This is a method tested reference guide (developed over 10 yrs. at IBM's technical Info Labs) for technical writers and editors in communication and engineering companies. It features extensive examples, illustrations and before and after excerpts from real technical information to help the reader/user become a very competent writer or editor.
Developing Quality Technical Information
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
From the Inside Flap
Welcome!
Many books on technical writing tell you how to develop different parts of technical information, such as headings, lists, tables, and indexes. Instead, we organized this book to tell you how to apply quality characteristics that, in our experience, make technical information easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to find. We hope you will find our approach useful and comprehensive—and we hope you will find the information in this book easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to find!
Is this book for you?
If you are a writer or reviewer of technical information—yes! If you write or review software information, this book may be of even more interest to you because the examples in it come from the domain of software. However, the quality characteristics and guidelines are universal to all information.
Reviewers can be any of the many people who are involved in developing technical information:
Writers Editors Graphic designers Human factors engineers Product developers and testers Customer service personnel Customers (perhaps as early users) Managers
In general, this book assumes that you know the basics of good grammar, punctuation, and spelling as they apply to writing. It does not assume that you are familiar with what makes technical information good or bad.
How to use this book
You can use the book in any of several ways:
Read the book from start to finish. Read about the particular quality characteristic or guideline that interests you. Use the checklists at the end of each chapter and "Quality Checklist" on page 269 to evaluate a piece of technical information against the quality characteristics. Use "Who Checks Which Quality Characteristics?" on page 273 to see what areas you as a reviewer need to check, and read those sections.
Whatever your role in developing technical information, we hope that you'll use this information to build these quality characteristics into the information that you work on.
Changes in this edition
The first and second editions were published in 1984 and 1986 for use mainly by developers of information for IBM software products. This edition is published for more general use and takes into account these changes in technical information:
Online information (such as help, tutorials, and documents) is often more important than printed information in the documentation of software. Online information has become more integrated with the product user interface, through forms such as cue cards and wizards.
As a result of comments from customers and editors, we have:
Added two quality characteristics: concreteness and style
Feedback from users showed that, to them, examples and scenarios are not only very important, but also generally lacking or poorly handled in computer information. The first edition treated examples as part of clarity, but clarity has many other aspects as well. In this edition we have added concreteness as the quality characteristic that focuses especially on examples and scenarios.
In the first edition, style considerations were spread across accuracy, clarity, and visual communication. We decided that style needs its own focus.
Renamed two quality characteristics
The earlier name "entry points" has become "retrievability," and "visual communication" has become "visual effectiveness."
In addition, we have reorganized the book into parts and added several sections:
Introduction to help define terms and set the context for the information Chapters 11 and 12, which treat more than one quality characteristic Annotated bibliography Glossary of terms used in this book Index
The technical editors at IBM's Santa Teresa Laboratory use these quality characteristics to assess the quality of the information they edit. In this edition, we have revised some guidelines and added more examples to ensure coverage of the kinds of common errors found every day.
Gretchen Hargis Ann Kilty Hernandez Polly Hughes Jim Ramaker Shannon Rouiller Elizabeth Wilde
Many books on technical writing tell you how to develop different parts of technical information, such as headings, lists, tables, and indexes. Instead, we organized this book to tell you how to apply quality characteristics that, in our experience, make technical information easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to find. We hope you will find our approach useful and comprehensive—and we hope you will find the information in this book easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to find!
Is this book for you?
If you are a writer or reviewer of technical information—yes! If you write or review software information, this book may be of even more interest to you because the examples in it come from the domain of software. However, the quality characteristics and guidelines are universal to all information.
Reviewers can be any of the many people who are involved in developing technical information:
Writers Editors Graphic designers Human factors engineers Product developers and testers Customer service personnel Customers (perhaps as early users) Managers
In general, this book assumes that you know the basics of good grammar, punctuation, and spelling as they apply to writing. It does not assume that you are familiar with what makes technical information good or bad.
How to use this book
You can use the book in any of several ways:
Read the book from start to finish. Read about the particular quality characteristic or guideline that interests you. Use the checklists at the end of each chapter and "Quality Checklist" on page 269 to evaluate a piece of technical information against the quality characteristics. Use "Who Checks Which Quality Characteristics?" on page 273 to see what areas you as a reviewer need to check, and read those sections.
Whatever your role in developing technical information, we hope that you'll use this information to build these quality characteristics into the information that you work on.
Changes in this edition
The first and second editions were published in 1984 and 1986 for use mainly by developers of information for IBM software products. This edition is published for more general use and takes into account these changes in technical information:
Online information (such as help, tutorials, and documents) is often more important than printed information in the documentation of software. Online information has become more integrated with the product user interface, through forms such as cue cards and wizards.
As a result of comments from customers and editors, we have:
Added two quality characteristics: concreteness and style
Feedback from users showed that, to them, examples and scenarios are not only very important, but also generally lacking or poorly handled in computer information. The first edition treated examples as part of clarity, but clarity has many other aspects as well. In this edition we have added concreteness as the quality characteristic that focuses especially on examples and scenarios.
In the first edition, style considerations were spread across accuracy, clarity, and visual communication. We decided that style needs its own focus.
Renamed two quality characteristics
The earlier name "entry points" has become "retrievability," and "visual communication" has become "visual effectiveness."
