Writing and Designing Manuals, Second Edition

By Patricia A. Robinson and Gretchen Holstein Schoff

How should a technical writer analyze user needs? What types of photos and drawings work best in technical publications? How do you avoid ambiguous wording in safety warnings? "If you want to find out the best way to sew on pockets, don't ask the president of the shirt company. Ask the person working on the line, someone who has sewn on 10,000 pockets." This opening statement of the preface to Writing and Designing Manuals, 2nd Edition reflects the overall tone and philosophy of this practical, "how-to" guide to technical publication writing and design. Based on the authors' experience as teachers and consultants with technical writers, the book follows new trends and incorporates new materials on desktop publishing, techniques for visuals, safety and product liability, and production of translated materials for international markets. There are also many new sample manual pages from manuals provided by product manufacturers. The decisions writers must make when producing a manual are presented, as well as techniques for organizing office structures and writing teams to make the manual production process run as smoothly as possible. The language in the book is clear, direct, and unacademic, and the principles featured in the book can be applied to writing manuals for a variety of products, including household, automotive, chemical, industrial, mechanical, recreational, and biomedical. Discover how to analyze user needs, determine which photos and drawings will work best with publications, and design clear, effective safety warnings. Anyone faced with the task of preparing user documentation, service manuals, and other technical publications must have this book. Managers in charge of hiring technical writers or developing technical writing departments will find the book invaluable.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0873714210
• ISBN13: 9780873714211
• Release Date: July 1991
• Publisher: CRC Press
• Length: 200 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 9.5" x 0.5" x 6.5"

Customer Reviews

Still the best

I have recommended this small book to engineers and designers for over a decade, now. It is still timely, appropriate, and useful to the practitioner. This book is easy to read, even enjoyable. It gives a complete overview of what is important in writing a manual and how to organize it. Schoff and Robinson also give many good tips and techniques that you can use immediately in your documentation. I design real-time embedded products and have written a lot of documentation over 25 years. I appreciate what I have learned from Schoff and Robinson and have applied it for years.

Professional coverage of a topic often tackled by amateurs.

My new employer gave me this book and asked me to read chapters 6 and 7. I am an experienced technical writer and found those few pages to be so accurate that I decided to purchase the book for my own reference library---that is until I discovered the small volume is $54.95. I understand that it is probably a very limited, and expensive, printing but that is still a bit much.