Thank You from new tech writer

[Barbara Donohue]

Hi, Jim,

Congratulations on your new adventure!

Untechnical writing : how to write about technical subjects and 
products so anyone can understand, by Michael Bremer, 
was  recommended on this list recently. It's out of print (and not 
available on Amazon), but I found it on interlibrary loan through my 
local public library and it seems very good. I would recommend to a newbie.

I also found these very useful when starting out:

     How to communicate technical information, by Jonathan Price & Henry Korman

     Technical Editing by Judith Tarutz.

Both of them are available new and used on Amazon.

I always try to remind folks who aren't trained tech writers (as I 
wasn't) that tech writing requires you to be super-user 
friendly/supportive, and this means sometimes going against the 
writing guidelines Miss Reinmann taught in 10th grade English.

For instance, she recommended using variety in your vocabulary. This 
is a bad thing to do when writing instructions.

I tell new tech writers (and remind myself):

"Always call a thing by the same name."

And a corollary: "Don't use the same name for more than one thing."

Sounds simple-minded, but it's very important and many a writer (and 
user-interface designer) has gone astray, much to the confusion of 
the end user.

Cheers & have fun.  Let us know how it goes!

Barbara



----------
Barbara Donohue
The engineer who writes. Turning technology into English.
978-263-4961
bdonohue at alum.mit.edu
Specializing in mechanical technologies



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