ATTW Teaching Resources: Textbook Publishers

This section provides a list of links to publishers of technical writing textbooks.

ATTW. Resources>Directories>Textbooks

Review: Communication Skills for the Processing of Words, 5th Edition    

This text aims to prepare students for entry-level jobs and foster their career progress after they enter the workplace. The focus of this book is not as broad as the typical introductory text on business communication. However, this book could be the right choice for an advanced business writing course in a high school or an introductory business writing course in a college, university, or technical school. This book might also work well as a supplement in a postsecondary business communication course for use by students who either have not completed a 1st-year composition course or who have completed that course without mastering grammar, mechanics, and style. This textbook includes 18 units: 8 discuss specific types of punctuation (e.g., commas and colons); 7 cover usage and mechanics (e.g., capitalization and numbers); and 3 cover grammar (e.g., subject and verb agreement).

Stallworth Williams, Linda. Business Communication Quarterly (2007). Articles>Reviews>Textbooks>Business Communication

Power Tools for Technical Communication Instructors Manual  

A PDF version of the instructors manual for Power Tools.

McMurrey, David A. Illuminati Online (2001). Books>Education>Textbooks

Online Technical Writing: an Online Textbook

This text is used by students in online technical-communication courses worldwide as well as the online courses below taught by David A. McMurrey, Tim Altanero, and Devorah Feldman at Austin Community College (ACC) in Austin, Texas USA.

McMurrey, David A. Illuminati Online. Books>Education>Textbooks

Read It Or Skip It? The Textbook's Preface  

An informal survey of 18 modern technical writing textbook prefaces finds 75 to 100 percent of them tell readers the books meet students’ needs, contain special topics, have unique philosophies, emphasize the practical, contain sample documents, teach specific types of writing, and contain sections on computers and/or document design. Also, 50 to 75 percent of the prefaces state the books address ethical/legal issues, oral presentations, resumes/ job applications, corporate culture, and punctuation and/or grammar. Such repetitious content in textbook prefaces reduces their usefulness during the textbook selection process.

Ryan, Charlton. STC Proceedings (1994). Academic>Course Materials>Textbooks

Review: Successful Writing At Work: Concise Edition    

Philip Kolin's purpose in writing Successful Writing at Work: Concise Edition is to introduce professional and business writing to undergraduate students who probably will not be taking other business writing courses. Kolin forgoes theory and provides ample exercises and examples. The concise edition, at 344 pages (10 chapters) and US$55, is 412 pages shorter and US$23 less than the full version, Successful Writing at Work (Kolin, 2006). While the book includes many of the important topics of the full version (such as discrete chapters devoted to letter writing, job applications, and writing procedures), the savings may not justify the loss of content and depth.

Dangler, Doug. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Reviews>Textbooks>Business Communication

Review: Technical Communication  

Rebecca E. Burnett covers all the topics you'd expect in an introductory textbook for technical communicators. And she covers them thoroughly.

Campbell, Alexa. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Reviews>Textbooks>Technical Writing

Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century

The online companion to the textbook Technical Communication in The Twenty-First Century.

Dobrin, Sidney I., Christopher J. Keller and Christian R. Weisser. TCTC. Academic>Course Materials>Textbooks

Review: Textbooks for Business and Technical Writing Courses

Those of us involved in teaching the survey course in business and technical writing--one which encompasses a wide range of documents--frequently wonder if we are using the best textbook for our purposes.

Goleman, Patricia. ATTW Bulletin (2005). Articles>Reviews>Textbooks