What Do You Recommend to Students for a Reference Book for Technical Writing

[Paul Ross]

Hi Janie --

For students, the trouble is that there are "BIG" books and small books.

For BIG books, I have used Paul V. Anderson's texts; I still refer to
them but they are too much to be practical for my courses.  But they
are well produced and comprehensive.  They contain a useful running
discussion of ethics of communication.

For smaller books, I have used A Guide to Writing as an Engineer
(Beer and McMurey).

And an extremely useful small book is How to Write and Publish a
Scientific Paper (Robert Day) -- I've used this for grad students.
It does not pretend to be complete -- but it "touches" all the
important points.  How to Write and Publish Engineering Papers is
also good.

For our junior/senior undergrad course, I'm currently using the Alred
Brusaw Oliu Handbook.  We've also recommended this to grad students.
It's a useful desktop reference that people can keep and use for a
long time.

At the freshman level, we've been using The Academic Writer's
Handbook (Rosen) from Pearson.  This has been REALLY useful because
it includes some intelligent discussion of sciences, social sciences,
and humanities, and the business context for writing.  One problem
with our engineers (and with technical communication as a field) is
that essential related disciplines (social sciences etc.) are
neglected (not a good thing).

Other types of books: I like Zinsser, especially  On Writing Well.
Several students really have liked Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and
Grace by Williams. Everybody should have Modern English Usage by
Fowler just because the book is (unintentionally) great fun!  British
English A to Zed is useful since "the US and England are two
countries divided by a common language."  The Elements of Style is
good on style but undependable on usage.

Here's one other thing -- maybe you have noticed this: some books are
too tied up on slightly precious details relating to technical
communication and  are not as useful as those that stress the
practice of writing to fulfill the main goals of accuracy, economy,
and effectiveness in the context of best practice.  I don't mean to
be critical, but I do not like Woolever Writing for the Technical
Professions for this  reason.  There seem to be a ton of pretty good,
overpriced, and not very inspiring books out there.

I also find this to be an interesting topic and look forward to
hearing more about it. -- PLR


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Paul Ross
Technical Communication Program
Engineering Professional Development/College of Engineering
1550 Engineering Drive
Madison, WI 53706
Office: M1050D (mezzanine level), Engineering Centers Building
Phone:  608/262-5171 -  Fax: 608/265-4734  -   E-Mail:  pross at engr.wisc.edu