Rating: 
Summary: English it up and Dumb it Down
Review: This is a fascinating study of writing. Michael Bremer takes itall apart and puts it back together again; he shows the tech writerhow to describe technical things for the nontechnical reader. Bremer spent years as a technical writer and has managed writers; he knows what he is teaching. DanPoynter@ParaPublishing.com
Rating: 
Summary: Don't bother
Review: This is a very good guide to the practicalities of being a writer of software documentation. Bremer certainly knows whereof he speaks; seventy percent of Maxis's customers read the documentation, versus 10% generally. I especially liked his advice on improving your skills as technical writer, which includes not only standard recommendations like "read and analyze technical writing," but also "read good popular science books," "read screenplays," and "read good children's books." He seems a bit unclear on the concept of process. The chapters on writing and editing have major sections on "Process" that have very little to do with what I would call process (i.e., the phases and types of activities involved in doing something). His sample spreadsheets and checklists also seem to run together phases of work and deliverables from those phases. I have no doubt that Bremer *has* an effective process, he does not explain it clearly. This is unfortunate, since the literature on technical writing needs a treatment of the tech writing process for the individual writer (as opposed to the doc project manager, addressed by JoAnn Hackos's _Managing Your Documentation Projects_).
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