Technical Writing & Presentation
The Commonwealth and International Library: Social Administration, Training, Economics, and Production Division
Published on 6. June 2016
128 pages
978-1-4831-3896-1 (ISBN)
Description
Technical Writing and Presentation is a guide to writing reports and articles for presentation to technical people or to the scientific community. The book deals with the special requirements in writing technical and highly specialized reports. The book covers the complete phase from planning the work to be done to finally editing the manuscript. To start writing, the writer aims to have a clear objective and properly identifies his kind of readership. Then the author provides tips on gathering information and how to arrange these in standard sequences. The author then discusses the style of writing, choice of words and sentences, paragraph length, use of appropriate jargon and clichés and the use of passive construction of sentences. After providing some examples of good writing, the book addresses the importance of a good layout. This includes margins, spacing, headings, and preparing the manuscript. The use of illustrations, tone drawings, graphs, and photographs is discussed. The book then focuses on the editing process when the writer reviews his own work objectively. The text also gives tips on editing procedures as well as miscellaneous problems (use of copyrighted materials, footnotes, and references). Many scientists, researchers, technologists, students, and academic professors who have to write articles and papers of a technical nature will find this book handy.
More details
Content
Introduction1. Planning the Work What is it For Technical Readers Nontechnical Readers Mixed Groups of Readers2. Assembling the Information Talking to Joe Checking the Facts Arranging the Facts Detailed Arrangement Standard Sequences The Completed Arrangement3. Finding the Right Words Readability Style Sentences Paragraphs Words Jargon Cliches Elegant Variation Irritants Headings Abbreviations Ungrammatical English Punctuation Passive Construction Pomposity Checking readability The title4. The First Draft An Example Discussed5. Some Examples Discussed Examples (1) Examples (2) Examples (3)6. The Importance of Good Lay-out The Look of the Page Margins Spacing White Space and Printed Text Headings Rules for Lay-out Preparing the Manuscript Reproducing the Report7. Ways of Reproducing Reports Carbon Copies Office Copying Machines Office Printing Machines Stencil Duplicators Spirit Duplicators Offset Litho Machines Lithography Printing When to use which Method Putting Pages Together8. Illustrations Line and Tone Drawings Graphs Line Graphs Block Graphs and other Diagrams Use of Color in Drawings and Graphs Photographs Slides Photographic Libraries Reproduction of Drawings and Photographs Summary9. Reproducing Drawings and Photographs Drawings Photographs Slides10. Editing Technical Writing Being Edited Editing Someone else's Work Editor and Author Editing Procedures11. Miscellaneous Problems Copyright Copyright and the User Exceptions to Copyright Conditions References Footnotes Indexing Where to Publish Nontechnical Periodicals and the Press Finding a Publisher for Your BookIndex
