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Subject:Re: Industry Standards Resource From:jsokohl -at- mac -dot- com To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com Date:Mon, 16 Feb 2004 13:01:31 -0700
Heidi (howdy, gf!),
Completely agree re: Motorola and stuffing it. Bottom line is, of course,
house style overrules anyone else. Empowerment to set house style is often
an issue...that's why there needs to be a tech writing head who can make
final decisions in times of impasse.
On my perennial tech writer bookshelf:
Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry (get the 2nd
edition)
Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and
Editors (lots of good vs. bad examples)
How to Communicate Technical Information: A Handbook of Software and
Hardware Documentation (old but not out of style nor value)
The Professional Writer: A Guide for Advanced Technical Writing (out of
print but obtainable as a used book from Amazon)
Illustrating Computer Documentation (Great stuff about design in general)
Designing & Writing Online Documentation (Another Horton classic)
NeXTSTEP User Interface Guidelines ('cause it's so well written)
Chicago Manual of Style (would liek 15, but now have 14th edition)
Line by Line: How to Improve Your Own Writing (great to bust the
"sentences never end with prepositions and infinitives are never to be
split" lies)
