Read Me First!

Reviewed by Manoj Bokil

All technical communicators, especially those working in large teams, need a style guide to ensure consistency in all aspects of document design and delivery. Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry is a comprehensive guide to create clear, consistent, and simple documentation.

2nd Edition, 2003      Publisher: Sun Microsystems Press/   Prentice Hall PTR      Pages: 356      Price: US$39.99 (soft cover)

This guide also covers topics such as writing for an international audience, legal do's and don’ts, grammar and punctuation guidelines, indexing guidelines, and how to set up a documentation department, and so on. The guide also comes with a CD-ROM.

Although the contents of this book are based on Sun Microsystems’ internal documentation style guide, it can be used by other documentation teams as well.

This spectrum of the book and its coverage is broad, thus making it suitable as much for the beginner or novice, as for senior technical communicators and documentation leads/managers.

What’s in the Guide?

This guide has been organized into 14 chapters. Each chapter focuses on specific technical writing topics. You might want to refer to http://vig.pearsoned.com/store/product/1,1207,store-6404_isbn-0131428993_doc-PRE,00.html for more details about the book structure and organization.

Other special-interest topics covered in the book:

• Linguistic principles such as writing directly and consistently, avoiding jargon, observing punctuation rules, and knowing when to capitalize words
• Working with technical editors
• Using illustrations effectively
• Glossary guidelines
• Legal considerations for copyright and trademarks
• Writing for the GUI and Web pages
• Referencing URLs
• Rules for document structure elements such as headings, lists, procedures, tables, cross-referencing, and so on
• Use of abbreviations, including a table of common computer industry terms

Many surveys indicate that the inability to find information quickly is one of the main complaints for technical manuals. That doesn't have to be the case anymore. If writers diligently follow this guide, they can avoid common pitfalls in information location and access. I tried these guidelines in my documentation, and I realized that quality of the documentation improved enormously.

Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry is definitely a good reference for technical communicators, editors, illustrators, and documentation managers.

This book would be a welcome addition to any writer’s reference library. If you perceive the need for a style guide for your organization, just buy this book. Even if your organization already has its own documentation guidelines in place, I guarantee that you will find Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry a very useful yardstick.

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Manoj Bokil is a Senior Information Developer with BindView Corporation.