eBook downloads, eBook resources & eBook authors
This clearly written book was developed for those who want to learn the basics of effective technical writing. Special attention is paid to how to plan, organize, develop, and edit technical documents for the best results.
If you can write clear, concise instructions, then you can be a technical writer. Learn, step-by-step, how to turn your creative writing talent into a highly lucrative career, where you get paid big money consistently to use your writing skills.
Details the skills you need as a technical writer to create both printed and online content. This valuable reference describes the entire development process-planning, writing, visual design, editing, indexing, and production. You also get tips on how to write information that is more easily translated into other languages. You'll learn about the importance of following templates and about how structured authoring environments based on Extensible Markup Language (XML) streamline the content development process. This updated third edition features new information on the Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) standard for structured authoring, and it explains the impact of Web 2.0 technologies-blogs, wikis, and forums-on technical communication.
"Filled with Mr. Hardestys knowledge and experience from over 25 years in the fields of technical and business communication, this highly accessible, clearly written volume is both a grammar review and a guide to the main topics in technical and business writing. It is an invaluable aid for working professionals in all fields who find that they must now learn to be good writers and communicators."
Taking a research-based, integrated problem solving approach to technical and professional writing, this volume provides a model that illustrates real working-world solutions to problems that readers are likely to encounter in the workplace. Designed to show that problem solving is a multidimensional process, each chapter begins with a short scenario case study that deals with theoretical or applied issues of technical and professional communication, thereby preparing users to excel in the professional world. The volume addresses a variety of forms of professionalism and problem solving including technical and rhetorical problem solving, solving problems through research, reports and completion reports, proposals, letters and memoranda's, solving problems through trip reports, feasibility studies, and lab reports, policy statements, manuals, and procedures, as well as solving problems in the professional job search, through document design, and through oral presentations. For business professionals and others who would benefit from enhanced problem-solving skills.
This is the first collection of narratives by practicing technical communicators telling their own personal stories about the workplace and their lives on the job. The authors portray a wide range of jobs: writers, editors, interface designers, marketing writers, and trainers working in 9 different technical fields, including software, R&D, engineering, medicine, transportation, and telecommunications. The stories vividly demonstrate the unique power of narrative as a teaching and learning tool. Unlike fabricated cases, these real-life narratives show new and veteran technical writers at work on the job, dealing with tasks, clients, and co-workers, and revealing their insights, values, and attitudes about their work. The stories also show the skills required in the profession and the ethical and other issues raised in the course of the workday. For anyone interested in technical communication and professional writing.
Every complex product needs to be explained to its users, and technical writers, also known as technical communicators, are the ones who do that job. A growing field, technical writing requires multiple skills, including an understanding of technology, writing ability, and great people skills. Whether you're thinking of becoming a technical writer, just starting out, or you've been working for a while and feel the need to take your skills to the next level, The Insider's Guide to Technical Writing can help you be a successful technical writer and build a satisfying career. Inside the Book Is This Job for Me? What does it take to be a technical writer? Building the Foundation: What skills and tools do you need to get started? The Best Laid Plans: How do you create a schedule that won’t make you go crazy? How do you manage different development processes, including Agile methodologies? On the Job: What does it take to walk into a job and be productive right away? The Tech Writer Toolkit: How do you create style guides, indexes, templates and layouts? How do you manage localization and translation and all the other non-writing parts of the job? I Love My Job: How do you handle the ups and downs of being a technical writer? Appendixes: References to websites, books, and other resources to keep you learning. Index
In terms of writing support, working professionals have been left in the lurch during the past decade, as corporations and other organizations have downsized their writing staffs or eliminated them altogether. More and more, the writing tasks are falling on technical staff members and managers. Unfortunately, many such professionals feel ill-equipped to carry out these writing responsibilities. If you find yourself in that situation, Technical and Business Writing for Working Professionals by Ray E. Hardesty is the book to get you through. Mr. Hardesty's broad knowledge of technical and business communication comes from more than thirty years of experience as a newspaper and trade magazine journalist and as a technical writer and editor in several industries. He has experience in the petroleum industry, the semiconductor equipment industry, the electronics industry, and the aerospace industry, including both aircraft component manufacturing and the U.S. space program. He has presented papers at international technical communications conferences, and he has taught technical and business writing at the post-secondary level and in corporate environments. Currently, he is a writer with the distance-learning company Quisic, located in Hollywood, California. The book stresses two vital aspects of technical and business communication: (1) the mechanics of the English language, and (2) the techniques of writing and communicating well in technical and business environments. The emphasis on these two areas comes from Mr. Hardesty's concept that language "is nothing less than the organizational structure we use to understand the world and express that understanding to others." The first part of the book provides the reader with a rigorous re-acquaintance with the structure of the English language, including parts of speech and sentence structure. In the second part, the author discusses technical writing topics, including short forms, nomenclature, technical writing style, formats, and the writing process. The last part, on business writing, covers background topics such as "identifying the audience," "business writing tone," and "the importance of brevity" and then examines the types of business writing facing modern professionals, including e-mail correspondence, interoffice memorandums, formal business letters, internal reports, external proposals, and presentations. On all of these topics, Mr. Hardesty brings to bear his extensive experience in working with professionals of all types in business, industry, and academia.
