Re: what are the best books in our field?

["Bergen, Jane" <janeb -at- ANSWERSOFT -dot- COM>]

What a deal! A thousand bucks for books! Any openings???

On a more serious note, however....look at the Wylie & Sons series on
technical communication. The Hackos book is part of that series, as is
at least one book by Horton. l am not sure if Karen Schriver's book
("Dynamics in Document Design") is included in that series, but it's a
definite candidate for your list. Very scholarly as well as practical
and has a lot of historical information.

Other must-haves for your list: all of William Horton's books, the
"Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications," Janice King's
"Writing High-Tech Copy..." (can't remember the full title).

Are you looking for suggestions for just books related to technical
communication? You mentioned "rhetorical theory, composition studies,
... and related areas" -- I can give you some great suggestions for
composition and rhetoric too, if you're interested. I know of some good
anthologies for technical communication (academic), too.

Let me know if you want more. I have well over 2,000 books at home, and
a good portion are classics for the types of books you're looking for.

Jane Bergen
Jane Bergen, Technical Writer,
AnswerSoft, Inc.     Richardson, TX
(972) 997-8355
janeb -at- answersoft -dot- com


On Thursday, April 16, 1998 2:57 PM, Mark Gellis
[SMTP:mgellis -at- KETTERING -dot- EDU] wrote:
> Friends,
>
> I'd like your advice.
>
> I recently joined the faculty of Kettering University, a small,
private
> institution that specializes in educating engineers, scientists, and
> business professionals.  They have provided me with a truly generous
> "new faculty development grant" and I've decided that one of the best
> things I can do with this money is to build my collection of works in
> rhetorical theory, composition studies, technical and professional
> communications, and related areas.  I already have a pretty good list
of
> books I think I should be getting, but I figured it could not hurt to
> get some advice from my colleages.
>
> This is my question.  If you had the money, I mean really had the
money,
> like a thousand dollar budget, and then some, to spend on books, what
> books would you get?  What are the best new books that have come out
> recently, the five or ten volumes published during the last decade
that
> everyone in our field should read?  And what are the classics of our
> field, and the most important reference volumes, the books everyone in
> composition or rhetoric or technical and professional writing should
own
> if they have the money to get their own copy?  What do you consider
the
> "bibles" of rhetoric?
>
> I'm looking forward to your answers.  I know everyone has their own
> favorites and I'm interested in hearing what different people are
going
> to recommend.  I think we may get some very interesting discussion out
> of this question.
>
> Mark