This Guide is intended for writers that develop specifications for the Federal Highway Administration's (FHWA) Federal Lands Highway Program (FLH). This Guide is to promote and facilitate the writing of specifications that conform to the five Cs of specification writing - clear, concise, complete, correct, and consistent. Adherence to the guidance provided in these chapters and Chapter 9.4.11 of the FLH's Project Development and Design Manual will help writers develop well-written specifications for use with the Standard Specification for Construction of Road and Bridges on Federal Highway Projects (FP). The FP in and of itself is a good example of proper style and format. This document contains guidelines to help writers develop specifications for the Federal Highway Administration's Federal Lands Highway program. Topics addressed include: Specification writing style; Organization and format, Proper terminology and phrasing; Capitalization and abbreviation; and Punctuation and grammar rules.

Publication is a key element of science and engineering, as it not only spreads new ideas and practices but also sustains technical communities. This ReadyNote is intended to help new authors--engineers and scientists who are just beginning to write and publish--prepare technical ideas for publication and protect the publications that contain those ideas. It will also be useful in guiding more experienced authors through commonly misunderstood copyright issues as well as procedures specific to the Computer Society and its parent organization, the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers.

There are many ways of approaching the problem of writing technical articles, publishing information, and protecting ideas. This concise guide presents a few strategies that are simple to use and have been successful in the past.

Step by Step instructions on how to put a bootloader on to the ATMega328P using the ISP STK500 programer. The how and why of the bootloader revealed, build your own bootloader. The complete source code is included. Using avr-gcc 'C' programing language. Detailed instructions for hooking the STK500 to your computer and breadboard. Diagrams and instructions on building your breadboard included. Book is aimed at the Debian-Linux user. This book starts with the assumption that you want to know how to write a bootloader in the 'C' programming language. That you want to learn how to use an ISP STK500 programer. You want to understand the microchip's fuses and lock bit settings and change them as you desire. That you want to load your own bootloader on to the microchip. You will cover the 'Makefile', for compiling your program and uploading on to your microchip. Learn how to build your own library for programs and headers that you want to include in your programs. This includes a uart.c program and a uart.h file. The steps needed to accomplish the loading of your bootloader are walked through giving the reader good direction. The exhibits that are included greatly enhance the visualization of the process. The book includes the complete source code for all programs and header files. The complete Makefiles are also provided. The source code and instructions for loading a test programs are also included. Even the eeprom memory is lightly covered. While this is a technical subject the author provides a great deal of insight and documentation on the process. The book goes into good depth without getting hopelessly lost in computer science lingo.

G. John Sagmiller's documents and notes he has used as a Baan and LN consultant for over 15 years. Mr. Sagmiller is an Infor and BAAN ERP system information expert. This is the Common Module information.

"Effective writing: plain English at work" is about writing that works: it is based on sound English grammar and plain English style. Through this book you will gain the skills needed to write cohesive paragraphs and to consider your target audience. This second, updated edition also considers workplace writing not covered in the first edition such as writing emails and material for websites. Each topic includes activities (and solutions) for you to practise your writing and check your progress. Use this book as a self-teaching aid or as a class textbook.

With the release of SharePoint 2013 comes a whole new raft of technologies to understand and implement. This book will go through the setting up of SharePoint 2013 itself from creating the setup accounts to the actual install of the software. We won't be covering the installation of SQL Server in this book, we assumes you have a functioning SQL Server ready for the installation of SharePoint 2013, for all examples an instance of SQL 2012 server is used. The book will also cover the setup and implementation of the new Microsoft Workflow Manager and Office Web Apps which now run as separate servers and are accessed by SharePoint 2013. This book uses a very simple infrastructure model which is ideal for demonstrating the techniques for installing SharePoint 2013 and its associated servers, but this model should not be used in a production environment.

