Technical Writing For Dummies [Paperback]

Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 15, 2001

Let’s face it, a lot of technical documentation reads as if it had been translated into English from Venutian by a native speaker of gibberish. Which is annoying for you and expensive for the manufacturer who pays with alienated customers and soaring technical support costs. That’s why good technical writers are in such big demand worldwide. Now, Technical Writing For Dummies arms you with the skills you need to cash in on that demand.

Whether you’re contemplating a career as a technical writer, or you just got tapped for a technical writing project, this friendly guide is your ticket to getting your tech writing skills up to snuff. It shows you step-by-step how to:

• Research and organize information for your documents
• Plan your project in a technical brief
• Fine-tune and polish your writing
• Work collaboratively with your reviewers
• Create great user manuals, awesome abstracts, and more
• Write first-rate electronic documentation
• Write computer- and Web-based training courses

Discover how to write energized technical documents that have the impact you want on your readers. Wordsmith Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts covers all the bases, including:

• All about the red-hot market for technical writing and how to get work as a technical writer
• The ABCs of creating a strong technical document, including preparing a production schedule, brainstorming, outlining, drafting, editing, rewriting, testing, presentation, and more
• Types of technical documents, including user manuals, abstracts, spec sheets, evaluation forms and questionnaires, executive summaries, and presentations
• Writing for the Internet—covers doing research online, creating multimedia documents, developing computer-based training and Web-based training, and writing online help

Combining examples, practical advice, and priceless insider tips on how to write whiz-bang technical documents, Technical Writing For Dummies is an indispensable resource for newcomers to technical writing and pros looking for new ideas to advance their careers.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

"Technical Writing For Dummies is a must-have reference for both the aspiring and seasoned technical writer." - Carol Szatkowski, CEO, Clear Point Consultants, Inc. "This book puts you on a good track for designing and writing documents your readers will really appreciate. It gives many useful tips (even for seasoned writers)." - Greg Bartlett, Director of Documentation of The Mathworks, Inc. and President of Society for Documentation Professionals "Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts does a remarkable job of balancing examples and practical advice as useful to those new to technical writing as it is to pros looking for ideas to apply to upcoming projects." -Tonya Price, former OpenAir.com Director of On-line Marketing and President, Association of Internet Professionals-495 Massachusetts Chapter

Get tips on writing computer- and Web-based training courses

Find out what it takes to produce terrific technical documents Whether you're contemplating a career as a technical writer or you just got tapped for a technical writing project, this friendly guide is your ticket for getting your tech writing skills up to par. Wordsmith Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts shows you step-by-step how to get organized, write clearly, and produce everything from spec sheets to online help systems.

Discover how to: Plan your project with a Technical Brief Fine-tune and polish your writing Work collaboratively with your reviewers Create great user manuals, awesome abstracts, and more Write first-rate electronic documentation

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About the Author

Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts runs business-writing seminars for Fortune 500 companies and is the author of several books, including For Dummies guides to business writing and business letters.

Product Details

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: For Dummies; 1 edition (February 15, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0764553089
• ISBN-13: 978-0764553080
• Product Dimensions: 7.5 x 9.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #271,029 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

SHERYL LINDSELL-ROBERTS runs business-writing and e-mail seminars throughout the country and is the author of twenty-three books, including the popular Strategic Business Letters and E-mail, Mastering Computer Typing, Revised Edition, and 135 Tips for Writing Successful Business Documents.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

36 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Strong on content, but a bit weak in presentation., January 16, 2003

By 

"words4nerds" (Victoria, BC, Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Technical Writing For Dummies (Paperback)

As an experienced technical writer already, I bought this book as a general desk reference. It has been a helpful guide when I needed to check something in particular, but I would not use it as a "course textbook" if I was learning the trade.

Generally, the content is excellent - it covers all the basics a novice tech writer needs to know. However, I question the way the content has been organized and presented... it doesn't follow a logical order. There's a section on editing, then a section on brainstorming and figuring out how to start writing, and then later on it swings back to proofreading. Ideally, the information should be presented the same way the writing process generally works: brainstorming, writing the first draft, THEN proofing/editing, and so on.

I also found the short section on "preparing the technical brief" inadequate, considering planning and scoping out requirements is THE most important phase of any documentation project. And for some reason, this information is buried in the "understanding your reader" section, when it should be a separate section all its own (as information about your audience forms only PART of a project plan).

The author has included a few too many personal experiences in this book - understandably she wanted to inject some fun into what could be pretty dry reading material, but her style sometimes comes off as too "cute".

Overall, this book contains a lot of excellent content - the structure and presentation just need to be re-tooled for maximum effectiveness.

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Informative, May 7, 2001

By 

Todd Hawley (San Francisco CA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Technical Writing For Dummies (Paperback)

From the Introduction to the Appendixes in the back, the author covers a lot of different and important topics about the business of Technical Writing with this book. Pointing out that all of us deal with various kinds of "manuals" in our everyday lives, the author builds on that as she discusses knowing your audience (including filling out a "technical brief"), creating a document plan and outline (an excellent first step in any document creation), creating your draft, visualizing the document layout, and stressing the idea to keep your documents concise and to the point. I liked that especially, considering how many manuals I've read that were full of "gobbledgook."

There are also sections on various kinds of technical documents, including the famous "user manual," abstracts, specification sheets (with detailed explanations of the different kinds of spec sheets), giving presentations and "white papers." Also informative were chapters on doing online research (and the type of search criteria to use when doing this), computer-based and web-based training, and online help. The book also contains some excellent reference information, such as tips for getting published in a technical journal, writing a grant proposal, punctuation and grammar information (and done in a very concise way), even a short glossary of terms.

Well-written and full of excellent information for any new or "veteran" technical writer.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great for junior tech writers, May 17, 2001

By 

Sainty (The North, England) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Technical Writing For Dummies (Paperback)

As any good tech author knows, a manual must be targeted to your audience, and this does just that. This is a great book to introduce a junior tech author to the concepts involved in creating good documentation. Experienced authors should look elsewhere.