The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update
Twelfth Edition| ©2019 Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw
From abstracts to online professional profiles, from blogs and forums to formal reports and manuals, the Handbook of Technical Writing uses smart, accessible language to spotlight and clarify technical writing today. Hundreds of topic entries, 90+ sample documents, at-a-glance checklists...
From abstracts to online professional profiles, from blogs and forums to formal reports and manuals, the Handbook of Technical Writing uses smart, accessible language to spotlight and clarify technical writing today. Hundreds of topic entries, 90+ sample documents, at-a-glance checklists, and clear, explicit models, communicate the real-world practices of successful technical writers.
Developed by a legendary author team with decades of combined academic and professional experience, the book’s intuitive, alphabetical organization makes it easy to navigate its extensive coverage of grammar, usage, and style. Plus, updated, in-depth treatment of pressing issues like the job search, audience awareness, source documentation, and social media use on the job resonate both in class and at the office.
With a refreshed, integrated focus on the ways technologies shape writing, the Twelfth Edition of the Handbook is the indispensable reference tool for writing successfully in the workplace.
ISBN:9781319368685
Take notes, add highlights, and download our mobile-friendly e-books.
ISBN:9781319362201
Keep your book open while you write with spiral-bound texts.
![Cover: The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update, 12th Edition by Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9781319362201.jpg)
Technical Writing from A to Z
From abstracts to online professional profiles, from blogs and forums to formal reports and manuals, the Handbook of Technical Writing uses smart, accessible language to spotlight and clarify technical writing today. Hundreds of topic entries, 90+ sample documents, at-a-glance checklists, and clear, explicit models, communicate the real-world practices of successful technical writers.
Developed by a legendary author team with decades of combined academic and professional experience, the book’s intuitive, alphabetical organization makes it easy to navigate its extensive coverage of grammar, usage, and style. Plus, updated, in-depth treatment of pressing issues like the job search, audience awareness, source documentation, and social media use on the job resonate both in class and at the office.
With a refreshed, integrated focus on the ways technologies shape writing, the Twelfth Edition of the Handbook is the indispensable reference tool for writing successfully in the workplace.
Features
More than 90 sample documents demonstrate a wide range of effective professional and technical writing models, including formal reports, proposals, diagrams, environmental impact statements, trade journal articles, e-mails, presentation slides, résumés, and cover letters.
Comprehensive discussion of the writing process and in-depth treatment of grammar, usage, and style provide guidance on writing well. Every stage is covered in detail—from research and audience analysis to revision and proofreading. Discussion addresses both independent and collaborative writing.
Up-to-date coverage of workplace technologies gives students the latest advice on adapting to new technologies, interpreting infographics, e-mailing colleagues, conducting online research, creating a social media presence, writing for the Web, and more.
Advice, tip boxes, and checklists call attention to recurring features and useful asides. Ethics Notes and Professionalism Notes offer special guidance for handling ethically challenging office scenarios. A list of Commonly Misused Words and Phrases break down grammar with accessible language and examples. Writer’s Checklists help students tackle each step of complex tasks like writing collaboratively and evaluating sources.
Quick-reference alphabetical arrangement, helpful topical keys, and a student-friendly index make technical-writing topics easy to find. Cross-references throughout the book guide students to related entries.
LaunchPad Solo for Professional Writing lets students explore the full professional possibilities of today’s technologies in clickable, assignable learning sequences. Additional sample documents provide a wide range of effective professional writing models for students to emulate. Tutorials walk students through using online tools to access projects across platforms, design dynamic presentations, develop podcasts, and manage their personal brand. Diagnostics provide opportunities to assess areas for improvement and assign additional exercises based on students’ needs. Pre-built units—including readings, videos, quizzes, and more—are easy to adapt and assign by adding your own materials and mixing them with our high-quality multimedia content and ready-made assessment options, such as LearningCurve adaptive quizzing and Exercise Central. LaunchPad Solo for Professional Writing can be packaged at a significant discount with the Handbook for Technical Writing.
New to This Edition
A new entry on creating an online professional profile helps technical writers select the appropriate forum and represent themselves and their accomplishments effectively on sites such as LinkedIn, AngelList, and Academia.edu.
A thorough updating of the job-search entries, including new coverage of co-ops, service internships, and "gap year" opportunities—crucial information for students and professionals seeking a new career. Updated coverage of interviewing for a job offers more coverage of what to do after the interview and includes a new model follow-up letter.
New coverage of reviewing articles for a trade journal aids more experienced technical writers who may be asked to share their expertise.
Updated coverage of documenting sources provides current guidelines for citing sources in IEEE style.
A new professionalism note on the etiquette of mobile devices helps students move seamlessly from personal to professional worlds.
New instructor support materials, including advice on structuring the class and including sample course plans, are available on the instructor’s tab from the book’s catalog page at macmillanlearning.com.
