5 Important Books in Technical Writing 

There are hundreds of books on technical writing, and I know everyone has there favorite. However, I've singled out five that I think are most important to practicing technical writers.

1. 3-way tie between Technical Communication Today by Richard Johnson-Sheehan; Technical Communication by Mike Markel; Technical Communication A Reader Centered Approach by Paul V. Anderson.

These three books are the top three used at universities and colleges nationwide in the beginning technical writing classes. Each book has its own strengths, but together each does a great job of simply introducing the subject and pointing out how technical writing is different than other types of writing. They give the basic considerations writers must make before and during the creation of professional documents, and they give many of the foundational rules to follow for things like formatting and document design. Markel's book integrates learning about technology into these lessons, and he shows you in various software tools--like MS Word, for example--how to carry out these lessons. Johnson-Sheehan's book is not as narrowly focused on just a few disciplines like some others are. In fact, he goes out of his way to provide examples of technical writing in many different professions. And Anderson's was one of the first to address audience as deeply as it does, and throughout he explicitly brings a reader back to how important the reader is to whatever is being written.

2. Writing in the Workplace: New Research Perspectives, Edited by Rachel Spilka.

This book was foundational because it was one of the first to provide workplace-based studies of different types of technical and professional communication. The studies range in topics, each a facet of what is important to real writers in a real workplace. Each article also focuses on different disciplines, from banking to engineering, and thus shows a broad range of technical writing in action.

3. Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel by John M. Carroll.

Carroll's first book, minimalism, introduced technical writers to the idea of only giving a reader the information they need and nothing more. He used tons of studies performed at IBM to demonstrate how effective this strategy was, and then discussed theories in cognitive psychology to explain why this strategy worked. He followed this book up with the one referenced here. Minimalism Beyond the Nurnberg Funnel is an edited collection that demonstrates this principle put to use in many different communication environments, not just software documentation (which was his first focus). He also updates his theory a bit and explains how writers can apply it in the real world.

4. Information Development: Managing Your Documentation Projects, Portfolio, and People by JoAnn T. Hackos.

Hackos first published this book back in the late 90's but has since updated it. The book is aimed at writers taking a management role, but I think its essential for all writers because technical writing in itself is a management role: from managing one's own documentation to the flow of information needed to create that documentation. The book explains how to schedule resources, work effectively with subject matter experts, and discusses different roles played by people in a team. All in all its a solid and important manual to have on the shelf.

5. User and Task Analysis for Interface Design by JoAnn T. Hackos and Janice C. Redish.

Both Hackos and Redish are powerful names in the technical writing field, so anything written by them is going to be and important resource. However, this book is a great resource for writers needing to know how to design the interfaces of communications (not just computer-based) while keeping users in mind. Often writers don't have time to conduct their own foundational user-testing, this guide helps to solve that problem by giving important basic considerations that writers must take into account.

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Last update: 27-03-2009 13:38