Technical Writing
The book appears to be written for a course designed around a specific major project that asks students to write a proposal for a technical report and then to research and write the report itself. Those sections are adequate, but I would like to see more content in general.
In particular, I would like information on writing instructions and technical descriptions, as well as the finer points of correspondence writing, like strategies for persuasion, or handling negative news, or emphasizing reader benefits. I would also like to see information on team writing—a must for the modern workplace. The book would also benefit from a section on presentations and a broader section on document design. The current section on design is specific only to reports and is really about organization, not design.
The content is accurate. The book sticks to the basic writing principles which don’t change much over time. I especially appreciate the repeated emphasis on audience and that while particular elements are expected for particular genres, organization and approach can and should be modified to suit the writer’s purpose and the needs of the audience.
The core principles aren’t likely to go out of date any time soon. The limited scope and lack of discussion about the design expectations of the modern audience does make the book feel dated.
Although the concept of linking to examples and additional information is an excellent use of this medium, the choice of links could be improved. For example, many of the linked reports are nearly twenty years old, and while they may demonstrate many of the writing principles that stay constant over time, they do not demonstrate contemporary expectations for design, and the topics are so dated as to make them seem irrelevant to most students.
The authors do an excellent job of adhering to plain language principles. The style is clear, simple, and direct. It reads like the authors are speaking directly to the audience.
As mentioned previously, the book reads as though it were designed for a very specific class. It shifts quite a bit between universal advice about writing for a professional audience and specific advice about writing for an instructor. That’s confusing and limits the book’s applicability.
The book is divided into logical sections that would make it easy to customize for a course if not for the problem previously cited of its being designed around a specific course’s project.
Follows a familiar and standard organization for workplace writing textbooks, beginning with basic correspondence and working towards longer and more complex reports.
Some easily correctable issues here:
Many widowed headings (which the text advises to avoid).
Figures and tables are not always labeled correctly.
The visual weight of “Chapter Attribution Information,” which is currently the same as chapter titles, should be reduced. In some chapters, that information is repeated before every section, which adds visual clutter.
There are additional problems in the pdf version that make it the pdf only partially usable:
Text boxes tend to exceed the width of the page and cannot therefore be read.
Everything is rendered as plain text, which means that table formatting is screwy and all images (including images of example documents) are missing. Citations get embedded directly into the text.
Grammar looks fine.
Deals very little with cultural issues, which is surprising given the global ventures of many companies and the increasingly diverse workforce in the US.
The book has the potential to be quite good, but I don't think it’s yet ready to compete with the for-profit options. I look forward to seeing subsequent editions.