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Here is a summary of the books I was recommended after my request for
help last month.
* JoAnn T. Hackos, Managing your Documentation projects, John Wiley &
sons, ISBN 0-471-59099-1
* Carol M. Barnum and Saul Carliner, Techniques for Technical
Communicators, Macmillan Publishing Company, New York, Maxwell Macmillan
Canada,Toronto, Maxwell Macmilan International, New York, Oxford,
Singapore, Sydney,1993.
* Karen Schriver, Dynamics in Document Design
It's a good overview of the field and one of the few technical writing
books out there that is a genuinely good read.
* Brusaw, Alred and Oliu, The Handbook of Technical Writing
* Judith A. Tarutz, Technical Editing: The Practical Guide for Editors
and Writers , Addison-Wesley Publishing Co., Hewlett-Packard Company,
1992.
* Salant, Priscilla, A. and Dillman, D. A., How to Conduct Your Own
Survey, Wiley: New York, NY, 1994. ISBN 0-471-01273-4 (paperback).
17.95 USD.
A good book on survey design
* Gary Blake and Robert W. Bly, The Elements of Technical Writing
* Charles T. Brusaw et al, Handbook of Technical Writing
Highly accessible and well-written, and contains plenty of illustrative
examples that make
clear a lot of those tricky English-language usages.
* The PQM system - How to write better instruction manuals, and control
their quality yourself.
* William Andersen, Technical Writing
nice general book with suggestions for all types of documents and
presentations.
* Boggan, Farkas, and Welinske, Developing Windows 95 Help
* Philip Rubens, ed., Science and Technical Writing: A Manual of Style
The Swiss Army knife of technical writing.
* Joann T. Hackos, Managing Your Documentation Projects, Wiley,
Technical Communication Library,
ISBN: 0471590991.
* Judith Tarutz, Technical Editing, The Practical Guide for Writers and
Editors, Addison-Wesley Publishing, ISBN
0-201-56356-8.
The book is loaded with practical advice and checklists. No one should
be without a copy.
* Rebecca E. Burnett, Technical Communication Second Edition, Wadsworth
Publishing Company in Belmont, California.
* Alred, Brusaw, and Oliu, The Professional Writer, St. Martin's Press,
New York.
For a good advanced text in technical writing.
* Michael Steehouder & Carel Jansen, Handleidingenwijzer, Handboek voor
effectieve softwarehandleidingen, Sdu Uitgevers, ISBN 90-75--56639-5
* Any books by JoAnn Hackos or Karen Schriver.
Dictionaries
* Merriam Webster's Collegiate Dictionary, 10th
Many corporations use this as their standard dictionary.
* Oxford Concise
* American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Third Edition,
Houghton Mifflin Company, Boston, New York
Notes on usage and deals with synonymy. The 'best' (American) English
dictionary
* Random House Unabridged
* Dutch - English dictionary, 'van Dale'.
Style
* The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications
For style guidelines, available as a help file from Microsoft.
* Strunk and White's Elements of Style
* Chicago Manual of Style
Indispensible
Grammar
* Warriner's handbook of English grammar and syntax
* Strunk and White, Elements of Grammar
Thank you everyone who sent me information. Now I just have to get
around to reading them all!
