Who done it?: an introduction; Getting started; Two dozen ways to begin: their advantages and disadvantages; Effective organizing; Easy outlining; Fallacies to forget: misconceptions and misinterpretations; Brevity: the soul of it; The standard of grammar for the professions; The standard of diction for the professions; Style: the personality and character of writing; Style and diction; Style and sentences; Style and paragraphs; Writing memorandums, letters, instructions, and other short forms; The editor and supervisor and the future editor and supervisor.

Who done it?: an introduction; Getting started; Two dozen ways to begin: their advantages and disadvantages; Effective organizing; Easy outlining; Fallacies to forget: misconceptions and misinterpretations; Brevity: the soul of it; The standard of grammar for the professions; The standard of diction for the professions; Style: the personality and character of writing; Style and diction; Style and sentences; Style and paragraphs; Writing memorandums, letters, instructions, and other short forms; The editor and supervisor and the future editor and supervisor.

Technical Writing: A Practical Guide for Engineers, Scientists, and Nontechnical Professionals, Second Edition enables readers to write, edit, and publish materials of a technical nature, including books, articles, reports, and electronic media. Written by a renowned engineer and widely published technical author, this guide complements traditional writer’s reference manuals on technical writing through presentation of first-hand examples that help readers understand practical considerations in writing and producing technical content. These examples illustrate how a publication originates as well as various challenges and solutions. The second edition contains new material in every chapter including new topics, additional examples, insights, tips and tricks, new vignettes and more exercises. Appendices have been added for writing checklists and writing samples. The references and glossary have been updated and expanded. In addition, a focus on writing for the nontechnical persons working in the technology world and the nonnative English speaker has been incorporated. Written in an informal, conversational style, unlike traditional college writing texts, the book also contains many interesting vignettes and personal stories to add interest to otherwise stodgy lessons.

Starting and stalling; The flow method; Effective organizing; Easy otlining; Dozens of beginnings; The standard of grammar for the professions; Standards of diction; Punctuation and other marks; Style: the personality and character of writing; Style and diction; Style and sentences; Style and paragraphs; Brevity: the soul of it; Advice on some short forms; Reports and style guides.

A SCIENTIFIC APPROACH TO WRITING Technical ideas may be solid or even groundbreaking, but if these ideas cannot be clearly communicated, reviewers of technical documents—e.g., proposals for research funding, articles submitted to scientific journals, and business plans to commercialize technology—are likely to reject the argument for advancing these ideas. The problem is that many engineers and scientists, entirely comfortable with the logic and principles of mathematics and science, treat writing as if it possesses none of these attributes. The absence of a systematic framework for writing often results in sentences that are difficult to follow or arguments that leave reviewers scratching their heads. This book fixes that problem by presenting a “scientific” approach to writing that mirrors the sensibilities of scientists and engineers, an approach based on an easily-discernable set of principles. Rather than merely stating rules for English grammar and composition, this book explains the reasons behind these rules and shows that good reasons can guide every writing decision. This resource is also well suited for the growing number of scientists and engineers in the U.S. and elsewhere who speak English as a second language, as well as for anyone else who just wants to be understood.

This book, by a scientist, is not a textbook on English grammar: nor is it just one more book on how to write a technical report, or a thesis, or a paper for publication. It is about all the ways in which writing is important to scientists and engineers in helping them to remember to observe, to think, to plan, to organize and to communicate.