“Administration: A well-organised service that was prompt, efficient and very friendly.

Course Content: An extremely comprehensive course, detailed and well structured. I can’t think of
anything else that could be included that wasn’t already there.

Tutorial Support: The responses to questions and exercises were quick and constructive.

General Comments: It has been a very enjoyable course (and, at times quite intense); but I got a real sense of achievement. I have learnt a lot that has also allowed me to greatly improve my company’s procedures.”

“Administration: The administration was very well organised. The enrolment and payment for the course went smoothly and the questions I had prior to enrolment were all answered very clearly. This enabled me to make the right decision regarding enrolling on the course. The arrangement of the reading material and the assignments was very clear on the CD-ROM. The instruction pages for each training pack were very useful and helped me to keep track of my progress throughout the EDL2D course.

Course Content: The layout of the course was excellent. The beginning of the course provided the basics of Technical Writing and then, moving through the course, the topics become more complex. The coverage was very wide and I feel that I now have a good all- round knowledge of the subjects that a Technical Author should know about. I felt the syllabus tests were very useful, as they enabled me to obtain a good understanding of Technical Authorship. They gave me the opportunity to really think about the different topics in detail. Going forward I will be using the course content to help me in my day-to-day job.

Tutorial Support: The tutorial support was excellent. My tutor Wilma Cowie was very supportive and provided good feedback when I did well and explained where I could improve. Grades were sent to me within 24 hours of submitting my assignments, which was excellent service. If for any reason Wilma was unable to mark my assignments, Stan would mark them and send me my grade. If I had questions regarding an assignment, Wilma would provide a clear answer, again within 24 hours of asking.

General Comments: I am very happy to have completed the EDL2D course. I feel that I have learnt a lot and can now move on to become a working Technical Author. I will be taking on the role of Technical Author at my company; the EDL2D course has given me the knowledge to be able to take on that role and I am looking forward to put in practice what I have learnt. I would like to thank Wilma and Stan for all their help and support for the duration of the course. They helped me to achieve excellent grades for the assignments.”

“Administration: The administration was very good. Hassle free enrolment! The course material arrived promptly after payment was made. I always received a response with grading within 24 hours.

Course Content: The content was interesting and extremely useful and left me wanting to put what I had learned into practice straight away! The information was very well presented and in an understandable format.

Tutorial Support: The tutorial support was excellent! Both Wilma Cowie and Stan McKerron were always friendly and helpful. I received a lot of constructive guidance and tips. The tutorial responses were returned promptly.

General Comments: I would like to thank ESTON Training for a really helpful course, which has giving me a lot of confidence when writing effective technical documents. Also, I would like to thank Stan McKerron for his patience and words of encouragement, which helped me to increase my self belief, especially since English is not my first language.”

“Administration: Excellent – no problems at all; very efficient.

Course Content: The EDL2D Technical Authorship Diploma course actually covered more subjects than I had at first imagined. I enjoyed the assignments that I could relate to with my engineering background more, but I could see the distinct benefits of all the other assignments. I can honestly say that distance learning is definitely the way to do it!

Tutorial Support: Again, excellent – I always received prompt, fair and accurate responses to my assignments. The tutorial support went “beyond the call of duty”. I cannot thank the tutors enough for their patience, understanding and kind words of encouragement.

General Comments: Having spent more than thirty years in industry as a maintenance electrician, I am presently employed as a Technical Author with Komatsu (preparing Parts Books for large and medium-sized excavators).”

“Administration: Excellent; all of the exercises were returned promptly… and all relevant course updates were despatched swiftly. Also, there was no delay in answering questions.

Course Content: Very interesting, practical and clearly explained. The general format is sound and easy to organise for permanent reference. All of the course exercises were useful and challenging.

Tutorial Support: Excellent throughout; the ESTON tutors were always friendly and helpful. All of my course work was conscientiously evaluated and pertinent advice was always offered on how to improve.

General Comments: This is first-class training from a knowledgeable and well-organised provider. I would not hesitate to recommend ESTON Training to friends, family or work colleagues – in fact, I already have done!”

“Administration: Excellent. The course material arrived promptly and the ReadMe First file was a great introduction to the course.

Course Content: Excellent. I shall be keeping the EDL8T CD-ROM with the study notes to hand as a reference when I’m writing Simplified English and other documentation in the future.

Tutorial Support: Excellent. Very fast turnaround. Always ready to answer questions and queries. Very helpful when I was getting stuck on how to approach some of the questions. The tutorial responses were encouraging and constructive.

General Comments: I have really enjoyed this course, and have already started to apply what I have learned to the Simplified English that I write at work. More generally, the Simplified English course has really made me think more about how my use of language and choice of words affects the readability of a document.”

“Administration: The principles of course administration were clearly laid out in the preliminary information pack and were easy to understand.

Course Content: The course content gave me an excellent overview of technical authorship for mechanical, electrical and electronic products. I have already found myself helping developers to prepare text for the human/machine interface for my company’s latest generation of electronically-controlled level meters.

