a person
• Write service reports and repair order notes the next person can use without calling you
• Put anything bypassed, temporary or locked out at the very top, where the next shift cannot miss it
• Lay out a repair or replace recommendation with the cost of doing nothing in hours and dollars
• Close a recommendation with one ask, one owner and a date tied to a real reason
• Write a quote cover letter with scope, exclusions, assumptions and lead time where the buyer will see them
• Give bad news straight, in the first lines, with the next step beside it
• Keep fact, finding and opinion apart, and catch the words that read like a guarantee
• Know when a document needs a second look from your manager before it goes out
• Check an AI draft against the readings, the nameplate and the quote line items before it goes out
• Keep customer names, prices and drawings out of AI tools your company has not approved, and build a voice file so AI drafts sound like you