Science and Technical Writing: A Manual of Style

The second edition of this text makes many useful changes to the previous edition. Hopefully, readers WILL peruse the Preface. On page 36 of that section, there is a FULL explanation of the location and summarizing techniques that make this text extremely usable. Yes, each chapter does begin with a bulleted list that catalogs the major sub-sections in that specific chapter. Second, the Table of Contents offers page numbers to major topical changes. Third, the Index (compiled by a former president of the American Society of Indexers) references each paragraph in the text. So, there are multiple ways to find specific pieces of information by using one of three major location techniques: topical changes in the toc, paragraph references in the index, and chapter level tocs at the beginning of each chapter. The latter are NOT, as one reviewer suggests, simply bulleted lists. I'm happy to see this book issued as a Kindle book and hope others find it useful as an addition to their professional library.

This is the best style guide for technical writing I have ever found. It gives more every day practical information than any of the other technical writing books and gives that information in a highly usable format.My only complaint--my standard complaint about my reference books--is that the index is far less comprehensive than it ought to be. Given modern computer indexing capabilities, one would think authors and publishers could do a better job.However, with this is one of the four essential books: 1. Strunk and White, Elements of Style, 2. Prentice Hall, Words Into Type, 3. Garner, A Dictionary of Modern American Usage (for the British tech writer, Fowler's Modern English Usage) and 4. Ruebens, Science and Technical Writing. With these four, a technical writer can handle almost any situation that arises. There are other books covering special fields that can be added, but these four will always be the bedrock.If you are a professional technical writer or only an occasional one, you can't go wrong having this book handy on your desktop.

While Robert A. Day's How to Write & Publish a Scientific Paper gives a good overview of the writing and publishing process on a macro level regarding organization and presentation of material, Science and Technical Writing provides great detailed advice on a micro level. Philip Rubens gives very clear instruction on paragraphing, grammar, punctuation and spelling as well as the intricacies of how to present numbers, mathematical symbols and scientific notation. In addition, there are illustrated guidelines on how to design a variety documents such as brochures, manuals and newsletters right down to the page-level including representing information in charts, tables and diagrams. The book itself is well-designed and well-organized giving testament to its own advice. This is a good general reference for both writers and editors of science and technical documentation.