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I think there is a large number of good books on technical writing
available, but as for a 'Holy Grail', I do not believe there is one. As
another posting this morning lists the Hackos book on documentation, I would
say 'yes' that it is a good text.
One text I have referred to often is Earl E. McDowell's 'Interviewing
Practices for Technical Writers'. I have not seen it for sale anywhere, and
I just checked on Barnes & Noble and it is not available. Granted, it is not
complete, but it is like many other books on technical writing, more narrow
and focused on a certain subject.
As for style guides, because my company does not have their own, I use the
University of Minnesota's Style Guide. It is really not that different from
most of the available style guides out there. What was hammered into my head
was to use one guide and stay with it.
As already said in this string, I have many books at home and on my shelf at
work, and I refer to this or that in any one of them from time to time
depending on what I need. The most dog-eared one is my thesaurus and coming
in a close second my dictionary. I also tend to use information provided by
the publications distributed by STC.
If you want to contact me outside the string, I could give you a list of my
books.
Kelly
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