Notes on technical writing

The UCSD Office of Academic Support and Instructional Services, located in the OASIS Center, is available for help with writing.

A general book on writing is The Elements of Style by William Strunk Jr. and E. B. White, Macmillan, New York, 3rd ed., 1979. The full text of the 1918 edition is out of copyright and available online.

The following two reports on technical writing are available on-line, though they are  subject to copyright law,.

Technical Writing for Computer Engineers and Computer Scientists by Kevin Karplus and Dan Scripture.

"This document contains course notes and exercises for a course in technical writing. The course is intended for third-year computer engineering majors, and emphasizes technical documentation directed to engineers, engineering managers, technical writers, and other specialized audiences. Exercises include job applications and résumés, memos, electronic correspondence, algorithm description, in-program documentation, naive-user documentation, survey articles, proposal writing, document specification, progress reports, formal technical reports, and an oral presentation."

Mathematical Writing by Donald E. Knuth, Tracy L. Larrabee, and Paul M. Roberts, Washington, D.C.: Mathematical Association of America, 1989.

"This booklet records the class on Mathematical Writing led by Don Knuth at Stanford in 1987." The full text of this book in postscript is approximately one megabyte and 120 pages.

For reference, consult the Miriam Webster Dictionary and Thesaurus.

The Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, 1913 Edition, is also available.

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This page was last updated on September 19, 2005 .