Step by Step instructions on how to put a bootloader on to the ATMega328P using the ISP STK500 programer. The how and why of the bootloader revealed, build your own bootloader. The complete source code is included. Using avr-gcc 'C' programing language. Detailed instructions for hooking the STK500 to your computer and breadboard. Diagrams and instructions on building your breadboard included. Book is aimed at the Microsoft Windows user. This book starts with the assumption that you want to know how to write a bootloader in the 'C' programming language. That you want to learn how to use an ISP STK500 programer. You want to understand the microchip's fuses and lock bit settings and change them as you desire. That you want to load your own bootloader on to the microchip. You will cover the 'Makefile', for compiling your program and uploading on to your microchip. Learn how to build your own library for programs and headers that you want to include in your programs. This includes a uart.c program and a uart.h file. The steps needed to accomplish the loading of your bootloader are walked through giving the reader good direction. The exhibits that are included greatly enhance the visualization of the process. The book includes the complete source code for all programs and header files. The complete Makefiles are also provided. The source code and instructions for loading a test programs are also included. Even the eeprom memory is lightly covered. While this is a technical subject the author provides a great deal of insight and documentation on the process. The book goes into good depth without getting hopelessly lost in computer science lingo.

Report writing skills are essential to success in your code enforcement career. Your notices of violation, letters, and reports are public documents that may be read by supervisors, attorneys, judges, citizens, design professionals, contractors, and reporters. Quality inspection reports and notices of violation help ensure code compliance, impress superiors, and win respect from colleagues. They facilitate repairs, reinforce requirements for safe operations, and ensure unsafe practices are discontinued. "Report Writing for Code Inspectors" covers a wide range of topics: basic principles for organizing and writing reports, bullet style, punctuation, capitalization, sentence structure, English usage, and the specialized vocabulary you need for your reports. Sample reports are included, along with a pre-test, post-test, practice exercises, and a complete answer key.

When Bette Frick launched her freelance writing and editing business in 1990, not having completed formal business training meant she would make more than a few mistakes. But not applying MBA models meant that as her company grew, her business model fit her rather than some business-school template.

As Bette learned her (sometimes) painful lessons, she shared them in her column, Business Matters, in "Intercom, " the magazine of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), from 2003 to 2012. "Business Matters" republishes those articles, substantially revised and arranged thematically, along with several new chapters.""

This study compared the effects of anonymous e-peer review with identifiable e-peer review on student writing performance and perceived learning satisfaction. It also investigated whether anonymous e-peer review facilitated a greater amount of critical peer feedback. Quasiexperimental design was used to test group differences on the dependent variables. Participants were forty-eight freshmen enrolled in two English composition classes at an American urban university. The two intact classes taught by the same instructor were randomly assigned to the anonymous e-peer review group and the identifiable e-peer review group. The results of the experiment showed that students in the anonymous e-peer review group outperformed their counterparts in the identifiable e-peer review group on writing performance; students in the anonymous e-peer review group provided a greater amount of critical feedback and lower ratings on their peers' writing. No significant differences between the anonymous e-peer review group and the identifiable e-peer review group were found on student learning satisfaction.

This book is the second in a series of two about developing proficiency in English business and technical communication. University students and teachers in courses such as Technical Communication, Advanced Business Communication, and Practical English Writing will find this book instrumental to improving their understanding of or instruction in written English communication skills. The book comprises six units: (1) Employment-Related Communication; (2) Summaries, (3) Definitions, Descriptions, Instructions, Guides, and Manuals; (4) Proposals; (5) Reports; (6) Tenders/ Advertisements, Brochures, Questionnaires, and Web Pages. Each unit is organized with three components: (A) Introduction (of text type), (B) Exemplars (with notes), and (C) Practice Tasks. The Practice Tasks are designed in three forms: (1) Fill-in-the-Blank, (2) Proofreading & Editing, and (3) Writing. Suggested answers/guides are appended, in addition to text type feedback forms. The total number of writing examples is 154.

