Technical Report Writing and Style Guide


Book Description

This book is based on, and expanded from, a course on technical report writing that the author has presented for over 20 years. Are you an engineer who writes technical reports as part of your job, yet you wish you could make them shorter and better - and write them faster? Maybe you write external reports for your consultancy's clients, or internal reports for senior managers. Maybe sometimes you think you signed up to be an engineer not a writer. But now you are a writer as well as an engineer and you wish that writing a good report was easier. This book will show you how to write shorter and better reports, and write them faster. The author is a retired chartered engineer and who has written about 100 articles and four books - published by Kogan Page, Macmillan and San Francisco Press. Here is just one comment from one client who arranged for the course on which this book is based to be presented to his staff: 'Thank you for the course. All the feedback I've had so far has been very positive... which is quite unusual as they can be a cynical bunch.' Well, not so much as cynical as don't like 'airy-fairy' ideas. The book is down-to-earth with practical ideas.You will learn: - How to break the task into three phases: planning, writing and editing.- How to avoid the biggest complaint about technical reports.- How to use three layers of sequencing to make the writing easier.- The most common format for technical reports - and three others. - How much detail to include.- Twelve big tips to improve the writing and several smaller tips.- How to satisfy both technical and non-technical readers.- How to cut the waffle.- How to edit your own work, which is never an easy thing to do.- Seventeen consistency checks to look for when editing.- How to get the best from the Microsoft grammar checker.- How to use the readability statistics.- Variations between British and US English.PLUS: A style guide with over 130 items of guidance, including all the punctuation marks. Did you know that the hyphen has been described as the punctuation mark to drive you mad?




Writing Undergraduate Lab Reports


Book Description

A practical guide to writing impactful lab reports for science undergraduates through the use of model outlines and annotated publications.




Microsoft Manual of Style


Book Description

Maximize the impact and precision of your message! Now in its fourth edition, the Microsoft Manual of Style provides essential guidance to content creators, journalists, technical writers, editors, and everyone else who writes about computer technology. Direct from the Editorial Style Board at Microsoft—you get a comprehensive glossary of both general technology terms and those specific to Microsoft; clear, concise usage and style guidelines with helpful examples and alternatives; guidance on grammar, tone, and voice; and best practices for writing content for the web, optimizing for accessibility, and communicating to a worldwide audience. Fully updated and optimized for ease of use, the Microsoft Manual of Style is designed to help you communicate clearly, consistently, and accurately about technical topics—across a range of audiences and media.




The Global English Style Guide


Book Description

The Global English Style Guide illustrates how much you can do to make written texts more suitable for a global audience. Accompanied by an abundance of clearly explained examples, the Global English guidelines show you how to write documentation that is optimized for non-native speakers of English, translators, and even machine-translation software, as well as for native speakers of English. You'll find dozens of guidelines that you won't find in any other source, along with thorough explanations of why each guideline is useful. Author John Kohl also includes revision strategies, as well as caveats that will help you avoid applying guidelines incorrectly. Focusing primarily on sentence-level stylistic issues, problematic grammatical constructions, and terminology issues, this book addresses the following topics: ways to simplify your writing style and make it consistent; ambiguities that most writers and editors are not aware of, and how to eliminate those ambiguities; how to make your sentence structure more explicit so that your sentences are easier for native and non-native speakers to read and understand; punctuation and capitalization guidelines that improve readability and make translation more efficient; and how language technologies such as controlled-authoring software can facilitate the adoption of Global English as a corporate standard. This text is intended for anyone who uses written English to communicate technical information to a global audience. Technical writers, technical editors, science writers, and training instructors are just a few of the professions for which this book is essential reading. Even if producing technical information is not your primary job function, the Global English guidelines can help you communicate more effectively with colleagues around the world. This book is part of the SAS Press program.




Writing for Engineers


Book Description

This book is full of practical advice and useful examples to help students and engineers write clearly, accurately and impressively. This updated fourth edition features new material on technical notes, inspection reports and business cases, along with abstracts and summaries. It is an essential aid for today's engineers.







The Diversity Style Guide


Book Description

New diversity style guide helps journalists write with authority and accuracy about a complex, multicultural world A companion to the online resource of the same name, The Diversity Style Guide raises the consciousness of journalists who strive to be accurate. Based on studies, news reports and style guides, as well as interviews with more than 50 journalists and experts, it offers the best, most up-to-date advice on writing about underrepresented and often misrepresented groups. Addressing such thorny questions as whether the words Black and White should be capitalized when referring to race and which pronouns to use for people who don't identify as male or female, the book helps readers navigate the minefield of names, terms, labels and colloquialisms that come with living in a diverse society. The Diversity Style Guide comes in two parts. Part One offers enlightening chapters on Why is Diversity So Important; Implicit Bias; Black Americans; Native People; Hispanics and Latinos; Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders; Arab Americans and Muslim Americans; Immigrants and Immigration; Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation; People with Disabilities; Gender Equality in the News Media; Mental Illness, Substance Abuse and Suicide; and Diversity and Inclusion in a Changing Industry. Part Two includes Diversity and Inclusion Activities and an A-Z Guide with more than 500 terms. This guide: Helps journalists, journalism students, and other media writers better understand the context behind hot-button words so they can report with confidence and sensitivity Explores the subtle and not-so-subtle ways that certain words can alienate a source or infuriate a reader Provides writers with an understanding that diversity in journalism is about accuracy and truth, not "political correctness." Brings together guidance from more than 20 organizations and style guides into a single handy reference book The Diversity Style Guide is first and foremost a guide for journalists, but it is also an important resource for journalism and writing instructors, as well as other media professionals. In addition, it will appeal to those in other fields looking to make informed choices in their word usage and their personal interactions.




The Chicago Manual of Style


Book Description

Searchable electronic version of print product with fully hyperlinked cross-references.




Writing and Reporting for the Media


Book Description

"To accompany Writing and Reporting for the Media."




Style Guide for Business Writing


Book Description

Style guides come in many shapes and sizes, usually focused toward scientific or academic use only. However, business writing is a space occupied by many individuals that has not been given the attention it deserves. The Style Guide for Business Writing, Second Edition, is designed specifically to assist business writers in both the public and private sector, including those publishing with English as a second language; authors of academic papers; business book authors; financial journalists; and writers of reports, proposals or even just e-mail and memoranda. This book provides a comprehensive guide to clear and precise writing that will help develop basic communication skills for the beginner, and refresh the basics for the experienced business writer. Major topics are arranged alphabetically and the cross references and index enable quick and easy access to information. Michael C. Thomsett is a market expert, author, speaker, and coach. His many books include Stock Market Math, Candlestick Charting, The Mathematics of Options, and A Technical Approach to Trend Analysis.