By Avon J. Murphy | Fellow
The database that I created in 1993 to track titles for the Technical Communication book review section contains nearly 5,000 title records. I have long known, however, that only a small number of those titles offer sufficient content and usefulness to be called the best of the best, the books that all technical communicators should know about. This article identifies our 100 best books published during the past two decades.
Excluded are methodologies and technologies that serve only as helpers in our work. Thus, for example, you won’t see books on general management and HTML coding, but you will find books on publications management and Web usability.
To save space, I’m citing only author, main title, publisher, and year. Where we have more than two authors, I name the first author, followed by “and others.” The year is the copyright date of the most recent edition.
Note: Please see the final section of this article to learn how to get a list that provides full details about each book discussed here.
Dictionaries and Style Guides
We couldn’t survive without dictionaries and general style guides. The two dictionaries found on most desks are Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary (2008) and The American Heritage Dictionary (Houghton Mifflin, 2006). The required style guide in many organizations is The Chicago Manual of Style (U. of Chicago Press, 2010); the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (American Psychological Assoc., 2010) is used in the social sciences as well as other disciplines. Authors and editors in the United Kingdom make heavy use of The Oxford Style Manual (Oxford U. Press, 2003).
You also need to learn the style manuals for your specific discipline. For example, Scientific Style and Format (Council of Science Editors, 2006) is the primary guide across most sciences. Medical publications often dictate adherence to the AMA Manual of Style (Oxford U. Press, 2007), by Cheryl Iverson and others. Anne M. Coghill and Lorrin R. Garson’s ACS Style Guide (Oxford U. Press, 2006) provides authoritative guidance for chemistry publications.
Because many technical communicators work in computer environments, manuals on computer and online style have high visibility. You can apply Sun Microsystems’s Read Me First! (Prentice Hall, 2010) to almost any computer documentation. Work in an Apple shop? Use the Apple Publications Style Guide (2009). Use Windows? Turn to the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications (Microsoft Press, 2004).
Constance Hale’s lively and wise Wired Style (HardWired, 1996) has become a favorite among those writing about the Internet. More sedate and more in depth is Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton’s Web Style Guide (Yale U. Press, 2008). Yahoo! Style Guide (St. Martin’s, 2010), edited by Chris Barr and others, is written for Yahoo! contributors, but its detail on best practices can help all online writers.
Editing
Resources on editing have increased in sophistication. For an overall general introduction, it’s hard to beat Michael Alley’s approach to creating less friction and greater efficiency, The Craft of Editing (Springer, 2000). Donald C. Samson Jr. packs fully illustrated advice on improving on-the-job documents into Editing Technical Writing (Oxford U. Press, 1993). Janet Mackenzie’s The Editor’s Companion (Cambridge U. Press, 2004), written for Australian editors, offers solid advice for improving documents anywhere.
Editors often specialize in one type of editing. For technical editors, the primary source has long been Carolyn D. Rude’s Technical Editing (Longman, 2006), a textbook that balances detailed advice, numerous examples, and in-depth exercises. New Perspectives on Technical Editing (Baywood, 2010), edited by Avon J. Murphy, details the past, present, and future of several approaches to technical editing and provides several lengthy bibliographies. Scott Norton’s Developmental Editing (U. of Chicago Press, 2009) provides full details on a type of editing that has received little attention.
Copyeditors have excellent books for guidance. Most useful is Amy Einsohn’s The Copyeditor’s Handbook (U. of California Press, 2006), which combines attention to general principles, minutiae, electronic editing, and scores of cautions. Butcher’s Copy-editing (Cambridge U. Press, 2006), by Judith Butcher and others, offers full guidance for United Kingdom copyeditors. Elsie Myers Stainton, in The Fine Art of Copyediting (Columbia U. Press, 2002), offers particularly sane advice on resolving problems. Karen Judd’s Copyediting (Crisp, 2001) addresses the concerns of new copyeditors.