A practical guide to managing technical writing projects and tech writing departments, covering hiring, evaluation, management, internal and external customer relations, estimating and tracking tech writing projects, running a tech writing business as a solo contractor or as a manager, selling writing services, contracts and work orders, outsourcing, technical training development & delivery, and more. From the Introduction: "There are many books available on the techniques of technical writing, primarily for beginners and practitioners of tech writing. But there are very few books on how to manage the technical writing group in a company or how to manage a technical writing business (whether you're on your own as a freelancer or you have writers working for you). If you are a tech writer who manages other writers, or if you are a non-writer who manages writers, this book is for you. The sections on managing tech writing projects show a methodology specific to technical documentation. If you want to learn general management and project management techniques-and you should-that information already exists. What this book aims for is to provide you as a manager of technical writing with the specifics that you won't easily find elsewhere. Secondarily, this book aims to give new managers, and future managers, a leg up on how to actually run a technical publications group, based on some 20 years of experience in the field. There are different situations in which someone becomes a manager of a technical publications group. Sometimes a writer grows into the role within a company as the department grows, sometimes tech writers are subsumed under some other group - I've seen writers belonging to support, testing, marketing, and infrastructure groups - and the person in charge of technical writing in the company isn't actually a writer and may never have been one. Tech writers who set up their own freelance business have their own specific needs: not only are they the managers, they're also the writers. Finally, owners or managers of tech writing agencies, whether or not they are writers themselves, have business issues specific to a tech writing business to consider." Contents: Chapter 1Introduction * A guide for technical writing managers * Writers who become managers * Managers who are not tech writers * Freelance tech writers * Tech writing agency owners * What's in this book Chapter 2Tech writing for managers * A quick intro to technical writing * Technical editing * Technical writing and product management * Tech writing and debugging * What skills do technical writers need? Chapter 3How to hire tech writers * Establish the requirements * Evaluate the resumes * Interview the writers * Review the samples * Give a test * Tech writers with non-tech writing experience Chapter 4Managing a tech writing group * The role of tech writers in a corporate environment * The documentation team * Define standards * Distribute the work in your team * Involve the writers * Build teams * Monitor the work and communications * Evaluate the writers * Client relations * Communicating with other groups in your organization * Corporate tech writing * Re-use, repurposing, and content management systems Chapter 5Estimating, tracking, and managing tech writing projects * Determine the project scope * Estimates and schedules * Assemble the team * Provide resources and leadership * Working with outsourced writers or outsourced SMEs * Track and report * Deliver the project * Evaluate the project Chapter 6Running a tech writing business * Finding jobs * Marketing yourself as a freelance tech writer * Other marketing avenues * Managing your clients Chapter 7Managing technical training * How to do tech training * Training program components * Training needs analysis * Training development * Training delivery * Training delivery management * Training program communication * Training budget * Set the tone: fun exploration * Training eval

The Web changes how people use content; not just content on the Web, but all content. If your content is not easy to find and immediately helpful, readers will move on almost at once. We are all children of the Web, and we come to any information system, including product documentation, looking for the search box and expecting every search to work like Google. There is no first, last, previous, next, up, or back anymore. Every Page is Page One.

For technical communicators, this Every Page is Page One environment presents a unique challenge: How do you cover a large and complex product using only topics, and how do you enable your readers to find and navigate topic-based content effectively?

In this ground-breaking book, Mark Baker looks beyond the usual advice on writing for the Web, and beyond the idea of topic-based writing merely as an aid to efficiency and reuse, to explore how readers really use information in the age of the Web and to lay out an approach to planning, creating, managing, and organizing topic-based documentation that really works for the reader.

