Client Projects
Technical Writing Skills
Regional Water Quality Control Boards
UC Davis Extension provides technical writing and editing training to State Water Board staff throughout California.
The need: The California Water Boards have an ongoing need to train staff in technical writing and editing techniques in order to carry out critical functions. The Boards' staff needs a high degree of technical writing proficiency to prepare a variety of documents, including reports, orders, permits, correspondence, agenda items, grant proposals, resolutions, permits and responses to public comments.
The solution: UCDE worked with an instructor to customize and update courses focusing on three content areas: creating powerful sentences, using correct grammar and punctuation, and editing technical reports and other documents. The instructor designed class workbooks with examples from Water Board documents so students could learn from familiar material, and UCDE incorporated a one-on-one tutorial program for staff with specific writing/editing needs. Since 2005, the instructor has presented versions of this course more than 30 times at 13 California Water Board locations. Staff consistently give these classes the highest marks for course content and instruction quality.
Meet the instructor: Theresa Schultz has 14 years of experience writing and editing documents for government agencies, including four years with the California Regional Water Quality Control Board, seven years with the U.S. Forest Service, and three years as a consultant.
