Technical Writing Style

The Technical Writer's Handbook

This book explains how people can improve their writing style by following a few simple rules. The author, a practising scientist who screens manuscripts regularly, advises that technical writing, is no different from any other writing. The first part is an introduction, which provides simple guidelines for writing and organizing reports of all kinds. The second part is presented in dictionary format and covers a wide variety of themes. Many entries in this section are specific to technical writing, including topics such as metric units, equations, figures and tables, abstracts, conference proceedings and slides. Others provide more general advice on grammar, usage, style and organization, which concern writers in all fields. All have been carefully cross-referenced to reveal related information quickly and easily. Aimed primarily at scientists and engineers, it will also be of use to lawyers, administrators, journalists and editors of technical journals.

A Style Manual for Technical Writers and Editors

Technical Writing Style

Advanced technical communication books are becoming more and more available. However, each book is solely devoted to a specialized topic such as technical editing, design, illustration, usability testing, and online documentation. Despite all of these introductory and advanced books, not one is available specifically devoted to the challenges of style in technical communication. KEY TOPICS: This 12-point approach offers the most current and comprehensive instruction available in achieving an effective style in technical documents. It shows that technical prose style varies from the highly formal to the colloquial, from the pretentious to the plain, and it demonstrates the many stylistic strategies writers should consider for every technical document they write. Anyone who has to write professional and technical documents, specifically, engineers, software developers/consultants, medical writers, professional technical writers. Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical communication.