Re: list of *good* books

Subject: Re: list of *good* books
From: Tom Lange <Tom_Lange -at- CCMAIL -dot- BMC -dot- COM>
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 11:57:20 CST

Well, I tried to send this a few days ago, but our mail server was not
talking to the outside world. It would receive but not send. Sooo...,
I trying again.

Tom Lange
tom_lange -at- bmc -dot- com (or if that does not work, try
tom_lange -at- ccmail -dot- bmc -dot- com)



______________________________ Forward Header __________________________________
Subject: Re: list of *good* books
Author: Tom Lange at BMC-Austin
Date: 1/19/96 11:48 AM


My books are on my book shelf at home, so I am doing this from
memory. My list, in preference order for new writers, is as follows:

1. A good Dictionary
2. The Handbook of Technical Writing by Brusaw, Alred, and Oliu (I may
have the name of the last two authors incorrect.) My favorite
3. The Careful Writer by Theodore Bernstein (Again, spelling may be
incorrect.
4. Elements of Style by Strunk and White
5. The Chicago Manual of Style by The
University of Chicago Press --Parts of
this book are good for technical
writing; however, it has a lot of
information that does not apply to
technical writing. Be selective and
careful when using it, or your technical
manual will look like a college paper
(or worse a romance novel, just
kidding:-).
6. How to Write Usable User Documentation by Edmond Weiss (I hope I
have this correct.)
7. Indexing, the art of by ????
8. Effective Writing by H. J. Tichy
9. Protecting Your Proprietary Rights by Tobey Marzouk (an IEEE book)

10. The style guide of the company that employs you.


I guess I would add another topic after you have digested all of the above.
It would provide another tool for your technical writing tool kit. It
provides a different perspective on "Chunking Information" into bite size
pieces. The topic is Information Mapping. I have a large training manual
on the topic from Information Mapping, Inc. somewhere in MA, but I don't
remember the name of it or of the other books on the subject.

After a beginning writer gets the basics under control and determines what
they will be writing, they must branch out and learn more topics such as
writing on line documentation, helps with hypertext and hypermedia, and
desktop publishing.

Hope this the above list helps. Some of the books are current and some may
be out of print. They are from my collection that I have accumulated over
the 20 years I have been a technical writer and publications manager. I
have another 20 or 30 on my shelf; however, the ones I listed each cover a
different aspect of technical writing.



Tom Lange
tom_lange -at- ccmail -dot- bmc -dot- com
Austin, TX






______________________________ Reply Separator _________________________________
Subject: list of *good* books
Author: ftf -at- abm -dot- austin -dot- tx -dot- us at unixlink
Date: 1/16/96 4:13 PM


I am in the process of changing careers from programming to
technical writing. I have seen numerious posts to this list from
others like me. I have also seen numerious books mentioned that
would be a great help to those of us trying to break
into this profession. So, I am asking the list to send to me
a list of the books (book name and author), in your list of
preference, of the books that you have found to be the greatest
help to you in doing your job. Please try to keep this list as
small as possible (as in 5 to 10 entries). I will summarize all
of the responses and then post a list of recommended books
along with how many respondants recommended each book. This
will help me in deciding which books I would like to buy and
add to my library, especially as I am just getting into this
field. So please look through all those books you have
aquired over the years and let me know which ones you think
would be the most help to a newbe in this profession.
--
Frederick "Magic Fingers" Falk
He who answers before listening,
that is his folly and his shame. Proverbs 18:13


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