I first read "Creating Technical Manuals: A Step-By-Step Approach to Writing User-Friendly Instructions" by Gerald Cohen and Donald Cunningham back in 1990. Written in the 60's when computers were almost reliable most of the time, this book is still the best on technical writing. These gentlemen explain how to develop a succinct natural vocabulary for emerging technologies, to boldly describe what is being invented. They don't attempt to make up for what the government schools left out. The writer is expected to be able to use the language to communicate. That understood, thses gentlemen explain how to develop concepts where there aren't any to explain what has never been explained before and they do it in about 100 pages or so. (...)As Cohen and Sutherland explain, technical writing is nothing more nor less than effective communication, as in writing the directions on the heel if you want people to pour water out of their boots. (...)If you know how to use the language, Cohen and Cunningham are all the instruction you will ever need to complete those technical writing projects.
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