The Elements of Technical Writing

Despite its publication in 1980, this concise book is surprisingly relevant and useful today for anyone wanting to improve their technical writing. I took author Alvarez's Technical Report Writing course at Santa Rosa Junior College in the 1980s. I still have the book, and refer to it often. Although it's not in the book, one of Alvarez's most effective writing exercises was the one in which he had his students make a paper airplane, and then write a set of instructions on how we did it. We turned in our written instructions, along with our paper airplane. He then made his own paper airplane by following the students' written instructions. If his plane looked like your plane, you got an A! Try it at home.