General Topics
Several books provide an overview of our field. The most usable general handbook is Laura J. Gurak and Mary E. Hocks’s Technical Communication Handbook (Longman, 2009). Jean-luc Doumont applies rigorous logic to communication principles in his entertaining Trees, Maps, and Theorems (Principiae, 2009). Gretchen Hargis and others, in Developing Quality Technical Information (Prentice Hall PTR, 2004), illustrate numerous methods with before-and-after examples.
I should mention two collections. The contributors to Ann Hill Duin and Craig J. Hansen’s Nonacademic Writing (Erlbaum, 1996) pose significant questions about the nature and practice of workplace communication. And the essays in George F. Hayhoe and Helen M. Grady’s Connecting People with Technology (Baywood, 2009) explore such topics as usability, globalization, health, and corporate communication.
When doing research, start with Michael A. Hughes and George F. Hayhoe’s A Research Primer for Technical Communication (Erlbaum, 2008), which features commented examples, tutorials, and a lack of jargon. Laura J. Gurak and Mary M. Lay’s collection Research in Technical Communication (Praeger, 2002) goes into detail about various approaches to research. You can see a fine historian in action in Elizabeth Tebeaux’s books, the strongest of which is The Emergence of a Tradition (Baywood, 1997), an engrossing history of English Renaissance technical writing.
Three different kinds of anthologies point students and researchers in fruitful directions. Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber’s Central Works in Technical Communication (Oxford U. Press, 2004) reprints material reflecting the progress of the field, with introductions and comments. Designed for new instructors, James M. Dubinsky’s Teaching Technical Communication (Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2004) likewise reprints major writings. Cynthia L. Selfe’s Resources in Technical Communication (Baywood, 2007) offers challenging assignment sequences for use in classes.
For indexers, the most useful resource is Nancy C. Mulvany’s Indexing Books (U. of Chicago Press, 2005), with its depth of information and insider’s advice. For an encyclopedic approach, pick up Hans H. Wellisch’s comprehensive Indexing from A to Z (H. W. Wilson, 1996). The American Society of Indexers offers booklets on an introductory level, perhaps the most useful of which is Indexing for Editors and Authors (Information Today, 2008), by Fred Leise and others.
Carol Barnum introduces you to usability testing with checklists, sample schedules, and exercises in Usability Testing and Research (Allyn & Bacon, 2002). Todd Zaki Warfel’s Prototyping (Rosenfeld Media, 2009) details one major part of good testing. You’ll profit by studying usability guru Jakob Nielsen’s research-based insights found in such books as Designing Web Usability (New Riders, 2000) and (with Marie Tahir) Homepage Usability (New Riders, 2001).
Some Specific Topics
Science writers can still profit from the classic How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper (Greenwood Press, 2006), now authored by Robert A. Day and Barbara Gastel, who focus on the steps in getting good ideas into a journal. Scott L. Montgomery has us look at how past science writers succeeded in The Chicago Guide to Communicating Science (U. of Chicago Press, 2003). Joseph E. Harmon and Alan G. Gross’s The Craft of Scientific Communication (U. of Chicago Press, 2010) includes detailed exercises and checklists. A strength of Angelika H. Hofmann’s Scientific Writing and Communication (Oxford U. Press, 2010) is the many well-chosen before-and-after examples.
Two detailed introductory guides give health writers excellent information about ethical and legal issues, the secrets to writing in various specialized genres, and getting published: Barbara Gastel’s Health Writer’s Handbook (Blackwell, 2005) and Barbara A. Heifferon’s Writing in the Health Professions (Longman, 2005). Thomas A. Lang excels in his details on preparing medical images in How to Write, Publish, and Present in the Health Sciences (American College of Physicians, 2010). Regina E. Lundgren and Andrea H. McMakin’s Risk Communication (IEEE Press/Wiley, 2009) provides the strongest coverage of communicating various health and safety risks.