Want to take your WordPress website to the next level? I'll show you how to power it up fast, easy, and cheap - Hi, I'm Lambert Klein, author of Kindle best sellers WordPress Security, and WordPress Domination. In my new book, the Ultimate 2013 WordPress Themes and Plugins Guide, I share with you a massive collection of plugins and themes that will enhance your WordPress site and make it successful. I've personally gone through and selected the hottest plugins and themes that are going to be BIG in 2013. Whether your site is a blog, membership site, or ecommerce store, this guide will show you the tools you need to turn it into a real powerhouse. -Get the Plugins and Themes You Need for Success in 2013 - Here is just a small sample of what the plugins and themes in this guide can do for your site: Track your critical data with website analytics to fully optimize your site Increase your search engine ranking for maximum traffic by providing a better user experience Pump-up your site's ranking ability with powerful SEO plugins Increase revenue with proven to work ecommerce themes and plugins Explode your Adsense income with the hottest Adsense themes and plugins Save time by letting a plugin do in minutes what would take you hours Save money by getting your hands on HOT FREE plugins and themes Using the Wrong Plugins and Themes can Turn Your Site into a Cesspool of Mediocrity and Failure- Have you installed a theme on your ecommerce site that drives off potential customers? Is your blog using a theme that makes visitors hit the back button immediately? It's very easy to mistakenly create a WordPress site that drives off visitors, upsets the search engine algorithms, and gets ranked back on page 20 in the search engine results. Using plugins and themes for the wrong purposes will drag your site down and have people avoiding it like the plague. The Ultimate 2013 WordPress Themes and Plugins Guide will teach you which themes and plugins are good for which types of sites. Here are the categories you'll be able to explore in this guide and how they'll turn your site into a winner: All Purpose Plugins - Enhance any site imaginable SEO Plugins - Get the ranking power you need for success Social Share Plugins - Go viral with the latest social media tactics Security Plugins - Protect your site from ruthless hackers Themes/Plugins for Stores and Affiliate Sites - Making money is easy when your theme and plugins do half the work for you Themes/Plugins for Blogs - Grow your popularity and become a blogging superstar Themes/Plugins for Squeeze Pages - Increase you signup rate by over 500% with these themes and plugins Themes/Plugins for Adsense - Let these themes and plugins show you exactly where to place your ads for maximum revenue Plugins for Forums, Chatrooms, and Membership Sites - Turning your site into a social hub has never been easier Over 190 Plugins and Themes Covered Which theme would be better for your Adsense site: HeatMap or MaxSense? Would it be best to spend $77 on Popup Domination for your squeeze page, or would it be best to go with the free alternative WordPress Popup? Choosing what's right for your site is easy thanks to the 60+ full reviews provided in the Ultimate 2013 WordPress Plugin and Theme Guide. On top of that, over 190 plugins are listed and compared in total. I've made sure that you have plenty of options when it comes to both free and paid plugins. Don't waste hours upon hours researching themes and plugins manually; go through the guide and select the best plugins for your WordPress site in minutes Perfect for Both WordPress Newbies and Veterans Alike

If you've been asked to get funding for a content strategy initiative and need to build a compelling case, if you've been approached by your staff to implement a content strategy and want to know the business benefits, or if you've been asked to sponsor a content strategy project and don't know what one is, this book is for you. Rahel Anne Bailie and Noz Urbina come from distinctly different backgrounds, but share a deep understanding of how to help your organization build a content strategy. This book provides practical advice on how to sell, create, implement, and maintain a content strategy, including case studies that show both successful and not so successful efforts.

In recent years Extensible Markup Language (XML) has had a major impact on software development and data interchange and has begun to have a similar effect in technical communication. XML provides a platform-independent, vendor-neutral source language for publishing documentation of all kinds and in any output format. XML solutions have already been adopted by many technical publication departments, while others are poised to make the move to XML. Authoring tools, publishing tools and content management systems are providing support for XML languages, in particular Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA), one of the XML languages designed specifically for technical documentation. Increasingly, technical communicators therefore need to understand what XML has to offer and how it can be used in the various areas of technical communication. This book fills an important gap in the market by providing a broad introduction to XML and its role in technical communication. It describes the basics of XML syntax and terminology, the use of XML in technical communication and the advantages it can bring to the production of technical documentation of all types. It introduces the key XML languages that are used for technical documentation, both as documentation source formats and for transforming source documents to various output formats. The book will be invaluable to anyone who needs a fast introduction to XML and its role in technical communication, such as those whose organization is deploying an XML-based documentation solution, or freelancers who need to keep pace with technical trends. It caters for technical communicators of all levels of markup language experience, providing a comprehensive yet easy to read overview of the use of XML in technical communication, as well as references to more in-depth material. This revised and updated second edition now includes a section about S1000D, the international specification for the production of technical publications that is widely used in the aerospace and defence industries. Other additions include more information about how XML facilitates common technical communication tasks and more material about DocBook. Charles Cowan FISTC is a Principal Technical Writer with the Oracle Corporation. He has worked as a technical communicator for over a quarter of a century, developing documentation for various clients and software companies in Belgium, Germany and Switzerland, as well as in the UK and Ireland. He is an IBM Certified Developer in XML and Related Technologies and holds postgraduate qualifications in computing and software development.