Related Research Guides
Resources for Technical Writing
Technical writing involves researching expert diagnoses of complex problems and their solutions and then translating your findings into accessible explanations and actionable recommendations.
A common form of technical writing, a white paper, typically advocates for a particular policy stance or a particular solution to address a problem.
The resources on this page will help you locate authoritative, expert information sources on which to base your assertions.
For more help...
The library has research guides for every academic discipline at UD. Be sure to take a look at the one(s) related to your field, and feel free to contact your subject librarian for in-depth research help.
Searching DELCAT Discovery
Search University of Delaware Library and libraries worldwide, for books, articles, and more, including some technical reports and white papers. You may seearch by title, author, or keywords. UD items appear at or near the top of the results display. Materials not held by UD (labeled WorldCat Libraries) can be requested using the "Get This For Me!" button.
The Handbook of Technical Writing by Call Number: T11 .B78 2019ISBN: 9781319058524Publication Date: 2018-10-05From 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.
Technical Communication for Environmental Action by Call Number: GE25 .T44 2023ISBN: 9781438491295Publication Date: 2023-01-01Climate change is one of the most significant challenges facing the global community in the twenty-first century. With its position at the border of people, technology, science, and communication, technical communication has a significant role to play in helping to solve these complex environmental problems. This collection of essays engages scholars and practitioners in a conversation about how the field has contributed to pragmatic and democratic action to address climate change. Compared to most prior work--which offers theoretical perspectives of environmental communication--this collection explores the actual practice of international technical communicators who participate in government projects, corporate processes, nonprofit programs, and international agency work, demonstrating how technical communication theories such as participatory design, social justice, and ethics can help shape pragmatic environmental action.br> SUNY Press has collaborated with Knowledge Unlatched to unlock KU Focus Collection titles. The Knowledge Unlatched titles have been made open access through libraries coming together to crowd fund the publication cost. Each monograph has been released as open access making the eBook freely available to readers worldwide. Discover more about the Knowledge Unlatched program here:
Writing for Engineers by Call Number: T11 .V363 2018ISBN: 9781352000474Publication Date: 2017-11-02This book is full of practical advice and useful examples to help students and engineers write clearly, accurately and impressively. This updated fourth edition features new material on technical notes, inspection reports and business cases, along with abstracts and summaries. It is an essential aid for today's engineers.
The Essentials of Technical Communication by Call Number: T11 .T295 2018ISBN: 9780190856144Publication Date: 2017-12-15This text is a clear, concise, and practical guide to effective technical communication in today's world. Divided into two parts, the book begins with rhetorical principles that help students understand the contexts in which various types of documents will be read and used. The second partexplains the major types of technical documents and offers checklists for students to use in preparing these documents.
Writing Science in the Twenty-First Century by Call Number: T11 .T45 2019ISBN: 9781554813049Publication Date: 2019-08-30Writing Science in the Twenty-First Century offers guidance to help writers succeed in a broad range of writing tasks and purposes in science and other STEM fields. Concise and current, the book takes most of its examples and lessons from scientific fields, such as the life sciences, chemistry, physics, and geology, but some examples are taken from mathematics and engineering. The book emphasizes building confidence and rhetorical expertise in fields where diverse audiences, high ethical stakes, and multiple modes of presentation present unique writing challenges. Using a systematic approach-assessing purpose, audience, order of information, tone, evidence, and graphics-it gives readers a clear road map to becoming accurate, persuasive, and rhetorically savvy writers.
Key Theoretical Frameworks by Call Number: T10.5 .K15 2018ISBN: 9781607327585Publication Date: 2018-10-17Drawing on social justice methodologies and cultural studies scholarship, Key Theoretical Frameworks offers new curricular and pedagogical approaches to teaching technical communication. Including original essays by emerging and established scholars, the volume educates students, teachers, and practitioners on identifying and assessing issues of social justice and globalization.
An Editor's Guide to Writing and Publishing Science by Call Number: Z286.S4 H7275 2019ISBN: 9780198804789Publication Date: 2019-09-01A good research paper is more than just a clear, concise, scientific expose. It is a document that needs to go beyond the science to attract attention. There are both strict and less definable norms for doing this, but many authors are unaware as to what they are or their use. Publishing is rapidly changing, and needs to be explained with a fresh perspective. Simply writing good, clear, concise, science is no longer enough-there is a different mind-set now required that students need to adopt if they are to succeed. The purpose of this book is to provide the foundations of this new approach for both young scientists at the start of their careers, as well as for more experienced scientists to teach the younger generation. Most importantly, the book will make the reader think in a fresh, creative, and novel way about writing and publishing science. This is an introductory guide suitable for advanced undergraduates, graduate students, and professional researchers in both the life and physical sciences.
A Guide to the Scientific Career by ISBN: 9781118907283Publication Date: 2019-10-18A concise, easy-to-read source of essential tips and skills for writing research papers and career management In order to be truly successful in the biomedical professions, one must have excellent communication skills and networking abilities. Of equal importance is the possession of sufficient clinical knowledge, as well as a proficiency in conducting research and writing scientific papers. This unique and important book provides medical students and residents with the most commonly encountered topics in the academic and professional lifestyle, teaching them all of the practical nuances that are often only learned through experience.
