Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!uccba!uceng!dmocsny
From: dmocsny@uceng.UC.EDU (daniel mocsny)
Newsgroups: comp.text
Subject: Re: Help wanted: technical writing training
Summary: Read Brogan
Message-ID: <870@uceng.UC.EDU>
Date: 14 Apr 89 16:56:48 GMT
References: <1564@zen.co.uk>
Organization: Univ. of Cincinnati, College of Engg.
Lines: 23

In article <1564@zen.co.uk>, helen@zen.co.uk (Helen Grayson) writes:
[ what is good reading for tech writers? ]

Once again I give my highest possible recommendation to John Brogan,
_Clear Technical Writing_, McGraw-Hill, 1973. After I read Brogan and
worked through his exercises, I completely changed my writing style.
I now say things with fewer words and simpler sentences. I also find
my thoughts organizing themselves better.

I grow tired of plowing through the circumlocutions endemic to the
technical literature. I wish I had a "Brogan filter" to simplify
everything I have to read down to its essential factual content.  (I
solidly believe that such a device could add billions of dollars to
the economy annually in the form of higher professional productivity.)

For ten years I had read and mindlessly imitated the technical
literature. I could take the simplest concept and render it
inaccessible to all but the most erudite and persistent. Reading
Brogan took me about a week of evenings. I suspect I may one day look
back at that week and find it to have been pivotal in my career.

Dan Mocsny
dmocsny@uceng.uc.edu