Technical Writing for Today and Tomorrow offers students a comprehensive approach to the process and products of technical writing. In addition to grounding scientific and industrial writing in rhetorical practice and compositional models, the text tackles contemporary issues related to technical writing, including scientific literacy, intellectual property, collaborative writing, emerging media, and more. The book offers an integrated approach to communicatio

Every complex product needs to be explained to its users, and technical writers, also known as technical communicators, are the ones who do that job. A growing field, technical writing requires multiple skills, including an understanding of technology, writing ability, and great people skills. Whether you're thinking of becoming a technical writer, just starting out, or you've been working for a while and feel the need to take your skills to the next level, The Insider's Guide to Technical Writing can help you be a successful technical writer and build a satisfying career. Inside the Book Is This Job for Me? What does it take to be a technical writer? Building the Foundation: What skills and tools do you need to get started? The Best Laid Plans: How do you create a schedule that won’t make you go crazy? How do you manage different development processes, including Agile methodologies? On the Job: What does it take to walk into a job and be productive right away? The Tech Writer Toolkit: How do you create style guides, indexes, templates and layouts? How do you manage localization and translation and all the other non-writing parts of the job? I Love My Job: How do you handle the ups and downs of being a technical writer? Appendixes: References to websites, books, and other resources to keep you learning. Index

TECHNICAL REPORT WRITING TODAY provides thorough coverage of technical writing basics, techniques, and applications. Through a practical focus with varied examples and exercises, students internalize the skills necessary to produce clear and effective documents and reports. Project worksheets help students organize their thoughts and prepare for assignments, and Focus boxes highlight key information and recent developments in technical communication. Extensive individual and collaborative exercises expose students to different kinds of technical writing problems and solutions. Annotated student examples--more than 100 in all--illustrate different writing styles and approaches to problems. Numerous short and long examples throughout the text demonstrate solutions for handling writing assignments in current career situations. The four-color artwork in the chapter on creating visuals keeps pace with contemporary workplace capabilities. The Tenth Edition offers the latest information on using electronic resumes and documenting electronic sources and Ethics and Globalization sidebars that highlight these two important topics in the technical communication field. Important Notice: Media content referenced within the product description or the product text may not be available in the ebook version.

Technical Writing equips students with the tools and knowledge required to write clear, concise, and well-organized technical documents. This comprehensive guide encourages students to carefully consider word choice, sentence construction, document organization and formatting, the use of visual queuing, and more to create easy-to-read, high-impact technical documents. The text begins by outlining the major differences between academic papers and technical documents, and discussing critical elements to consider when writing technical documents including audience, the goal of the document, readers' expectations, organization, and more. Later chapters address technical writing style, the importance of design, the basics of cognitive theory, and various types of communication documents. Students learn how to tailor writing for the technology industry, successfully incorporate research into technical documents, and create technical reports. The book concludes by walking students through setting up a professional portfolio of their work, addressing portfolio organization, topical strategy, strategic layout, and potential legal issues. Technical Writing is an accessible and comprehensive guide designed to help students write technical documents confidently and efficiently. The text is well suited for undergraduate courses in technical writing, communications, computer science, and engineering. Suzanne Disheroon, Ph.D., is a professor of English at Cedar Valley College, where she teaches courses in technical writing, composition, and literature. She earned her master's and doctorate degrees in English from the University of North Texas. Dr. Disheroon's areas of expertise include the writing and development of technical manuals, instructional design, grant writing, and editing. Kenneth R. Price teaches graduate and undergraduate professional and technical communication courses at Texas A&M University-Kingsville. He is a graduate faculty member at Missouri State University; California State University, Chico (where he directed the professional/technical writing program); the University of Alaska Anchorage; Western Carolina University; and the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. He was also a software documentation consultant to Macromedia.

Written by a prominent author of technical publications, this reference shows technical professionals how to take an idea and turn it into a published article or book. The comprehensive guide covers the entire spectrum—developing an outline, finding a publisher, pitching the idea, negotiating a contract, developing several drafts, submitting a manuscript, working with the different editors, and promoting the work once it’s in book or magazine form—taking authors from pre- to post-publication. With examples of the author’s own published writing projects, this manual goes beyond the craft of writing and demonstrates how to get professional, technical knowledge into print.

ALERT: Before you purchase, check with your instructor or review your course syllabus to ensure that you select the correct ISBN. Several versions of Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products exist for each title, including customized versions for individual schools, and registrations are not transferable. In addition, you may need a CourseID, provided by your instructor, to register for and use Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products. Packages Access codes for Pearson's MyLab & Mastering products may not be included when purchasing or renting from companies other than Pearson; check with the seller before completing your purchase. Used or rental books If you rent or purchase a used book with an access code, the access code may have been redeemed previously and you may have to purchase a new access code. Access codes Access codes that are purchased from sellers other than Pearson carry a higher risk of being either the wrong ISBN or a previously redeemed code. Check with the seller prior to purchase. T echnical Communication Today was written for introduction to technical communication or technical writing courses taught most often in English Departments. Technical Communication Today remains the only text to fully centralize the computer in the technical workplace, presenting how writers use computers throughout their communication process. Writers use their computers to help them think, research, compose, design, and edit. Not only is Technical Communication Today firmly rooted in core rhetorical principles, but the text also presents computers as thinking tools that powerfully influence how we develop, produce, design, and deliver technical documents and presentations. Technical Communication Today speaks to today's students and how they expect to learn information. Instructional narrative is “chunked,” so that readable portions of text are combined with graphics. This presentation facilitate learning, and models the way today’s technical documents should be designed. Additionally, the chunked presentation integrates an awareness of how documents are read—often “raided” by readers seeking the information they need. By mirroring these processes in its content and structure, Technical Communication Today offers readers a higher level of accessibility.

"The examples are excellent--right on target and easy to understand and adapt. Even those who don't adopt the entire procedure can profit from the parts, but the greatest value will flow to those who adopt the whole." --Carolyn Mulford, senior writer and editor of Writing That Works "This is also a book that students can keep for their professional libraries because it will increase in its value to them after they leave class and face real life experiences on the job. It is plain enough for them to understand while they are learning, and at the same time comprehensive enough to support them as professionals." --Elizabeth Boling, Instructional Systems Technology, Indiana University "It practices what it preaches. Its guidelines are understandable and appropriate; its examples clear. It contains exactly what writers and editors need to know. It is the book that I would have written." --Cynthia E. Spellman, Unisys The #1 guide to excellence in documentation--now completely updated! A systematic, proven approach to creating great documentation Thoroughly revised and updated More practical examples More coverage of topic-based information, search, and internationalization Direct from IBM's own documentation experts, this is the definitive guide to developing outstanding technical documentation--for the Web and for print. Using extensive before-and-after examples, illustrations, and checklists, the authors show exactly how to create documentation that's easy to find, understand, and use. This edition includes extensive new coverage of topic-based information, simplifying search and retrievability, internationalization, visual effectiveness, and much more. Coverage includes: Focusing on the tasks and topics users care about most Saying more with fewer words Using organization and other means to deliver faster access to information Presenting information in more visually inviting ways Improving the effectiveness of your review process Learning from example: sample text, screen captures, illustrations, tables, and much more Whether you're a writer, editor, designer, or reviewer, if you want to create great documentation, this book shows you how!