Clarity in Technical Reporting (NASA SP-7010, 1964)
A worthy document still, some sixty years onward.
https://archive.org/details/ost-technical-writing-19640016507/mode/2up
"FOREWORD
With the sharp increase in recent years of the volume of technical reports in aerospace fields, it has become even more important for report authors to present their material clearly and concisely. This booklet, which offers commonsense suggestions for improving written and oral reports, is designed not only for prospective writers within the National Aeronautics and Space Administration but also for scientists and engineers among the agency's contractors who must report the results of their research.
The history of this booklet is that of a publication that did not set out to be one, but that has been virtually forced into print by the demand of would-be readers. For a number of years prior to and since the initial printing, the author, a busy scientist at the Langley Research Center, has acted as counselor to fresh-out-of-college youngsters coming to work at the Center — guiding these inexperienced authors in the art of writing technical reports that measure up to Langley's exacting standards. In 1955, Dr. Katzoff, convinced of a widespread need for practical pointers on technical writing, put some of his thoughts on the subject on paper. Typed and duplicated in small numbers, this highly informal document was classed as a Langley internal paper.
But publications, notably the best ones, have a life of their own quite separate from the intentions of their authors. Soon "Clarity in Technical Reporting^ began to earn a word-of-mouth reputation as a small classic. Several times copies became scarce, and were run off in small amounts, and became scarce once more. Meantime Langley, acting as a kind of seedbed for its rapidly expanding parent agency, sent many of its alumni to other NASA Research Centers, and thus treasured personal copies were carried to other locations, there to repeat similar cycles of modest reproduction and scarcity.
When this curious spread of an elderly informal document was discovered, this Division concluded that so prized and useful a paper merited better treatment. In fairness to its author, now Senior Staff Scientist of the Langley Research Center, one should note that he had no intention of appearing in print as an authority on technical writing. Instead, this booklet should be read as what it is : counsel for those who may wish it from a man who has read — and written — many technical papers.
Melvin S. Day, Director Scientific and Technical Information Division”
Few people and few organizations still write this way, though.
#technicalwriting #NASA #NASAhistory #techwriting
