Re: Basic Tech Text

[Anne Halseytechwriter <ach -at- TOMICHI -dot- STORTEK -dot- COM>]

Regarding Karen Steele's plea for a basic TW text:

Houp (sp?) and Pearsall's "Reporting Technical Information" comes
to mind (at least, I think that is the title).  Good basic
text, easy to follow, and it was fairly recently reissued
so it should be up-to-date in terms of the bibliographic
information.

There is another document that you might look at called
"Guidelines for Document Designers" edited by Felker, Pickering,
Charrow, Holland, and Redish.  It contains some basic information
about, well, presenting information.  How to avoid noun strings,
writing actively as opposed to passively, and recognizing and
eliminating nominalizations.

There is also a wonderful little book called "Style: Ten Lessons
in Clarity and Grace," by Joseph M. Williams.  This book
reminds me of Strunk and White's "Elements of Style" in terms
of organization and presentation of information.  Definitely
worth looking at for source material.

There are also a number of anthologies dealing with presenting
technical information.  The following come to mind:

        "Effective Documentation: What We Have Learned
         from Research," Stephen Doheny-Farina

        "Text, ConText, and HyperText: Writing with and for
         the Computer," Edward Barrett

        "New Essays in Technical and Scientific Communication:
         Research, Theory, and Practice," Paul Anderson (et al)

        "Perspectives on Software Documentation: Inquiries and
         Innovations," Thomas T. Barker

Good luck!

        anne halsey
        sr tech writer, storagetek
        anne_halsey -at- stortek -dot- com