The Handbook of Technical Writing is an incredibly valuable tool both personally and professionally. My students often tell me that this is one of the books they plan to keep for future reference.
–Sally Stanton, University of Wisconsin—MilwaukeeThe Handbook of Technical Writing provides my engineering students with short yet complete extended definitions and model documents which they learn to use as a reference. Even members of the Engineering faculty have it on their desks. It is a valuable teaching and professional resource.
–Mary Connerty, Pennsylvania State University—ErieThe Handbook of Technical Writing is an accessible and comprehensive guide to professional writing that students find useful in the classroom and on the job.
–Paige Hermansen, University of ArkansasDespite online search engines, the Handbook of Technical Writing is a very useful resource to have on your desk as a quick reference and also as a learning tool that will facilitate lifelong learning of a difficult discipline.
–Pratul Pathak, California University of PennsylvaniaThe Handbook of Technical Writing is user-friendly, with tabs, color coding, and a spiral binding that reflects the context of use and environment of technical writing.
–Gail Chamberlain, Oklahoma State University
![Cover: The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update, 12th Edition by Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9781319362201.jpg)
The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update
Twelfth Edition| ©2019
Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw
Digital Options
![EPUB3_EBOOK icon](https://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/studentstore/visuals/SS_Search_Icons_eBook.png)
E-book
Read online (or offline) with all the highlighting and notetaking tools you need to be successful in this course.
![Cover: The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update, 12th Edition by Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9781319362201.jpg)
The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update
Twelfth Edition| 2019
Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw
Table of Contents
Abbreviations
Abstracts
Abstract / Concrete Words
Acceptances/Refusals (for Employment)
Acknowledgments
Acronyms and Initialisms
Adapting to New Technologies
Adjectives
Adjustment Messages
Adverbs
Affectation
Agreement
Allusions
Ambiguity
Antonyms
Ampersands
Apostrophes
Appendixes
Application Cover Letters
Appositives
Articles
Audience
Awkwardness
Biased Language
Bibliographies
Blogs and Forums
Brainstorming
Brainstorming
Bracket
Brochures
Buzzwords
Capitalization
Case
Cause-and-Effect
Chronological
Clarity
Clauses
Clichés
Coherence
Collaborative Writing
Colons
Comma Splice
Commas
Comparison
Comparison
Complaints
Complements
Conciseness
Compound Words
Conclusions
Conjunctions
Connotation / Denotation
Content Management
Context
Contractions
Contractions
Copyrights, Patents, and Trademarks
Correspondence
Cover Messages (or Transmittals)
Dangling Modifiers
Dashes
Dates
Defining Terms
Definition
Description
Description
Direct Address
Division-and-Classification
Document Management
Documenting Sources
Double Negatives
Drawings
Ellipses
E-mail
Emphasis
English as a Second Language
English, Varieties of
Environmental Impact Statements
Ethics in Writing
Euphemisms
Exclamation Marks
Executive Summaries
Expletives
Expletives
Exposition
FAQs (Frequently Asked Questions)
Feasibility Reports
Figures of Speech
Flowcharts
Foreign Words in English
Formal Reports
Forms
Forms
Functional Shift
Functional Shift
Garbled Sentences
Gender
General and Specific
Global Communication
Global Graphics
Glossaries
Gobbledygook
Grant Proposals
Grammar
Graphs
Headers and Footers
Headings
Hyphens
Idioms
Indexing
Incident Reports
Infographics
Inquiries and Responses
Instant Messaging and Live Chat
Instructions
Intensifiers
International Correspondence
Interjections
Interviewing for Information
Interviewing for a Job
Introductions
Investigative Reports
Italics
Job Descriptions
Jargon
Job Search
Laboratory Reports
Layout and Design
Letters
Listening
Lists
Literature Reviews
Literature Reviews
Logic Errors
Manuals
Malapropisms
Maps
Mathematical Equations
Mathematical Equations
Meetings
Memos
Methods of Development
Minutes of Meetings
Modifiers
Mixed Constructions
Mood
Narration
Newsletter Articles
Newsletters
Nominalizations
Note-Taking
Nouns
Number (Grammar)
Numbers
Objects
Online Professional Profile
Order-of-Importance
Organization
Organizational Charts
Outlining
Pace
Paragraphs
Parallel Structure
Paraphrasing
Parentheses
Parts of Speech
Periods
Person
Photographs
Persuasion
Phrases
Plagiarism
Plain Language
Point of View
Positive Writing
Possessive Case
Preparation
Prefixes
Prepositions
Presentations
Process Explanation
Progress and Activity Reports
Pronoun Reference
Pronouns
Proofreading
Proposals
Proofreading
Punctuation
Purpose
Question Marks
Questionnaires
Questionnaires
Quotation Marks
Quotations
Reference Letters
Readers
Refusal Letters
Repetition
Reports
Repurposing
Requests for Proposals
Research
Resignation Letters
Restrictive and Nonrestrictive Elements
Résumés
Revision
Rhetorical Questions
Run-on Sentences
Scope
Selecting the Medium
Semicolons
Sentence Construction
Sentence Faults
Sentence Variety
Sequential
Slashes
Social Media
Spatial
Specifications
Spelling
Style
Subordination
Sentence Fragments
Synonyms
Suffixes
Syntax
Tables
Tables of Contents
Technical Writing Style
