Technical Writing For Dummies

I received the book on time as promised and was able to use the information right away.

I'm taking an internet class in this topic and the book has been an excellent source of material to go along with it.

This book is the best introduction to technical writing I have seen. It utilizes all the skills it teaches, which makes it easy to read and understand. If you are taking a technical writing class at school or college, this is a great book to read before you begin. If you have a technical writing background, this may not be the best text for you, but it is always a good quick reference guide to have on your shelves. Definitely a worthwhile investment.

From the Introduction to the Appendixes in the back, the author covers a lot of different and important topics about the business of Technical Writing with this book. Pointing out that all of us deal with various kinds of "manuals" in our everyday lives, the author builds on that as she discusses knowing your audience (including filling out a "technical brief"), creating a document plan and outline (an excellent first step in any document creation), creating your draft, visualizing the document layout, and stressing the idea to keep your documents concise and to the point. I liked that especially, considering how many manuals I've read that were full of "gobbledgook."There are also sections on various kinds of technical documents, including the famous "user manual," abstracts, specification sheets (with detailed explanations of the different kinds of spec sheets), giving presentations and "white papers." Also informative were chapters on doing online research (and the type of search criteria to use when doing this), computer-based and web-based training, and online help. The book also contains some excellent reference information, such as tips for getting published in a technical journal, writing a grant proposal, punctuation and grammar information (and done in a very concise way), even a short glossary of terms.Well-written and full of excellent information for any new or "veteran" technical writer.

I was a little skeptical about this book at first. How can you create a Dummies book on Technical Writing?. After reading the first few chapters, I realized that this book is an excellent reference for the veteran technical writer or the newbie. I've been technical writing for over five years now and I still found things in here that I did not know. Great job to the authors of this book!