Spring Into Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists

by Barry J. Rosenberg

The fastest way for professionals to master technical writing!

You’re a technical professional, perhaps a programmer, engineer, or scientist. You are not a professional writer, but writing is part of your job (specs, manuals, proposals, lab reports, technical presentations, Web content, data sheets, and so on).

Welcome. This book is for you. It’s all you need to clearly communicate technical ideas to any audience—technical or nontechnical—and motivate them to act.

Barry J. Rosenberg organizes every facet of effective technical writing into more than 175 short, concise, fast-paced tutorials. You’ll find loads of examples (what to do and what not to do) plus start-to-finish instructions for writing exactly the kinds of documents you need to create.

Need specific solutions? This book’s bite-size, visual, high-efficiency format delivers them instantly. Dig in, get started, and get results!

Make all your documents and presentations clearer, more concise, and more compelling Understand your audience, and target your content appropriately Learn how to write for an international audience Use active voice to communicate with confidence and authority Produce effective lists, tables, and graphics Create useful examples Write effective manuals and release notes Implement solid technical Web sites Develop winning research, business, and book proposals Create and present compelling PowerPoint presentations Write e-mails that don’t ignite flame wars Learn how to integrate documentation development into best engineering practices

Downloadable examples are available on the Web.

Genres: Writing, Textbooks

318 pages, Paperback

First published May 27, 2005

Reviews

[Brian Miracle · Rating 5 out of 5]

A little professional reading. The author covers the various types of documents that an engineer or scientist may write, including e-mail and PowerPoint. He also covers grammar and editing. A useful book for anybody in a technical field who prepares documents.

[Jacqueline · Rating 5 out of 5]

Currently reading this, but for a textbook, it's useful and even amusing at times. Some of the examples are a bit overwhelming but I like a challenge, and they weren't so dense as to be completely off-putting or to cause me to put the book down.
More when I finish it.
OK, now I've finished it. This was a very readable textbook. It kept my interest and was a quick read. It also seemed to be full of good advice. I really liked the "bad", "better", "good", "best" examples throughout the book and could have used more. I did at times find that the book was a bit simplistic (I do know, believe it or not, the difference between a serif and sans-serif font) and throughout the book often the starting point for a section or chapter was too easy. On the other hand, the chapter on HTML was very difficult for me. Yes, I realize this wasn't a manual on learning HTML, but that seemed to be the only section in the book that assumed some pre-knowledge that I didn't have. (The web is like a car, I can use it but I don't know or care how it works. I know more about how a server and a network "serve" web pages, and the meaning of terms like "caching web browser" than I do about HTML - and I've learned more HTML from the Goodreads website than any web design book I've read or class I started than quit). But I digress. Other than the HTML section, which I intend to re-read, I found this textbook to be light-hearted, useful, and fun to read. The humor and examples helped.

[Keith · Rating 4 out of 5]

WOW, a technical book that's not boring! The author had a delightful sense of humor, and uses it to make the book interesting.

This book is organized so that each chapter can stand independent. There is no need to read them sequentially. Each chapter ends with a summary of the important points from that chapter.

Chapters
Section 1: Planning to Write
1 The Quest
2 Audience
3 Documentation Plans
Section 2: Writing: General Principles
4 Words
5 Sentences
6 Paragraphs and Sections
7 Lists
8 Tables
9 Graphics
10 Professional Secrets
Section 3 Writing: Specific Kinds of Documents
11 Manuals
12 Web Sites
13 Proposals
14 Internal Planning Documents
15 Lab Reports
16 Power Point Presentations
17 E-Mail
Section 4: Editing and Producing Documents
18 Editing and the Documentation Process
19 Fonts and Typography
20 Punctuation
Glossary
Bibliography
Index

[Pavani · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this multiple times. As a non-native speaker, it was really good book to begin with. I recommend after reading this book upgrading to stylistic writing and other higher level books as you grow.

[Dan · Rating 2 out of 5]

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