Technical Writing, 2nd Edition

Preface

You will expect a book about technical writing to have certain characteristics, but I doubt that “interesting” is one of them. Yet I hope to make this book technically correct, informative, and interesting—three features that do not readily coexist. Indeed, my goals are ambitious.

There are numerous editorial resources for writers, such as Harbrace College Handbook [Hodges et al. 1999], The Elements of Style [Strunk and White 2008], On Writing Well [Zinsser 2006], and A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations [Turabian et al. 2007]. Some standard texts on technical writing also exist (e.g., Higham [1998]). I am neither a scholar of writing nor a professor of English or communications, so my point of view is ...