Telegraphic Style
Tense
Test Reports
Text Messaging
Titles
Thesaurus
Tone
Trade Journal Articles
Transition
Trip Reports
Usability Testing
Usage
Unity
Vague Words
Verbals
Verbs
Visuals
Voice
White Papers
Word Choice
Writing a Draft
Writing for the Web
“You” Viewpoint
![Cover: The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update, 12th Edition by Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9781319362201.jpg)
The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update
Twelfth Edition| 2019
Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw
Authors
![Headshot of Gerald J. Alred](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Authors/207W/283097.jpg)
Gerald J. Alred
Gerald J. Alred is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Wisconsin– Milwaukee, where he is a teaching-award recipient and an adviser to the Professional Writing Program. He is the author of numerous scholarly articles and several standard bibliographies on business and technical communication, and he is a founding member of the editorial board of the Journal of Business and Technical Communication. He is a recipient of the prestigious Jay R. Gould Award for “profound scholarly and textbook contributions to the teaching of business and technical writing.” He developed and manages the Web site InlandChorus.comTM.
![Headshot of Walter E. Oliu](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Authors/207W/283109.jpg)
Walter E. Oliu
Walter E. Oliu served as Chief of the Publishing Services Branch at the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission, where he managed the agency’s printing, graphics, editing, and publishing programs, as well as the daily operations of the agency’s public Web site. He is the recipient of the agency’s Meritorious Service Award. He has also taught at Miami University of Ohio, Slippery Rock State University, Montgomery College, and George Mason University.
![Headshot of Charles T. Brusaw](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Authors/207W/283108.jpg)
Charles T. Brusaw
Charles T. Brusaw served as a faculty member at NCR Corporation’s Management College, where he developed and taught courses in professional writing, editing, and presentation skills for the corporation worldwide. Previously, he worked in advertising, technical writing, public relations, and curriculum development. He was also a communications consultant, an invited speaker at academic conferences, and a teacher of business writing at Sinclair Community College. He passed away in 2015.
![Cover: The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update, 12th Edition by Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9781319362201.jpg)
The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update
Twelfth Edition| 2019
Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw
Instructor Resources
Need instructor resources for your course?
Unlock Your ResourcesInstructor Resources
Download Resources
You need to sign in to unlock your resources.
Correlation Guide for Moving from the 11th Edition to the 12th Edition
Planning Your Course
Sample Course Plans
You've selected:
Click the E-mail Download Link button and we'll send you an e-mail at with links to download your instructor resources. Please note there may be a delay in delivering your e-mail depending on the size of the files.
Warning! These materials are owned by Macmillan Learning or its licensors and are protected by copyright laws in the United States and other jurisdictions. Such materials may include a digital watermark that is linked to your name and email address in your Macmillan Learning account to identify the source of any materials used in an unauthorised way and prevent online piracy. These materials are being provided solely for instructional use by instructors who have adopted Macmillan Learning’s accompanying textbooks or online products for use by students in their courses. These materials may not be copied, distributed, sold, shared, posted online, or used, in print or electronic format, except in the limited circumstances set forth in the Macmillan Learning Terms of Use and any other reproduction or distribution is illegal. These materials may not be made publicly available under any circumstances. All other rights reserved. For more information about the use of your personal data including for the purposes of anti-piracy enforcement, please refer to Macmillan Learning's.Privacy Notice
Thank you!
Your download request has been received and your download link will be sent to .
Please note you could wait up to 30 to 60 minutes to receive your download e-mail depending on the number and size of the files. We appreciate your patience while we process your request.
Check your inbox, trash, and spam folders for an e-mail from InstructorResources@macmillan.com.
If you do not receive your e-mail, please visit macmillanlearning.com/support.
![Cover: The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update, 12th Edition by Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/Jackets/258W/9781319362201.jpg)
The Handbook of Technical Writing with 2020 APA Update
Twelfth Edition| 2019
Gerald J. Alred; Walter E. Oliu; Charles T. Brusaw
Related Titles
Select a demo to view:
![Achieve icon](http://prod-cat-files.macmillan.cloud/MediaResources/instructorcatalog/college/digital/digital-icons/PNG/digital-icon-achieve.png)
![](/college/_ui/responsive/common/images/spinner.gif)