Rating:
(23 reviews)
Author: Gretchen Hargis Michelle Carey Ann Kilty Hernandez Polly Hughes Deirdre Longo Shannon Rouiller Elizabeth Wilde
ISBN : B0026OR0IS
New from $24.00
Format: PDF
Download Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and Editors (2nd Edition) (IBM Press) [Kindle Edition] Free Download from 4shared, mediafire, hotfile, and mirror link
"The examples are excellent--right on target and easy to understand and adapt. Even those who don't adopt the entire procedure can profit from the parts, but the greatest value will flow to those who adopt the whole." --Carolyn Mulford, senior writer and editor of Writing That Works
"This is also a book that students can keep for their professional libraries because it will increase in its value to them after they leave class and face real life experiences on the job. It is plain enough for them to understand while they are learning, and at the same time comprehensive enough to support them as professionals." --Elizabeth Boling, Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University
"It practices what it preaches. Its guidelines are understandable and appropriate; its examples clear. It contains exactly what writers and editors need to know. It is the book that I would have written." --Cynthia E. Spellman, Unisys
The #1 guide to excellence in documentation--now completely updated! A systematic, proven approach to creating great documentation- Thoroughly revised and updated
- More practical examples
- More coverage of topic-based information, search, and internationalization
Direct from IBM's own documentation experts, this is the definitive guide to developing outstanding technical documentation--for the Web and for print. Using extensive before-and-after examples, illustrations, and checklists, the authors show exactly how to create documentation that's easy to find, understand, and use. This edition includes extensive new coverage of topic-based information, simplifying search and retrievability, internationalization, visual effectiveness, and much more.
Coverage includes:
- Focusing on the tasks and topics users care about most
- Saying more with fewer words
- Using organization and other means to deliver faster access to information
- Presenting information in more visually inviting ways
- Improving the effectiveness of your review process
- Learning from example: sample text, screen captures, illustrations, tables, and much more
Whether you're a writer, editor, designer, or reviewer, if you want to create great documentation, this book shows you how!
Direct download links available for Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and Editors Free Download
- File Size: 8747 KB
- Print Length: 432 pages
- Simultaneous Device Usage: Up to 5 simultaneous devices, per publisher limits
- Publisher: IBM Press; 2 edition (April 6, 2004)
- Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.
- Language: English
- ASIN: B0026OR0IS
- Text-to-Speech: Enabled
X-Ray:
- Lending: Not Enabled
- Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #267,704 Paid in Kindle Store (See Top 100 Paid in Kindle Store)
- #27
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Technical - #42
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Study & Teaching
- #27
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Writing, Research & Publishing Guides > Technical - #42
in Kindle Store > Kindle eBooks > Education & Reference > Words, Language & Grammar > Study & Teaching
Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and Editors Free Download
This book is a mixed bag at best, advocating practices that help keep today's technical writing mired in mediocrity. For example: always use the 2nd person; and for heaven's sake don't try to explain anything to people, just tell them what to do! Much of this reads like tips for helping non-writers get by as technical writers, and for making technical writing into a kind of non-writing.
For devotees of the Jackson Pollock school of tech writing (throw lots of vetted statements at the page till they stick) or of the everything-is-a-numbered-list technique, there's probably much that's heartening in this glossy example of bad desktop publishing. (Jeesh, who decreed that tech writers can't learn typography and basic functional layout, or maybe hire someone that does?)
This book is probably ok for anyone writing product assembly manuals, or documenting GUI interfaces (press this, select that... yup second person actually works pretty well there). But for software? Or for anyone struggling to articulate complex ideas or just write a reasonably compact and self-contained conceptual overview (MIA from most tech writing today), there isn't much help here. Maybe it's time we technical writers focused more on good writing per se, on the things that good technical writing shares with effective prose (clarity, precision, range of useful styles), fiction (point of view) or even poetry (compression, effective use of embedded metaphor).
So, yeah, it turns out there're so many other rich directions and ideas for tech writers to pursue. For starters, there're the old standbys: Strunk and White or Wm Zinsser's Writing Well.