Editorial Reviews Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and Editors (2nd Edition) (IBM Press Series--Information Management),Gretchen Hargis,Michelle Carey,Ann Kilty Hernandez,Polly Hughes,Deirdre Longo,Shannon Rouiller,Elizabeth Wilde,IBM Press,0131477498,Desktop Publishing,Electronic Publishing,General,Reference,Science/Mathematics,Technical Writing,Technical editing,Technology,Technology / Technical Writing
Cheap Books:
Recommended Books
Book Description
class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>[span style='font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Palatino-Roman'>Many books about technical writing tell you how to develop different parts of technical information, such as headings, lists, tables, and indexes. Instead, we organized this book to tell you how to apply quality characteristics that, in our experience, make technical information easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to find. We hope you will find our approach useful and comprehensive-;and we hope that you will find the information in this book easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to find! class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'> Is this book for you? class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>If you are a writer, editor, or reviewer of technical information-;yes! If you write, edit, or review software information, this book might be of even more interest to you because most of the examples in it come from the domain of software. However, the quality characteristics and guidelines apply to all technical information. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Reviewers can be any of the many people who are involved in developing technical information: class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Writers Editors Visual designers Human factors engineers Product developers and testers Customer service personnel Customers (perhaps as early users) Managers class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>In general, this book assumes that you know the basics of good grammar, punctuation, and spelling as they apply to writing. It does not assume that you are familiar with what makes technical information good or bad. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'> How to use this book class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>You can use the book in any of several ways, such as: class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Read the book from start to finish. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Read about the particular quality characteristic or guideline that interests you. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Read Chapter 11, Applying more than one quality characteristic 1, on page 331 to see how the quality characteristics interact, and then read the particular chapters that fit what you're working on. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Use the checklists at the end of each chapter and Appendix A, Quality checklist, on page 387 to evaluate a piece of technical information by using the quality characteristics. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Use Appendix B, Who checks which quality characteristics?, on page 391 to see what areas you as a reviewer need to check, and read those sections. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Whatever your role in developing technical information, we hope that you'll use this information to build these quality characteristics into the information that you work on. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'> Conventions used in this book class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Nine of the twelve chapters in this book deal with the quality characteristics, one per chapter. Each of these chapters has a series of guidelines about how to enhance the particular quality characteristic. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Within each guideline, this book uses examples, usually in pairs of an original passage such as you might see in technical information and a revision that demonstrates the application of the guideline. Some passages go through more than one revision. The descriptions of the guideline and of the examples aim to help you understand and implement the guideline. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>In addition, each of the nine chapters ends with a checklist. This checklist indicates the items to look for when you evaluate a piece of technical information by using the guidelines for the particular quality characteristic. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'> Changes in this edition class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>The basic organization of the book and the quality characteristics remain the same. However, within each quality characteristic, we have added, reworded, deleted, or moved some guidelines and subguidelines, and we have updated many examples. For example, the following guidelines are among those that we added: class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Organize information into discrete topics by type. (Organization chapter) class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Facilitate navigation and search. (Retrievability chapter) class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Ensure that all users can access the information. (Visual effectiveness chapter) class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>These changes resulted from several developments in technical communication: class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Greater emphasis on topic-based information and single source class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Internationalization of information and increased delivery of technical information on the Web class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>The need to make technical information accessible to people with disabilities such as blindness and deafness class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>As with earlier developments in this field during the 20 years that these quality characteristics have been in use, the characteristics have been able to absorb the changes. This framework continues to apply to the information that we are called on to provide today. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>We hope that you find this book useful in improving the quality of the information that you develop. class=MsoNormal style='mso-layout-grid-align:none;text-autospace:none'>Gretchen Hargis Michelle Carey Ann Kilty Hernandez Polly Hughes Deirdre Longo Shannon Rouiller Elizabeth Wilde
From the Inside Flap
Welcome!
Many books on technical writing tell you how to develop different parts of technical information, such as headings, lists, tables, and indexes. Instead, we organized this book to tell you how to apply quality characteristics that, in our experience, make technical information easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to find. We hope you will find our approach useful and comprehensive—and we hope you will find the information in this book easy to use, easy to understand, and easy to find!
Is this book for you?
If you are a writer or reviewer of technical information—yes! If you write or review software information, this book may be of even more interest to you because the examples in it come from the domain of software. However, the quality characteristics and guidelines are universal to all information.
Reviewers can be any of the many people who are involved in developing technical information:
Writers Editors Graphic designers Human factors engineers Product developers and testers Customer service personnel Customers (perhaps as early users) Managers
In general, this book assumes that you know the basics of good grammar, punctuation, and spelling as they apply to writing. It does not assume that you are familiar with what makes technical information good or bad.
How to use this book
You can use the book in any of several ways:
Read the book from start to finish. Read about the particular quality characteristic or guideline that interests you. Use the checklists at the end of each chapter and "Quality Checklist" on page 269 to evaluate a piece of technical information against the quality characteristics. Use "Who Checks Which Quality Characteristics?" on page 273 to see what areas you as a reviewer need to check, and read those sections.
Whatever your role in developing technical information, we hope that you'll use this information to build these quality characteristics into the information that you work on.
Changes in this edition
The first and second editions were published in 1984 and 1986 for use mainly by developers of information for IBM software products. This edition is published for more general use and takes into account these changes in technical information:
Online information (such as help, tutorials, and documents) is often more important than printed information in the documentation of software. Online information has become more integrated with the product user interface, through forms such as cue cards and wizards.
As a result of comments from customers and editors, we have:
Added two quality characteristics: concreteness and style
Feedback from users showed that, to them, examples and scenarios are not only very important, but also generally lacking or poorly handled in computer information. The first edition treated examples as part of clarity, but clarity has many other aspects as well. In this edition we have added concreteness as the quality characteristic that focuses especially on examples and scenarios.
In the first edition, style considerations were spread across accuracy, clarity, and visual communication. We decided that style needs its own focus.
Renamed two quality characteristics
The earlier name "entry points" has become "retrievability," and "visual communication" has become "visual effectiveness."
In addition, we have reorganized the book into parts and added several sections:
Introduction to help define terms and set the context for the information Chapters 11 and 12, which treat more than one quality characteristic Annotated bibliography Glossary of terms used in this book Index
The technical editors at IBM's Santa Teresa Laboratory use these quality characteristics to assess the quality of the information they edit. In this edition, we have revised some guidelines and added more examples to ensure coverage of the kinds of common errors found every day.
Gretchen Hargis Ann Kilty Hernandez Polly Hughes Jim Ramaker Shannon Rouiller Elizabeth Wilde
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Developing Quality Technical Information : A Handbook for Writers and Editors (2nd Edition) (IBM Press Series--Information Management)
