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My AP high school English teacher taught me "garbage in, garbage out." His point was that if you want to write high level prose, you need to be reading the best prose stylists and be influenced by them. Read the best writers and stop reading garbage.
My AP high school English teacher taught me "garbage in, garbage out." His point was that if you want to write high level prose, you need to be reading the best prose stylists and be influenced by them. Read the best writers and stop reading garbage.
English professor here. This is the secret to becoming a terrific writer: exposing yourself to excellent writing. Nothing replaces this, and it works in every genre from technical writing to lyric poetry.
1) Docs for Developers: An Engineer’s Field Guide to Technical Writing
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4842-7217-6
2) Requirements Writing for System Engineering:
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-1-4842-2099-3
Currently there are 50% off until 29th August for selected books for back to school discount offering.
The book discusses a variety of "soft" skills, including reading and writing. Not specifically focused on technical writing per se, but can still be very useful for engineers to learn how to influence others through written materials. As Urs Hölzle says in the foreword to the book:
"At some point in your career, you can no longer communicate effectively just by talking with others. Stand-ups, planning meetings, and peer programming sessions all have their physical limits. This effect applies to you sooner than you think. At that point, you need to switch to asynchronous communication techniques. In short, you need to switch to writing. Those who can write well suddenly have a head start. Through well-written communication, your influence suddenly grows exponentially."
[I am the author]
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.
Bugs in writing by Lyn Dupré