Style Guides

[Janice Gelb <janiceg -at- MARVIN -dot- ENG -dot- SUN -dot- COM>]

Lorelei Yoder writes:

>
>We are in the process of revising our style guide.  Do any of you have a
>style guide in electronic or printed form that you would be willing to
>share?
>

READ ME FIRST! A STYLE GUIDE FOR THE COMPUTER INDUSTRY has been
mentioned on this list by STC members in the past. I am proud to
announce that, at long last, the book is shipping!

Those of you who bought the book at the STC conference will be pleased
to know that the CDs should be shipping by the end of this week. The
book itself should be in bookstores by January 20, or can be ordered
directly through Prentice Hall at the number given below.

Although the book is based on the Sun Microsystems award-winning style
guide, Sun-specific information has been removed and generic
information applicable to all companies has been added. The book
includes useful information not in the company version, including a
chapter on developing a documentation department and one on useful
forms and checklists.

Needless to say, READ ME FIRST also covers traditional style
guidelines, including:

* Writing for an international audience
* A thorough guide on indexing
* Pointers on creating a bibliography, including how to reference
  online source material
* Tables of abbreviations, acronyms, and units of measurement
* Grammar and punctuation guidelines
* Typographic conventions

It is accompanied by the aforementioned CD-ROM, which includes an
HTML and a FrameViewer version of the book, plus sample FrameMaker
templates for building your own books.

The book is 240 pages; $29.95 US (includes CD-ROM).

To order directly from Prentice Hall, call 800-811-0912 or 515-284-6751.
The ISBN number is 0-13-455347-0.

I hope this book proves useful to some of you, and that you will
forgive this somewhat commercial announcement.

********************************************************************************
Janice Gelb                  | The only connection Sun has with this
janiceg -at- marvin -dot- eng -dot- sun -dot- com   | message is the return address.
********************************************************************************

 TECHWR-L (Technical Communication) List Information: To send a message
to 2500+ readers, e-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot-  Send commands
   to LISTSERV -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU (e.g. HELP or SIGNOFF TECHWR-L).
  Search the archives at http://www.documentation.com/  or search and
browse the archives at http://listserv.okstate.edu/archives/techwr-l.html