A guide for writing better technical papers

In A Guide for Writing Better Technical Papers, Craig Harkins and Daniel Plung show admirable concern with all aspects of the writing process through their editorial comments and their selection of articles. Unfortunately for the less dedicated writer, the text mixes theory and practice unevenly. And the editors' concern with publication detracts somewhat from the importance of day-to-day writing tasks of the technical writer-communication tasks as important as the finished technical article. Let us consider each of the five sections they include in the text: “Getting Started,” “The Rhetoric of Papers and Articles,” “Tricks of the Trade,” “Some Research Results,” and “Following Through.”