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Ask HN: Any great books about technical writing?

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Re: Ask HN: Any great books about technical writing?

#31

Post by Minor49er »

"How to Edit Technical Documents" by Donald W. Bush and Charles P. Campbell is a pretty easy read that explains how to approach writing and structuring technical documents.

Edit: Some places have it priced pretty highly, but Amazon has it here for about $3:

https://www.amazon.com/Edit-Technical-Documents-Donald-Bush/...

Re: Ask HN: Any great books about technical writing?

#32

Post by Denzel »

The Minto Pyramid Principle is what you're looking for - https://www.amazon.com/NEW-Pyramid-Principle-Writing-Thinkin.... A timeless book on how to structure writing. Once you understand it, you'll start to notice applications of the book out in the wild. You'll also start to loathe writing that isn't structured as such because it's needlessly tedious and more difficult to understand.

The Minto Pyramid Principle is heavily used and recommended within Amazon, a company famous for their culture of written narratives.

Re: Ask HN: Any great books about technical writing?

#34

Post by belter »

tshapedrob wrote: post #25

Bugs in writing by Lyn Dupré

Second this recommendation. Very dense with lots of useful recommendations.

Only thing I cannot agree with, is the critique of Star Trek's motto and the suggested alternative. Does not have the same emotional connection.

Re: Ask HN: Any great books about technical writing?

#35

Post by rodolphoarruda »

rrishi wrote: post #29
pivic wrote: post #20

I am a professional technical writer. When I started out, I desperately looked for tips and tricks. Internet was (and is) full of tips but I could not find a tech-writing bibliography. I will soon publish a bibliography of books and guides regarding technical writing. I promise to paste a link here when I am finished, which I believe I will be in a day or two.

I am definitely looking forward to your bibliography. Leaving a comment so i can track it.

Ugh, me too.

Re: Ask HN: Any great books about technical writing?

#37

Post by udev »

neves wrote: post #21

I liked the approach of Pinker's book "A Sense of Style": https://stevenpinker.com/publications/sense-style-thinking-p... He gives writing tips based in how the mind works. Instead of a bunch of rigid rules, you can understand it based in cognitive theory.

I read about 800 pages of his writing ("Better Angels ..." book) and there were passages of absolute beauty, like the part about Alan Turing.

Re: Ask HN: Any great books about technical writing?

#39

Post by stinkytaco »

thenerdhead wrote: post #28

I think all technical writing books are dry and boring. The best books I've read that helped me with technical writing have been classic writing ones such as Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Steven Pressfield, William Zinsser, and more. Also following this general guideline from Orwell may help: i. Never use a metaphor, simile or other figure of speech which you are used to seeing in print. ii. Never use a long word where…

Somewhat interestingly, Ted Chiang, in my opinion one of the best writers working in science fiction today, worked as a technical writer for Microsoft. However, he has said that they are very different and he doesn't feel one really impacts the other [1]. I'm not entirely sure I buy that, but it is interesting to see someone who's worked in both mediums talk about the connection.

[0]:https://electricliterature.com/the-legendary-ted-chiang-on-s...

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