How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper by Call Number: T11 .D33 2022ISBN: 9781440878824Publication Date: 2022-06-30Thoroughly updated throughout, this classic, practical text on how to write and publish a scientific paper takes its own advice to be "as clear and simple as possible.""The purpose of scientific writing," according to Barbara Gastel and Robert A. Day, "is to communicate new scientific findings. Science is simply too important to be communicated in anything other than words of certain meaning."This clear, beautifully written, and often funny text is a must-have for anyone who needs to communicate scientific information, whether they're writing for a professor, other scientists, or the general public. The thoughtfully revised 9th edition retains the most important material--including preparing text and graphics, publishing papers and other types of writing, and plenty of information on writing style--while adding up-to-date advice on copyright, presenting online, identifying authors, creating visual abstracts, and writing in English as a non-native language.A set of valuable appendixes provide ready reference, including words and expressions to avoid, SI prefixes, a list of helpful websites, and a glossary. Students and working scientists will want to keep How to Write and Publish a Scientific Paper at their desks and refer to it at every stage of writing and publication.
Designing Multilingual Experiences in Technical Communication by Call Number: T11 .G64 2022ISBN: 9781646422753Publication Date: 2022-11-21As technical communicators continue advocating for justice, the field should pay closer attention to how language diversity shapes all research and praxis in contemporary global contexts. Designing Multilingual Experiences in Technical Communication provides frameworks, strategies, and best practices for researchers engaging in projects with multilingual communities. Through grounded case studies of multilingual technical communication projects in the US, Mexico, and Nepal, Laura Gonzales illustrates the multiple tensions at play in transnational research and demonstrates how technical communicators can leverage contemporary translation practices and methodologies to engage in research with multilingual communities that is justice-driven, participatory, and reciprocal. Designing Multilingual Experiences in Technical Communication is of value to researchers and students across fields who are interested in designing projects alongside multilingual communities from historically marginalized backgrounds.
Searching Subject Databases
Databases allow you to search the contents of scholarly journals, as well as other materials. Some databases, such as Academic OneFile and Web of Science, cover a wide variety of topics. Others focus on the literature of a specific subject field (e.g., PubMed for medicine and Business Source Premier for business).
Visit the Databases page to search for a particular database by name or to choose a subject category. Librarians can help you with recommended databases for specific topics.
Identify important search terms and concepts for your topic. Enter the search terms into the search box of the database. Connect the search terms with connector words (i.e., AND, OR). Truncation (use of * with the root of the word) obtains singular, plural and other variations.
antioxidants AND food - will return only results that contain both keywords
recycling OR conservation - will return results that contain either keyword
pollut* - will return results containing pollute, pollutants, pollution, etc.
General
- Academic OneFile This link opens in a new window
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A premier source for peer-reviewed, full-text articles from scholarly journals and other authoritative sources. Also includes thousands of podcasts and transcripts from NPR and CNN, as well as videos from BBC Worldwide Learning. (Coverage: 1980 --)
- Web of Science This link opens in a new window
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A collection of databases that can be searched individually or in various combinations. WoS indexs the world’s leading scholarly literature in the sciences, social sciences, arts, and humanities, as published in journals, conference proceedings, symposia, seminars, colloquia, and workshops across the globe.
Biology & Medicine
- BIOSIS Citation Index This link opens in a new window
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The database covers journals related to life sciences. - PubMed This link opens in a new window
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A comprehensive electronic archive of the peer-reviewed literature relevant to the biological sciences.
Business
- ABI/INFORM This link opens in a new window
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Search ABI/INFORM Global for articles related to business and finance. - Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
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Business Source Premier examines articles from business journals.
Environment
- Agricultural and Environmental Science Database This link opens in a new window
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Citations to scholarly literature concerning environmental topics - Gale in Context: Environmental Studies This link opens in a new window
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Resources on the physical, social, and economic aspects of environmental issues
Statistics
- Bureau of Labor StatisticsThe Bureau of Labor Statistics measures labor market activity, working conditions, price changes, and productivity in the U.S. economy to support public and private decision making.
- Statista This link opens in a new window
Data on media, business, finance, politics, and a wide variety of other areas of interest and markets.
- Statistical Abstract of the United States This link opens in a new window
Statistical tables and charts covering various aspects of social, political, and economic life. Emphasis is on the U.S., but some tables cover regions, states, cities, and comparative international statistics. (Coverage: 1878 --)
Technical Reports
- National Technical Reports LibraryA collection of scientific and technical information produced by federal and international sources, created by the National Technical Information Service (NTIS).
- Science.govMore than 200 million pages of authoritative federal science information from 15 agencies, including research and development results.
- WorldWideScienceA federation of approximately 100 databases and portals from over 70 countries, providing global science and research results with multilingual translations.
- CiteSeerXAn evolving scientific literature digital library and search engine that focuses primarily on computer and information science.
- Policy ArchiveA comprehensive digital library of public policy research containing over 30,000 documents.
Useful Websites
- ClickHelp Technical Writing BlogTechnical Writing: Information, Articles for Technical Writers
- Illustrations in Technical WritingTechnical Writer and blogger, Bradley Nice, shares a brief post on the creation of illustrations in tech writing documents.
- Technical Writing Courses at GoogleThis collection of courses and learning resources aims to improve your technical documentation. Learn how to plan and author technical documents. You can also learn about the role of technical writers at Google.
- Technical Writing on MediumMedium articles tagged Technical Writing that offer techniques, descriptions, and topics related to the fields of technical writing and technical communication.
Technical Writing as a Career
- Occupational Outlook Handbook: Technical WritersGenerated by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the Occupational Outlook Handbook entry for technical writers provides a summary of the profession as well as job outlook, necessary skills, pay, working conditions and other pertinent info regarding technical writing as a profession.
- Data USA: Technical WritersData USA is the most comprehensive website and visualization engine of public US Government data.