NASA's ancient guide to technical writing

Subject: NASA's ancient guide to technical writing
From: "Goldstein, Dan" <DGoldstein -at- DeusTech -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 31 Dec 2003 08:49:44 -0500


Gabe Goldberg posted the following on the DCPubs list (forwarded from Ron
Bean on the Risks Digest):

> Ironically, the best antidote to PowerPoint may be a guide to technical
writing that was published by NASA many years ago, and can still be
downloaded from NASA's own servers:
> http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/ltrs/1964-cit.html
> That page is a link to this file:
> http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/ltrs/PDF/NASA-64-sp7010.pdf
> "Clarity in Technical Reporting" by S. Katzoff was written in 1955 and
circulated informally at NASA's Langley Research Center. Popular demand led
NASA to publish it officially in 1964. The PDF file on the web is a scan of
a copy that was printed in 1973. The first 16 pages are about written
reports, the last 9 pages are about verbal presentations. The author assumes
that the slides will be charts and graphs, not bullet points.

Ignoring for a moment our endless arguments about PowerPoint (please, I beg
you!), Katzoff's comments on "Visual Aids" on p. 23 and "The Printed
Version" on p. 25 are as relevant now as they were 48 years ago.

Dan Goldstein

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