In addition, we have reorganized the book into parts and added several sections:
Introduction to help define terms and set the context for the information Chapters 11 and 12, which treat more than one quality characteristic Annotated bibliography Glossary of terms used in this book Index
The technical editors at IBM's Santa Teresa Laboratory use these quality characteristics to assess the quality of the information they edit. In this edition, we have revised some guidelines and added more examples to ensure coverage of the kinds of common errors found every day.
Gretchen Hargis Ann Kilty Hernandez Polly Hughes Jim Ramaker Shannon Rouiller Elizabeth Wilde
From the Back Cover
The #1 guide to excellence in documentation!
Create documentation that even the most demanding users will appreciate!
All you need to deliver top-quality technical information -- in print, online, and on the Web! Extensive, practical before-and-after examples Sample windows, illustrations, excerpts, tables, checklists, and more Smarter ways to use visuals Based on the experience of professionals at an IBM software laboratory for over 10 years For every writer, editor, designer, and reviewer of technical information
Straight from IBM's own software documentation experts, this is the first practical guide to developing excellent technical information.
From start to finish, you'll learn how to create documentation that's easy for users to find, understand, and use.
Discover how to make sure your documentation focuses on the tasks and topics users care about. Learn style points and organization techniques that help users access information quickly -- and use it effectively. See how to use graphics and other visual elements to deliver useful information in inviting ways. Walk through the review process, and learn ways to add the most value using minimal words.
Whether you're a writer, editor, designer, or reviewer, if you want to create great documentation, this book shows you how!
“Developing Quality Technical Information is unequaled in the field today as a comprehensive textbook on how to do technical communications right. Every technical communicator around the world can surely apply this model to their information; those that do so systematically will surely see an improvement in the quality of their deliverables." Lori Fisher, Manager, Data Management User Technology, IBM; Instructor, University of California Extension Santa Cruz
"The writers have done an excellent job of keeping the editorial advice simple and clear enough for technical writers who didn't major in English or journalism. The book should make a very good technical writing and editing text in universities, but I think it will be even more valuable for experienced writers, editors, and managers concerned with raising the quality of their publishing programs." Carolyn Mulford, Freelance Writer and Editor Instructor, Georgetown University Continuing Education
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
42 of 43 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A year after buying it, it is still my resource of choice,
By A Customer
This review is from: Developing Quality Technical Information (Textbook Binding)
What a great book! Ms. Hargis has developed a manual that provides readily-accessible and practical information regarding the technical writing process. I actually read (yes, read) this book from cover to cover. Hargis practices what she preaches, by designing a tech writing book with the actual tech writing skills she prescribes. I use this book almost as often as my dictionary and my Microsoft Manual of Style. One of the most impressive aspects of this book is the vast amount of tech writing examples that can be incorporated into actual documentation. Instead of merely telling the writer what steps to take, Hargis actually SHOWS the writer what to do. How refreshing to read a handbook that actually illustrates tech writing techniques. The book also provides a multitude of checklists that show the writer the logical progression of the documentation. A definite must for your stack of books next to your computer.
28 of 30 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of the most complete writing style guides available,
By
This review is from: Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and Editors (2nd Edition) (Hardcover)
When I first started reading this book, I was quite impressed at the amount of detail provided in it. Although any style guide will provide a technical writer with most of the information needed to write effective manuals, this book goes into more detail about the "art" of technical writing than any other book I've read.
There is truly a wealth of excellent information in this book. The authors have covered virtually every aspect of writing technical manuals and also for online material, making this an excellent guide to refer to anytime a writing question comes up. From the beginning chapter (Quality technical information), through chapters on Accuracy, Completeness, Clarity, Style, Organization, and Retrievability (to name a few), you can clearly see this book's attention to detail. The book's last chapter (Reviewing, testing, and evaluating technical information) offers tips on doing review cycles, who to involve in them, usability tests, and evaluating the information contained in the manual. I especially liked the chapter on Retrievability. As the book points out, information doesn't do the reader any good if there isn't a logical way to find it. This chapter points out ways to "facilitate" navigation, by providing a complete index, the proper level of detail in the Table of Contents, even helpful links (for online material). Another excellent chapter was the one on Style, although clearly each chapter in this book stands out on its own for providing detailed information about the chapter topic. Another nice feature of this book is that the beginning of each chapter lists the main points (or topics) to be covered, and then summarizes them at the chapter's end. It serves as an excellent reminder of these points and one that can be referred back to. I found this book to be an excellent reference and recommend it to any technical writer, regardless of their experience level.
21 of 22 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Concepts and examples anchor excellent reference,
By Patrick J Suarez (Springfield, Ohio) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Developing Quality Technical Information (Textbook Binding)
In spite of the editorial errors in the book (blame IBM Press) and the rather pointless pedantic goings-on in these reviews about the use of the word "quality", this is a most worthwhile manual. Hargis presents her strategy of ensuring that technical documents reflect accuracy, clarity, completeness, concreteness, organization, retrievability, style, task orientation and visual effectiveness. She devotes a chapter to each concept and offers relevant examples to show aspiring tech writers how to apply the concepts to their own work. This is not just a grammar book; it is a well thought out set of tactics that help generate a worthwhile technical document. I'd like to see future editions of this expand into the area of data gathering and instructional system design. Nevertheless, the concepts Hargis describes here are worthwhile, as is this book.
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