Technical writing - "With style"

We are currently working on a book that will be published very soon. The process of writing this book has been extraordinarily illuminating. Or, just a lot of fun.

Along the way I wanted to be refreshed on some basic tips for effective penmenship. Knowing one of my editors has a Masters in English and that I can not explain the difference between a noun and a participle if my life hanged in the balance; I was intimidated at first.

All of us have to, and I mean this with criticality, be able to write technical documents and make a writen point effectively. In the information security world reports = dollars. There is a direct corrolation to the size of the payment recieved and quality of chosen words.

I have the benefit of a mentor that humbles me on this front and I pass this experience along to the LPT classes where writing is a requirement.

As I looked for some outside coaching for this book I recalled two resources I have used in the past to get a crach course in how to write good. Kurt Vonnegut in this classic essay about writing with style is something that everyone needs to take a look at. Particularly those in the technical industry.

http://literature.sdsu.edu/onWRITING/vonnegutSTYLE.html

There is also a tool I think is fun called "Bullfighter". It scoures your documents looking for wordiness, jargon and various forms of BS that complicate the communication. It is available here:

http://fightthebull.com/bullfighter.asp