Current TW books (was Re: Word Usage)

[Jane Bergen <jbergen1 -at- EARTHLINK -dot- NET>]

I've been wondering why we don't see a current tech writer editing
book with lists of words to check for. Unfortunately our
spell-checkers alone won't catch many of these words. One of my pet
peeves (and I see it OFTEN on messages on this list!) is loose vs.
lose. As in "I'm loosing my mind over some of the recent posts!"

Now, the bigger question that I would like to see discussed on this
list is why are there so few good textbooks or even just good tech
writing "how-to" books? Wylie & Sons had a good thing going with their
Technical Communication Library, but I haven't seen much out of it
lately. The last time I tried to search at their web site for it, I
got no hits! (I think I have every book in the series, but want to be
sure no new ones have quietly crept in.) It may be because everyone is
asking their questions on this list instead of investing in books
 ;-)

Jane
Jane Bergen
jbergen1 -at- earthlink -dot- net

----- Original Message -----
From: Beard, Samuel <Samuel -dot- Beard -at- GSC -dot- GTE -dot- COM>
To: <TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU>
Sent: Wednesday, March 03, 1999 1:48 PM
Subject: Re: Word Usage

(snipped)
>peeves on word usage seen by authors submitting work to her magazine.
Some
>of the ones she listed are:
>affect vs. effect, ensure vs. insure, and others that I can't recall
right
>now. Again, the improper choice of these words could cause
translators major
>problems.


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