This is the mini bible for Technical communications

books:


	• The Elements of Technical Writing (Elements of Series) Gary Blake, Robert W. Bly Longman, 2000 - 192 pages average customer review:based on 7 reviews view larger image
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Some value for the price

In order of size, but not importance, the four books Technical Writers need within easy rolling distance are:

1. Strunk and White's powerful Elements of Style
2. Michael Bremer's interesting and motivating Untechnical Writing - How to Write About Technical Subjects and Products So Anyone Can Understand (Untechnical Press Books for Writers Series)
3. Blake and Bly's Elements of Technical Writing (MacMillan)
4. Microsoft's Manual of Style for Technical Publications

I found a number of items are useful for SDK online Help documentation. Blake and Bly state a number of golden rules for Technical Writers, a few of which are useful:

#3) Numbers should appear in the same form they are familiar to readers
#4) Hyphenate numbers and unit of measure, such as 32-bytes
#5) Use singular when 1: .8-bit
#9) Write out approximations: half a glass of water
#11) Spell out numbers beginning a sentence
Center equations (2+2=4) on the page
#25) Hyphenate words compounded to form an adjective modifier. State-of-the-art technology, for example; the phrase state-of-the-art modifies the meaning of word, technology, following the phrase.

Hyphenate two adjacent nouns if they express a single idea: air-craft.

#29) Avoid dangling participles: verbs ending with "ing," when attached to the wrong subject.

Wrong: Turning over our papers, the exam began.
Correct: Turning over our papers, we began the exam.

Omit internal punctuation in acronyms and abbreviations: R.S.V.P
Acronyms for measurements are in lower case: cm for centimeter.
Avoid symbols for words: " for inch.
"that evaluates to" is a common enough phrase in program code documentation, but it is passive (not past tense).
Use imperative voice: begin sentence with a verb.

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Concise, Excellent Bang for Buck

A solid, common-sense guide to technical writing that is applicable to writing in general. The tips and pointers presented in this manual will improve all your writing, not just technical. This book makes the excellent point that good technical writing is ultimately just good writing...applied to technical subjects. Excellent buy.

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This is the mini bible for Technical communications

As a technical writer I have found this book an excellent resource. Most examples are short and concise. The rules and examples are probably the most up-to-date in the Technical Communications industry.

An excellent guide

I found this book to be extremely useful. It was easy to read and clearly pointed out the major elements in technical writing. I recommend it to anyone who needs a boost in their writing, but not for someone looking for a thick reference guide. The only reason it gets 4 instead of 5 stars is it didn't have as many examples as I would have liked or any practice problems. Overall, it helped me organize my papers properly, avoid common writing flaws, and get my main points across.

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reviews: page 1, 2

This essential guidebook covers the fundamentals of writing for technical professions. The short, easy-to-use book outlines the major principles of technical writing and is filled with examples from real situations, as well as tips on writing reports and user manuals.