Technical Writing For Dummies

Let’s face it, a lot of technical documentation reads as if it had been translated into English from Venutian by a native speaker of gibberish. Which is annoying for you and expensive for the manufacturer who pays with alienated customers and soaring technical support costs. That’s why good technical writers are in such big demand worldwide. Now, Technical Writing For Dummies arms you with the skills you need to cash in on that demand.

Whether you’re contemplating a career as a technical writer, or you just got tapped for a technical writing project, this friendly guide is your ticket to getting your tech writing skills up to snuff. It shows you step-by-step how to:

Research and organize information for your documents
Plan your project in a technical brief
Fine-tune and polish your writing
Work collaboratively with your reviewers
Create great user manuals, awesome abstracts, and more
Write first-rate electronic documentation
Write computer- and Web-based training courses

Discover how to write energized technical documents that have the impact you want on your readers. Wordsmith Sheryl Lindsell-Roberts covers all the bases, including:

All about the red-hot market for technical writing and how to get work as a technical writer
The ABCs of creating a strong technical document, including preparing a production schedule, brainstorming, outlining, drafting, editing, rewriting, testing, presentation, and more
Types of technical documents, including user manuals, abstracts, spec sheets, evaluation forms and questionnaires, executive summaries, and presentations
Writing for the Internet—covers doing research online, creating multimedia documents, developing computer-based training and Web-based training, and writing online help

Combining examples, practical advice, and priceless insider tips on how to write whiz-bang technical documents, Technical Writing For Dummies is an indispensable resource for newcomers to technical writing and pros looking for new ideas to advance their careers.

Customer Reviews:

Strong on content, but a bit weak in presentation.

By "words4nerds" - January 16, 2003

As an experienced technical writer already, I bought this book as a general desk reference. It has been a helpful guide when I needed to check something in particular, but I would not use it as a "course textbook" if I was learning the trade.Generally, the content is excellent - it covers all the basics a novice tech writer needs to know. However, I question the way the content has been organized and presented... it doesn't follow a logical order. There's a section on editing, then a section on brainstorming and figuring out how to start writing, and then later on it swings back to proofreading. Ideally, the information should be presented the same way the writing process generally works: brainstorming, writing the first draft, THEN proofing/editing, and so on.I also found the short section on "preparing the technical brief" inadequate, considering planning and scoping out requirements is THE most important phase of any documentation project. And for some... read more

Great for junior tech writers

By Sainty - May 17, 2001

As any good tech author knows, a manual must be targeted to your audience, and this does just that. This is a great book to introduce a junior tech author to the concepts involved in creating good documentation. Experienced authors should look elsewhere.