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Subject:SUMMARY - Popular Writing References From:Nea Dodson <NeaDods -at- AOL -dot- COM> Date:Sun, 26 Oct 1997 10:17:07 -0500
This is Part 2 of the results of the Style Guide Survey I ran a few weeks
ago, the answers to the question "What reference books do you find
invaluable?"
My thanks again to those who responded.
Books TWs find Valuable References:
Managing Your Documentation Projects, J. Hackos
(Several respondants listed this book)
Roget's Thesaurus
The Synonym Finder, J. Rhodale
(comment: "I like this better than Roget's because it has more words and
lists common phrases.")
Full Marks: Advice on Punctuation, J. Kirkman
Good Style, Writing for Science & Technology, J. Kirkman
The Deluxe Transitive Vampire
(two writers listed this as their primary grammer reference)
ISTC Handbook of Technical Writing
Brusaw's Handbook of Technical Writing
Microsoft Computer Dictionary
Indexing Books, N. Mulvaney
Understanding Management, R. Daft
Words in Type
"any internet book by Laura LeMay"
"any internet book by Lynda Weinman"
Note: of the 30 responses I received, 7 said they were also asked to do HTML
coding or web page design. Other non-writing tasks included desktop
publishing (12), training (11), and graphics design (8). No other task
received more than two votes.
The reason I've been asking questions like this is that I am planning a
Technical Writer's companion book, one which will list the basics of *all*
the aspects of a TW's job. Although the market is full of reference books
telling every detail of editing, proofreading, writing, web design,
instructional design, graphics, etc., there is no one book that collects the
elements of everything. I think this "companion" would be a nice reference
for an experienced writer or a valuable how-to for inexperienced writers.
Opinions on this are welcomed.
Nea Dodson
neadods -at- aol -dot- com
"Science, demystified, is just another nonfiction subject."
-- W. Zinsser
