FORWARD
Writing is an art. Written communication
depends on it. When written communication was long hand, it was not an easy task
and demanded apprenticeship. The effect of unskillful writing is either that
one writes what he did not mean or meant what he did not write. Indeed, writing
is an art with few masters when judged from the point of view of content, organization, expression or mechanics.
The
situation has grown worse with the advent of information and
communication has turned the world into a global village. The computer has, with
its robotic intelligence, made exercising one’s intelligence a tortuous
exercise. Few have the patience to indulge in thinking inwardly, reducing it to
writing and subjecting it to peer review. The result is that the children write
in badly thought-out horrifying abbreviations, acronyms and neologisms that are
obscure and incomprehensible. The after-effect is that they can neither learn
to write well, write skillfully, nor present their thought in acceptable formal
style.
A text on the rubrics of writing for
different occasion is therefore needed to take the writer especially the
candidate-writer preparing for examinations, applying for job or doing
technical report on the job and teach the nuances of so doing. Technical Report Writing, I
believe, could not have come at a better
time than this. The topics are many and varied; the language is simple and
readable; the technics are vividly laid out and the differences between the
styles of writing for occasions are skillfully outlined that they are obvious.
I therefore recommend it to the general
reading public but most especially to the candidates preparing for
examinations, on the job reports and who desire to imbibe the art of technical writing and escape from the alliteracy
associated with the computer assisted intelligence.
B.M. Mbah, Ph.D, M.A., LL.B (Hons), B.A. (Hons.), B.A.
(Hons.) [Nig], PGDE [Jos], B.L. (Kano)
University of Nigeria, Nsukka
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Dedication
Preface
Forward
Acknowledgement
Table of contents
Chapter One
Letter writing
Chapter two
Technical Report
Chapter Three
Use of Library
Chapter Four
Comprehension and Interpretation
Chaptrr Five
Precis and Summary
Chapter Six
Literature