26 of 26 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
What an amazing book!, June 17, 2005
This review is from: Spring Into Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists (Paperback)
This book is a "must-read" for anyone engaged in the art of technical writing --- even for an old pro like me.
Like any good book on writing, Technical Writing begins with a discussion of writing itself. Rosenberg makes it clear that you need to write for a particular audience---and with a particular message. He discusses the difference between writing documentation, writing technical marketing literature, and writing speeches or presentations.
Clear and comprehensive chapters introduce and then drill-down on many of the topics that throw off many would-be writers. Rosenberg discusses common issues such as word consistency, verbs, pronouns, "fluffy phrases," and words that are commonly confused (like "affect" and "effect," or "its" and "it's"). Next he conquers sentences, paragraphs, transitions, and the construction of a good document.
But my favorite part of this book is the middle, where Rosenberg shows the reader how to use all of those clever typographical techniques that have emerged over the past 20 years. Rosenberg shows how to use bulleted lists. He shows when to use bullets, and when to use numbers. He shows how to make tables that are both beautiful to look at and that clearly convey information to the reader. Callouts, sidebars, and even tinted boxes: it's all here.
The level of drill-down is truly impressive. Clearly, this book was born from years of experience in both writing and editing. For example, the chapter on graphics beings with a photo of a stream, with a caption that says: "this picture is totally off topic, but you looked at it before you read the opening paragraph, simply because it's a picture." The chapter then discusses time series (3 examples), techniques for providing extra details in graphs, before-and-after photos, the advantages of callouts vs. embedded text (and when to use each), screenshots (and the advantage of annotating them), the issue of color blindness, ways to enhance photographs with line art, and appropriate use of white space.
The final three chapters of the book describe the process of editing and producing documents. This is great material both for editors who are looking for new ideas, and for writers like me who have the luxury of being edited by pros. That's because all writers can benefit from being edited, and the editor that is always there, the editor that will always know what you want to say, the editor who will never quit, is you, the writer.
This book is great for engineers who have suddenly been saddled with the task of writing documentation for their inventions. But it's also great for people who love to write and are looking for new ideas.
Indeed, before I start on my next book, I'm going to re-read Rosenberg's Technical Writing.
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13 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Should be on every techie's bookshelf..., July 23, 2005
This review is from: Spring Into Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists (Paperback)
I wish I had this book available to me about three years sooner... Spring Into Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists by Barry J. Rosenberg. I'd be much further ahead in my writing skills, that's for sure...
Contents:
Section 1 - Planning to Write: The Quest; Audience; Documentation Plans
Section 2 - Writing - General Principles: Words; Sentences; Paragraphs and Sections; Lists; Tables; Graphics; Professional Secrets
Section 3 - Writing - Specific Kinds of Documents: Manuals; Web Sites; Proposals; Internal Planning Documents; Lab Reports; PowerPoint Presentations; E-Mail
Section 4 - Editing and Producing Documents: Editing and the Documentation Process; Fonts and Typography; Punctuation; Glossary; Bibliography; Index
The Spring Into series is designed to cover topics in one to three page chunks, short enough to quickly allow the busy professional to get what they need to know. Rosenberg does an excellent job in this book of taking a subject that many people dread or outright hate and making it palatable and doable. He doesn't target the professional writer or English teacher who needs to know about dangling particles and such. This is just down to earth, practical advice. I think that many people will get the most out of section 3 which goes into specific writing situations (reports, email, etc.). Since that's where many people in the business world live, the example-driven nature of those chapters will pay back the time investment of the reader in short order.
As someone who enjoys writing and has worked on it over the last couple of years, there was quite a bit that I already knew when I read the material. The problem is that I had to pick it all up by experience. This book would have saved me an immense amount of time in getting better (as well as saving my readers the pain of having to watch me grow). Still, there's a lot here that I either didn't understand or have to be reminded of constantly. Take active vs. passive voice... I *still* can't get rid of that habit... :-)
If I were the manager of a group of techies who need to use the written word to communicate to users and clients, I'd spend the money to get them all a copy of this book. The techies may not thank you directly, but their customers sure will... :-)
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12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Nice Surprise, July 2, 2005
This review is from: Spring Into Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists (Paperback)
I take guilty pleasure from books like Strunks's Elements of Style, etc. The pleasure comes from the nuance of order and rule, while the guilt comes from my own failings from laziness and haste.
This book has some of that; attention is given to use of active voice, punctuation rules and all that. But more importantly,
this is direct and practical advice for the kinds of things many of us do every day: writing email, preparing proposals, creating web pages or Power Point presentatations and so on. The advice is excellent, and the author writes with wit and grace.
I thoroughly enjoyed this, and hope that its title doesn't limit its audience. Anyone who does any business related writing will find value here.
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