Stylin'

Joan and I have completed our revision of the contract style guide and have submitted it to the other members of the Technical Writers Interest Group ((TWIG--sure it's a reach, but then most acronyms are. Believe me when I tell you this one was inherited. I would have worked very hard to at least get something as substantial as TRUNK). In a couple of days we will get comments on the document and, over the weekend, incorporate them for a Monday a.m. delivery.

We've struggled with the whole issue of proper styles for nearly a year. Then, last week, we got buy-in to use The Chicago Manual of Style as our authoritative source, backed by the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary, 10th ed. Those two simple decisions make life much more manageable. On the way to the first draft, I found another good source document. The Elements of Technical Writing, written in 1993 by Gary Blake and Robert Bly, provided useful instruction to our authors. The humble subtitle, The Essential Guide to Writing Clear, Concise Proposals, Reports, Manuals, Letters, Memos, and Other Documents in Every Technical Field, left me wondering just what this book wouldn't do. Sadly, my truck is still dirty, the laundry needs doing, the dog could use a walk ... but by golly, I own an "essential" book and life is worth living again.