Today we almost habitually work intercultural considerations into our writing. Nancy L. Hoft’s insightful International Technical Communication (Wiley, 1995) was an early book devoted entirely to the topic. Deborah C. Andrews’s Technical Communication in the Global Community (Prentice Hall, 2001) is still atypical of textbooks in its working of interculturalism into every chapter.
Procedure writers know well the name Steve Page, whose 7 Steps to Better Written Policies and Procedures (Process Improvement, 2009) is itself a model of procedure writing. You might pair this book with Procedure Writing (Battelle Press, 1998), by Douglas Wieringa and others, which goes into more detail about format, style, and challenges.
The following titles are the best in their niches. Dan Jones’s Technical Writing Style (Allyn & Bacon, 1998) teaches 12 strategies through case studies, numerous examples, and exercises. In Writing Proposals (Longman, 2008), Richard Johnson-Sheehan adopts a rhetorical approach to take you from invention to final revision. Paul Dombrowski’s Ethics in Technical Communication (Allyn & Bacon, 2000) remains our primary source on ethics, in its sweeping history of ethics and thoughtful analysis of specific ethical cases.
Presentations
Laura Gurak’s Oral Presentations for Technical Communication (Allyn & Bacon, 2000) offers thorough tips on preparing and delivering various types of presentations. More entertaining are three authors who focus on the graphics of presentations. Brilliantly colored examples in Nancy Duarte’s slide:ology (O’Reilly, 2008) and Garr Reynolds’ Presentation Zen Design (New Riders, 2010) nicely support their analyses of slide design. Robin Williams, as always, combines wit, wisdom, and color in The Non-Designer’s Presentation Book (Peachpit Press, 2010).
Scientific presenters might appreciate Peter Hager and H. J. Scheiber, who in Designing and Delivering Scientific, Technical and Managerial Presentations (Wiley, 1997) painstakingly provide many models and sample scripts. Lighter in tone is Michael Alley’s The Craft of Scientific Presentations (Springer, 2003), with personal experiences taken from actual presentations, including poster sessions.
Document and Visual Design
In her groundbreaking Dynamics in Document Design (Wiley, 1997), Karen A. Schriver applies research findings to show how to discover readers’ needs. Charles Kostelnick and David D. Roberts work from rhetorical principles toward the same end in Designing Visual Language (Allyn & Bacon, 1998). Appropriately striking in their luscious visual examples are Edward R. Tufte’s books. Savor in particular his Visual Explanations (Graphics Press, 1997) and Beautiful Evidence (Graphics Press, 2006). The essayists in Michael J. Albers and Beth Mazur’s Content & Complexity (Erlbaum, 2003) tackle the nature of information design from different perspectives.
More pragmatic are Ronnie Lipton’s The Practical Guide to Information Design (Wiley, 2007) and Robin Williams’s The Non-Designer’s Design Book (Peachpit Press, 2004). Naomi B. Robbins analyzes examples in Creating More Effective Graphs (Wiley, 2005) to teach how to select and create many kinds of graphs. If you need expert advice on typography, read Robert Bringhurst’s Elements of Typographic Style (2004), Colin Wheildon’s Type & Layout (Worsley Press, 2005), and Ilene Strizver’s Type Rules! (Wiley, 2010).
The Electronic Environment
William Horton pioneered thinking about online communication in his still-helpful Designing and Writing Online Documentation (Wiley, 1994). Jean Hollis Weber teaches how to work out a systematic process in Is the Help Helpful? (Hentzenwerke, 2004).
Interface design has long been a top priority. Alan Cooper and Robert Reimann, in About Face 3.0 (Wiley, 2007), focus on the processes, patterns, and principles of a method determined by users’ goals. Wilbert O. Galitz’s The Essential Guide to User Interface Design (Wiley, 2007) offers practical guidelines within a 14-step process. Ben Shneiderman and Catherine Plaisant’s ambitious Designing the User Interface (Addison-Wesley, 2010) examines controversies as well as guidelines and contains ample reading lists. User Interface Design and Evaluation (Morgan Kaufmann, 2005), by Debbie Stone and others, looks thoroughly into requirements, design, and evaluation. Jeff Johnson’s Designing with the Mind in Mind (Morgan Kaufmann, 2010) looks closely at the psychology behind design rules.
