Tech Biz Writing

When the writer has established the requirement in as much detail as possible, it’s time to turn to the specification. This covers the format, length and presentation of the document in detail. Together with the requirement, it will allow a precise definition of the finished product. In most cases a writer will be asked to write to a pre-existing spec, and to these we shall now turn for further developments.

A specification is a document prepared by an authority — industry, organization, or standards institution — as a basis for the production of technical literature. We have already considered in some detail the specification for technical manuals produced by the British Standards Institution, BS4884. The next step is to have a look at the rest of the field.

British Standards

BS4884 — This standard has already been covered.

BS5261 — Copy preparation and proof correction.
Part 1 (2000) Design and layout of documents.
Part 2 (1976 — work now in hand) Specification for typographic requirements, marks for copy preparation and proof correction, proofing procedure.
Part 3 (1989) Specification for marks for mathematical copy preparation and mathematical proof correction and their uses.
C (1976) Marks for copy preparation and proof correction.
BS EN ISO (1999) Technical drawings. Simplified representation of bars and profile sections.

Next: 16. The Outline Design.

This entry was posted on Thursday, May 11th, 2006 at 6:47 pm and is filed under Technical Writing, Publishing, TechBiz Writing, Documentation, Design. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.