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Subject:RE: best current books for teaching tech writing? From:"Janoff, Steven" <Steven -dot- Janoff -at- ga -dot- com> To:Laura Lemay <lemay -at- lauralemay -dot- com>, "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Tue, 3 Dec 2013 16:23:50 -0800
"Style: Lessons in Clarity and Grace" (11th Edition) by Joseph M. Williams.
Not a book on tech writing per se, but a powerful book that will teach him how to be a much better and clearer writer of internal technical material.
In the mid to latter 90's when I dug in to really learn how to write, this was the single most influential contemporary book on writing that I read. It had a big influence on my style. (The one mentioned is the textbook version. There's a trade book version, from U. of Chicago Press, called "Style: Toward Clarity and Grace" -- out of print but not that hard to find. And there are earlier editions of the textbook for rock bottom that are probably just as good. Any way you look at it, this is a phenomenal book.)
Steve
-----Original Message-----
From: On Behalf Of Laura Lemay
Sent: Tuesday, December 03, 2013 2:37 PM
To: Milan DavidoviÄ
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: best current books for teaching tech writing?
Yes, a clarification:
This is for a developer who is going to remain a developer, and wants to know how to be a better and clearer writer of internal technical material. He is not a career changer; he's not going to be doing single-sourced DITA concepts and tasks at any time. Everything he writes will be in the under-ten-pages range, and probably 90% of it will be on our internal wikis.
He wants to be a better subject matter expert for his particular subject, and to provide better and clearer background information for consumption by other developers and by tech writers. We have a strong emphasis on clear writing company-wide here, and if a developer cannot write they are at a disadvantage to others who can.
That said the books that have been recommended so far are awesome, thank you. Keep sending them and I will compile a list and repost.
Thanks,
Laura
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