Authors have paid particular attention to Web design in recent years. Jonathan Price and Lisa Price’s Hot Text (New Riders, 2002) offers research-based and experience-based guidelines. In Don’t Make Me Think (New Riders, 2006), Steve Krug presents concise, practical, and entertaining advice. Rewarding in its original research and visually stunning examples is Janice (Ginny) Redish’s Letting Go of the Words (Morgan Kaufmann, 2007). Anne Gentle shows how writers must adapt to the new world of the social Web in Conversation and Community (XML Press, 2009). An outstanding textbook is David K. Farkas and Jean B. Farkas’s Principles of Web Design (Longman, 2001), with its patient explanations and detailed discussion questions.
Management and Freelance Work
The most insightful manual for technical publication managers remains JoAnn T. Hackos’s Managing Your Documentation Projects (Wiley, 1994). You get much excellent information on content management systems (CMS) in Bob Boiko’s Content Management Bible (Wiley, 2005) and Managing Enterprise Content (New Riders, 2003), by Ann Rockley and others. The essays compiled by George Pullman and Baotong Gu in Content Management (Baywood, 2008) provide fruitful insights into the teaching and use of CMS.
The most rewarding resource for new freelancers is Robert W. Bly’s sometimes brutally honest Getting Started as a Freelance Writer (Sentient, 2008). If you want to self-publish your next manual, don’t miss Dan Poynter’s comprehensive bible, Self-Publishing Manual (Para, 2006).
Pedagogy
You can select from a large number of solid textbooks, most of which have gone through several editions. To make a good decision, look at accuracy, depth of coverage, teaching aids, page and book design, and, most importantly, matchup with your teaching style. Stronger textbooks include Paul V. Anderson’s Technical Communication (Wadsworth, 2007); Rebecca E. Burnett’s Technical Communication (Wadsworth, 2005); Sharon J. Gerson and Steven M. Gerson’s Workplace Writing (Prentice Hall, 2010); Reporting Technical Information (Oxford U. Press, 2006), by Kenneth W. Houp and others; Richard Johnson-Sheehan’s Technical Communication Today (Longman, 2010); and John M. Lannon’s Technical Communication (Longman, 2008). These textbooks average a hefty 750 pages and can demand over US$100. A sound alternative is Elizabeth Tebeaux and Sam Dragga’s compact and affordable The Essentials of Technical Communication (Oxford U. Press, 2010), which uses checklists, case studies, and succinct rhetorical guidelines to help students develop specific types of documents.
Many instructors want books that teach them how to deliver online courses. The best-designed and most clearly written such resource is William Horton’s e-Learning by Design (Pfeiffer, 2006).
Your Technical Books
As technical communicators, each of us must develop expertise in a particular technical area. Develop a sense of which publishers and authors work best for you. For example, for computer technology how-to references, I trust Peachpit Press (including New Riders), O’Reilly, and Wrox Press. For Web-based teaching, I look at Jossey-Bass/Pfeiffer titles. An individual whose software training books I always trust is Elizabeth Castro, a Peachpit Press writer.
The Full Booklist
You can download a PDF or request a Microsoft Word document providing more information about the books described in this article. This document adds for each title additional author names, the subtitle, the number of the latest edition, the place of publication, the full name of the publisher, the series within which the title was published, and the International Standard Book Number. Please request it by writing me at avonmu@comcast.net.
Avon J. Murphy (avonmu@comcast.net) has been a college professor, a technical communication program director, a government technical writer, a freelancer, a contract editor at Microsoft and other firms, and owner of Murphy Editing and Writing Services. An STC Fellow, he was for 17 years book review editor for Technical Communication. His New Perspectives on Technical Editing (Baywood Publishing) was published in 2010.
