Customer Reviews

Spring Into Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

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.

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... :-)

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.

Technical writing is it's own special world. Using standard writing techniques almost ensures that readers will have a difficult time understanding technical material. This book comes to the rescue of the technical writer by detailing the proper techniques and the things you need to take into consideration when writing. For example, nobody would argue that a technical book written for people with a doctorate degree should be very different from a technical manual written for the complete novice. So, knowing your intended audience is one of the most important places to start when writing technical material.

Section 2 covers the basics of writing including passive versus active voice, sentence structure, dealing with pronouns, working with lists, tables, and graphics and many more detailed pieces of information for writing. Section 3 then applies that information to the accepted layout of specific kinds of documents including manuals, web sites, proposals, internal planning documents, lab reports, PowerPoint presentations, and even e-mail. The last section covers the basics of editing.

This book is one of the best I have reviewed on this subject. The author walks you along the complete path from beginning to end with expert advice and detailed information. Whether it is a technical manual, a proposal, or something as basic as a lab report, Spring Into Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists is a must read guide for how to do it right.

Spring Into Technical Writing is an excellent introduction to technical writing. The book is written for scientists, engineers, and other professionals who have the need or the desire to improve their technical writing skills. The book is practical, well organized, and easy to read. It is filled with useful advice and has lots of excellent examples.

Rosenberg covers all the essential stuff. He emphasizes understanding your target audience, writing in the active voice, writing clearly and concisely, and explaining concepts with useful examples. He explains how to avoid some common punctuation errors. He shows how to effectively use tables, diagrams, and graphics. He includes excellent how-to chapters on writing document plans, specifications, user manuals, release notes, web content, and grants and proposals. He also explains how to craft intelligent e-mail messages, and how to create effective PowerPoint presentations! This may sound dorky, but in today's world, it is essential advice.

I've been a tech writer for ten years. I found this book to be an excellent refresher, and good reminder to look at my own work more critically. If I ever taught an introductory tech writing class, this would be one of my required texts. While I disagree with some of his advice (about 2%), for the most part I found this book to be one of the most practical, no-nonsense books on tech writing I've ever read.

My only complaint is that the book was not well edited. It has so many (minor) editorial errors, I found myself reading the book with a red pen in my hand. For a book on technical writing, this is inexcusable. For that, I'm only giving it four stars. However, the book's content deserves five-stars. Perhaps they'll make the necessary corrections for the second edition?

This book is useful as a quick reference when you have a specific question about writing or formatting a document and have a general familiarity with technical writing. If you are completely new to writing technical documents you will be better served by other books that provide more of a guide through the process and document types. This book could also use a section on how to work with professional writers, because not all engineers or scientists need to fully write or produce technical materials.

Spring Into Technical Writing covers many of the basic rules of good technical writing well, but I couldn't help coming away disappointed. The problem is that the book is only appropriate for a very narrow audience: those who already have experience creating technical documents but are quite clueless on how to do so properly. I consider myself a reasonably good technical writer, though I have little experience; the book provided a good summary of what one should know, but I didn't learn much that wasn't already obvious to me. On the other hand, if you have no idea how to create a long technical document, the book doesn't provide enough information to make you feel like you could tackle the task with competence.
In other words, if you are part of the audience I describe, you will find the book very useful. If not, I recommend looking elsewhere.

Technical Writing for Engineers and Scientists is chalk full of theory and has little to no practical value. This book will not teach you how to properly format an engineering report. I wish I had my money back. It will not teach you about paragraph spacing, numbering, fonts, letter size, or how to place units into a paragraph as opposed to a chart.

There's an interesting story to how I got this book, "Spring Into Technical Writing". I subscribe to a HTML email list that I don't read that often. However, one day, I saw a mention of "Technical Writing" in the subject line and browsed through the email. In the email was a link to a review of "Spring Into Technical Writing".

After reading the review, I was immediately hooked but did not purchase the book immediately. This set up an interesting situation a few weeks later.

I was talking to my old friend one day who works in the East Coast as a technical trainer. I had called her rather late but fortunately she was up. She was relaxing and mentioned she was reading a book by her old boss. Her old boss? Barry Rosenberg. The book? "Spring Into Techncial Writing".

In any case, after finding out the book was written by my friend's old boss, I went online and purchased it a few days later.

The book is an absolute joy to read. It's got a smooth and relaxed style and the humor is good. As someone who has done technical writing (and other writing) for about 1 year on my job, I found a lot of what Barry Rosenberg wrote makes sense. Whether it would be information on how to properly use Power Point slides, email or lists, there's a ton of material for new and old writers to use and reference to.

For those who are considering purchasing this book (and as stated in the book itself), you should be working in some sort of writing capacity to gain the full benefits of this book. If you are someone who wants to see if technical writing is for them, then this isn't the right book and you should consider another book.

For those of us who are already in the writing business, this book has a lot to offer and worth a look.

It is geared to more technical which was great insight for me and helps me in my more technical writing activities and dealing with engineers and devlopers.