Technical Writer's Handbook: Writing With Style and Clarity

This book explains how people can improve their writing style by following a few simple rules. The author, a practising scientist who screens manuscripts regularly, advises that technical writing, is no different from any other writing. The first part is an introduction, which provides simple guidelines for writing and organizing reports of all kinds. The second part is presented in dictionary format and covers a wide variety of themes. Many entries in this section are specific to technical writing, including topics such as metric units, equations, figures and tables, abstracts, conference proceedings and slides. Others provide more general advice on grammar, usage, style and organization, which concern writers in all fields. All have been carefully cross-referenced to reveal related information quickly and easily. Aimed primarily at scientists and engineers, it will also be of use to lawyers, administrators, journalists and editors of technical journals.

Matt Young is a physicist with a government agency in Boulder, Colorado, and Adjunct Professor at the University of Colorado. He holds a PhD from the University of Rochester. Formerly, Dr. Young was a Professor at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the University of Waterloo, and Technical Editor of Optical Spectra magazine. Dr. Young is the author of Optics and Lasers, including Fibers and Optical Waveguides, (Springer, New York, 1986) and over 50 publications in research and teaching journals. He lives in Boulder with his wife, Deanna, and his children, David and Rachel, who attend the University of Colorado.