Tutorial Support: I cannot find fault with the tutorial support. I particularly appreciated your encouragement and forthright comments. A good mix of the two made me want to work harder and excel at the work you set for me.

General Comments: I understand that there is only so much that can be learnt in approx. 300 hours of self-study and that technical authorship is a wide field. After I have had a short time to recover, I might be interested in further study. I have one question on this subject: why don’t you advertise your Simplified English and Software Authorship courses at appropriate points in the EDL2D course material? You could explain what points they cover and why further study may be useful to certain students. I’m sure that many will come back for more, if they have appreciated your training methods as much as I have.”

“Administration: The administration was excellent. From the day of enrolment to completion, I had no problems with the way the course was run. I was particularly impressed with the speed with which queries, and exercises sent for grading, were dealt with. Quite often, I received a response within a couple of hours, even at weekends. On the single occasion when I had to wait more than 24 hours for a grading, I was sent an e-mail explaining the reason, with an apology.

Course Content: I would have to say comprehensive. Having worked in an IT environment in the past, with a degree of responsibility for documentation, I had an idea of some of the requirements needed for successful authoring. However, I learnt many new concepts and practices that will be invaluable in both a job interview situation, where the extent of my knowledge can be demonstrated and, within the workplace, where the skills can be applied.

The exercises encouraged the use of skills and techniques taught in the study notes and, when appropriate, offered the opportunity for some creativity. Not all of the topics studied would be directly relevant to the modern working environment, for example, some aspects of printing processes. Nevertheless, these subjects were appropriate when considering an overall grounding and understanding of technical authorship.

Tutorial Support: Relevant, constructive, lucid and, like the administrative backup, timely. From my own experience, Stan McKerron’s enthusiasm for the subject and for the progress of his students’ is obvious and I thank him for his support.

General Comments: As previously mentioned, I have had some previous experience of authoring in a software environment but, in addition to filling large gaps in my knowledge, the EDL2D course offered a number of new and very useful concepts. The techniques used in note making and note taking, the tools used to summarise, the importance of the synopsis and checklists used in the editing process, are just a few of the subjects that will be very relevant in the workplace.”

“Administration: Excellent. The ESTON tutors were very quick to reply to my e-mails.

Course Content: Very good. What I liked about the EDL2D course was referring back to the previous notes to complete assignments. This makes the student get into the good habit of doing things in a certain way.

Tutorial Support: Stan McKerron’s comments were very good; he made me aware of some simple
mistakes that I was making, which I have also tried to correct at work. His comments have given me a lot of confidence and have helped me deliver better quality work.

General Comments: The course was very good; it gave me a good insight into the world of technical authoring.”

“Administration: Excellent. The lengths that ESTON Training went to in securing an ELC number for me was very impressive. The response to e-mails and their friendly nature was very welcoming.
Course Content: In-depth. I was very impressed that the course content included more “general” writing techniques, such as formal letter writing, note taking and editing proof marks. I was also glad that the course covered everything from the basic level up; I think the right balance between too much and too little information was achieved. I really enjoyed the assignments, especially Synopsis Writing (KE3), the Centrifugal Speed Switch (BE5), Hydrates in Natural Gas (FET/1) and the Website Index Page. The progress tests were good; they began easy(ish) and got progressively more challenging throughout the course.

Tutorial Support: The turn-around time from submitting an assignment to receiving a response was very impressive. I think there was only one time when I did not receive a tutorial response the very same day. Very impressive, and it gave me real impetus to move onto the next assignment. The tutorial responses were well structured and gave good feedback; it was good to review the examples in the tutorial folder.

General Comments: I studied the EDL2D course during a year-long career break (unpaid leave) while looking after my two-year-old son. The EDL2D course has given a real structure to my day and kept my technical mind “ticking over”. I have really enjoyed the course.
My reasons for studying the course were firstly to give me the option of a second career. I definitely feel like I could do this work professionally in the future.
My second reason was to add something of value to my CV, specifically something related to engineering. I really feel that I made a good choice (whether I end up as an author or not). I believe that any engineering job has a requirement for technical writing and this course has definitely prepared me for that.
This course has been professionally produced and administered by a company that clearly knows their business and enjoys what they do. My thanks, once again, for your efforts with the ELC registration; I hope you have many more military students. I shall certainly inform others about ESTON Training.”

“Administration: Very slick; no problems what so ever.

Course Content: Good variety of exercises to be completed. Excellent at making the exercises relevant to what your job will entail if employed as a technical author.

Tutorial Support: Tutorial support was fantastic. Really fast responses when you have submitted work to be evaluated. Helpful with any questions asked and good constructive feedback.

General Comments: I am employed as a trainee technical author. As part of my training I was required to carry out and complete the EDL2D course within my first year. I have found this course extremely helpful and it has built my confidence when asked to do work for customers.”