232 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 48, NO. 2, JUNE 2005 Brian R. Holloway Technical Writing Basics: A Guide to Style & Form, 3rd ed. Book Review —Reviewed by CHARLOTTE BRAMMER, MEMBER, IEEE Index Terms—Communication in the workplace, persuasive writing, rhetorical purpose, technical communication, technical writing, transactional writing. W henever I review a technical writing text, one of my first steps is to flip through it looking for general topics, organization, and layout, including the use of graphics. When I looked at Brian Holloway’s Technical Writing Basics: A Guide to Style & Form, 3rd ed., I was immediately struck by two things: (1) the high contrast typeface and (2) the volume of figures. The unusual use of sans serif fonts for text and serif fonts for headings, along with what appears to be a darker ink creates a high contrast print that is easy to read. Headings are clear (e.g., “Patterns of Order”) and useful in describing what information follows. In keeping with this devotion to the visual, this 211-page text has 102 figures, most of which are examples of technical and professional writing. Some figures are authentic documents; others are templates for students to follow in formatting their own documents. Each figure uses a font style and size that is legible; no figure is shrunk to the point of obscuring the print. Small print does not work well when an author is trying to communicate. Communication is undoubtedly Holloway’s goal, and communicating for purpose is the organizing principle for the text. The first sentence in the first chapter states, “Business or technical writing is engineered to display information effectively on the page in order to get results, or in other words, to inform and to persuade” (p. 1). Holloway creates an unambiguous, no-nonsense display of information for his primary audience, students who are new to business and technical writing. Following traditional pedagogical design, he informs students about the basics of conveying information for specific audiences. As he aptly states, “The first principle of persuasion is to know your audience,” and “The second principle of persuasion is to know exactly what you want your Manuscript received January 12, 2005; revised January 14, 2005. The reviewer is with the Department of Communication Studies, Samford University, Birmingham, AL 35229 USA (email:cdbramme@samford.edu). IEEE DOI 10.1109/TPC.2005.849657 Book Publisher: Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 2005, 211 pp. plus index. 0361-1434/$20.00 © 2005 IEEE audience to do” (pp. 1–2, italics in original). For the author, this means students should think of business people as busy people, hence the need for concise, well-organized communication. While the text does not go into great detail about how writers might get to know prospective audiences, a notable limitation, it does reiterate how concern for the audience plays into various composing decisions, including formatting, organization, language, and genres. While the book’s title suggests a focus on “technical” writing, the author seems to use the word somewhat interchangeably with business writing. He seems to prefer “transactional writing” with its implicit business exchange connotation. His focus is perhaps more appropriately termed writing or communicating in the workplace because he addresses a variety of workplace genres, including memos, instruction manuals, and reports. Descriptions of the various genres are sparse: generally each genre is introduced with one or two paragraphs, a bulleted list of key elements and advice, followed by several examples. The information is by and large appropriate and accurate, and Holloway presents it with the same “just the facts, ma’am” tone that he seems to want his students to use. Many students probably appreciate his directness, which may account for this 3rd edition. The text’s overall organization would make it quite useful for an introductory classroom. After the initial introductory chapter and a second chapter that instructs students on how to organize information effectively (e.g., “message, support, closure”) (p. 23), the text moves through the major forms of workplace writing: memos and letters (Chapter 3), bulletins and flyers (Chapter 4), directions and manuals (Chapter 5), reports (Chapters 6 and 7). Finally, the text ends with Chapter 8: “Selling yourself,” in which Holloway offers advice and examples for developing employment essentials: résumés, cover letters, and thank you letters. Interestingly, one of the examples is a curriculum vitae for a composition instructor. Each chapter is rich with assignments and exercises, including ones that can be used with service learning opportunities. IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. 48, NO. 2, JUNE 2005 Overall, the book is helpful for classroom use but has less value as a reference text. Grammar and usage information that would normally be found in a grammar or writing handbook are given little attention beyond the eight pages in Chapter 1 (much of which is devoted to exercises). Thus, the text will have little value for those needing to check an obscure comma rule. Similarly, most of the examples and patterns will provide little guidance to professional View publication stats 233 communicators. This, however, was not Holloway’s goal. He wanted to create a text for “students who have taken a freshman composition course but who have not necessarily worked in fields that demand the use of business and technical writing” (p. vii), and that is exactly what he has accomplished. Any proficient writer new to the field could easily use Holloway’s text, even without additional instruction, to identify key principles in workplace writing.