IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 46, NO.
1, MARCH 2003
Daniel G. Riordan and Steven E. Pauley
Technical Report Writing Today—8th Ed.
Book Review
—Reviewed by
RAYMOND FLOYD,
SENIOR MEMBER, IEEE
Manuscript received September 2, 2002;
revised September 12, 2002.
The reviewer is Vice President,
Innovative Insights, Inc.,
Cody, WY 82414 USA
(email: icubed@tritel.net).
IEEE DOI 10.1109/TPC.2002.808341
Book Publisher:
Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin, 2002,
588 pages, plus index.
0361-1434/03$17.00 © 2003 IEEE
75
Index Terms—Electronic documentation, electronic research,
presentations, technical reports.
T he book Technical Report
Writing Today is in its eighth
edition and, thus, has had obvious
success. In “To The Instructor”
(pp. xix–xxv), the authors note
a number of changes. The most
noteworthy include a chapter on
developing websites (Chapter 13)
and a number of “Focus” boxes
concerning electronic resumes,
electronic documentation, and
working in groups. Having had
the opportunity to review the
7th edition [1], I welcomed the
opportunity to review the new
edition.
The text, a softcover book,
is divided into four topical
sections, two appendices and
the index. Section I: Technical
Writing Basics consists of four
chapters. Section II: Technical
Writing Techniques has seven
chapters. Section III: Technical
Writing Applications has seven
chapters. Section IV: Professional
Communications contains two
chapters. As in the 7th edition,
I again had some difficulty in
rationalizing the placement of
some chapters in a particular
section and will address my
thoughts and recommendations
later in this review.
An interesting addition to the
8th edition was noted in the
front matter (p. xxiii) with the
introduction of a website to be
used in conjunction with the
text. It would appear that the
site should benefit both student
users of the text and instructors.
Unfortunately, there were no links
or other information on how to
access the website, so one must
assume that only “authorized”
students and instructors may
check it out. It would have been
nice to be able to view the site
and see how the new chapter on
website development had been
used in practice.
Section I establishes foundation
for the remainder of the text.
It also presents the authors’
position on effective technical
writing in their statement, “the
ideas in the book stem from these
three concepts: technical writing
is audience centered, technical
writing is presentational and
technical writing is responsible” (p.
3). Two items worthy of mention in
Chapter 4 are two Focus sections:
“Bias In Language” (p. 93) and
“International Communication”
(p. 95). Each provides insight into
problems that may occur with
word interpretation not intended
by the author. One area of
disappointment was the coverage
of ethics, specifically in recognizing
the work of others. It appeared that
the authors were going to cover
the topic in a section titled “Credit
Others” (p. 15). Unfortunately,
other than a brief statement, “Your
obligation is to present the facts
so that your manager understands
who conceived the idea—and
who gets the credit” (p. 15), the
authors fail to discuss ethical
writing, plagiarism, or copyright
infringement. Even the “Codes
of Ethical Conduct” (p. 15) fails
to include the technical writer’s
responsibilities in this regard.
It is always difficult to determine
where chapters fit within the
76
overall structure of a text. In this
case, it appears to me that the
first two chapters in Section II,
“Researching” and “Summarizing,”
belong in Section I, as they
deal with basic concepts for the
technical writer. The remaining
chapters provide excellent material
for the technical writer or student,
with special emphasis on the use
of color (“Focus on Color” [p. 169])
and the material on visual aids
given in Chapter 8. It was also good
to see that a number of problems
pointed out in the prior edition
have been corrected in Chapter 8
for this edition.
Having provided fundamentals
to this point, in Section III the
authors begin to look at specific
types of technical writing, i.e.,
memorandums, informal reports,
formal reports, proposals, and
user manuals. In each case, the
authors provide insight into the
makeup of the particular report
and, as in previous chapters,
provide many examples, student
assignments, and worksheets to
assist in the learning process.
From my perspective, there were
two problems with this section.
First, Chapter 19, “Letters,”
should have been included in
this section rather than the
following one. Writing letters, both
formal and informal, is another
technical writing application.
REFERENCES
[1] R. E Floyd, “Review of Technical Report Writing Today, 7th Edition,”
IEEE Trans. Prof. Commun., vol. 43, no. 3, pp. 339–340, 2000.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 46, NO. 1, MARCH 2003
Second, information in Chapter
13, “Developing Websites,” should
have been in the last section
(more about that section shortly).
In the position it holds, the
special emphasis on good website
development needs is lost.
The title of Section IV, “Professional
Communications,” suggests that
all the other discussions of
technical communication must
be nonprofessional. I do not
believe that to be the intent of the
authors; it is simply confusing.
More importantly, I would like
to see Chapter 13, “Developing
Websites,” moved into this section,
along with the current Chapter 20,
“Job Application Materials.” In the
latter case, Chapter 20 could have
been divided into two chapters, the
first dealing with résumés and the
second dealing with cover letters,
application letters, and follow-up
letters.
Chapter 13 is a good starting
point for discussions on website
development. The impact of
the web has been recognized
around the world to the point that
individuals are placing personal
information on the web for friends
and family. I believe the authors
have provided basic information
but have not addressed the
differing needs in webpages,
i.e., personal, sales, technical
information, informational
searches, technical support, and
so forth. Each type of webpage
requires specific approaches that
have to be understood and used
for the page to be successful. One
item of interest is the authors’
statement that “the browser opens
the screen indicated” (p. 324).
What is a browser? The word is
not listed in the index and only
a passing definition is offered on
page 341, when the authors note,
“The two major browsers are …”
The fact that the authors know
what a browser is does not mean
that every reader will.
Both appendices provide reference
material for the technical writer
or student. The only thing I found
missing was something mentioned
earlier—the link to writing
ethics, copyright, and plagiarism.
Appendix B on “Documentary
Sources” would have been a good
spot to include some discussion of
the importance of writing ethics.
The 8th edition is a good upgrade
from the 7th edition. Either will
make a reasonable addition to the
technical writer’s reference library.
However, if I had the 7th edition
already, rather than adding the 8th
edition, I would suggest investing
in a technical text on webpage
development as a supplement to
the information in Chapter 13.