An Accessible, Practical Guide to SOP Writing
My course in Industrial Procedure Writing, together with its support materials, provides the following benefits to individuals or Operations teams who are responsible for developing and maintaining procedures:
- It focuses on development of procedures that convey just the right amount of information to a person performing a set of tasks in the operation of process systems and equipment.
- It offers self-contained guidance at your fingertips, covering everything you will need in order to produce, in a practical manner, safe and effective procedures for operating process systems and equipment. It’s a one-stop shop.
- It is both comprehensive and in-depth – 287 PowerPoint slides plus two supporting documents – without being overwhelming. You can read and absorb it at your own pace.
- It is a ready reference -- its content can be easily searched on your desktop. As well, it can be considered a natural complement to the content provided by programs offered by educational institutions and training facilities.
- It is generated from writing principles that apply across multiple industrial sectors, including oil & gas, utilities, manufacturing, and food processing.
- The content is of high quality, reflecting the lessons I have learned in 30+ years of technical writing, of which the last 15 years have been focused on industrial operations. A key factor here is that I have acquired a deep sense of the types of procedure content that are immediately meaningful to a worker.
- I am available (at no charge for the first hour) to support customers who may need assistance in applying the principles explained in the course.
- The course media are available at an affordable cost.
If your objective is to produce high-quality industrial procedures in-house in a reasonable timeframe, without a large outlay of money and time on resources and writer training, my course is for you!
Other Courses Available on the Internet
Apart from programs offered by educational institutions and training facilities, numerous training courses in technical writing are available on the Internet.
These courses are typically offered as online or classroom experiences. Many cover the complete discipline of technical writing, including production of reports, technical manuals, white papers, policies and procedures, product descriptions, and laboratory analyses. The courses often provide certifications or diplomas to students who meet stipulated requirements.
Many of these courses are on the pricy side, and require participants to make a full-time commitment of between 2 and 5 days away from their worksite. Technical writers, Engineering and Operations/Maintenance personnel, and technical staff undoubtedly benefit from taking these courses. However, if their intent is to focus is on writing industrial operating procedures, they may discover that much of what they have learned is not tailored to their needs.