Business and Technical Communication: An Annotated Guide to Sources, Skills, and Samples

Sandra E. Belanger, Susan Lee Kendall, Toby Leigh Matoush, and Yuhfen Diana Wu, compilers. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2005. [ISBN 0-313-30872-1. 321 pages, including indexes. $99.95 USD.]

Business and technical communication: An annotated guide to sources, skills, and samples, compiled by four librarians, points researchers toward helpful resources in technical and business communication. I confess I'm a bit awed by librarians. They see relationships, classifications, and niches that the rest of us miss; those talents are evident in the range of resources, both commonplace and unusual, that fill this book.

The two halves of Business and technical communication serve related purposes. In this review, I hope to do justice to its depth and breadth while previewing its organization and usefulness.

The compilers say that their first section is a "handbook for conducting research in business and technical communication" (ix). In fact, Business and technical communication doesn't answer "basic questions on correct grammar" but instead points readers toward "research tools ..., research resources ..., and information sources" (ix), most of which have been concisely annotated. Chapter 1, "Research guides," catalogs bibliographies, biographical sources, dictionaries, encyclopedias, directories, handbooks, and other standard references. Chapter 2, "Research resources," lists printed and online indexes, databases, and commercial and educational Web sites. The librarians have also reproduced 14 pages of pertinent Library of Congress subject headings and another 18 pages of relevant periodical titles. Chapter 3, "Information sources," inventories professional associations, government agencies, grammar hotlines, book publishers, and research institutes, often with Internet contact information.

Chapters 4, 5, and 6 list and annotate relevant books published between 1990 and 2004. The 259 books listed in Chapter 4, "Communication skills," are classified into seven categories, including editing and revising, style, writing skills, and writing systems. Chapter 5, "Written communication," includes 315 books in 23 categories ranging from annual reports and business plans through memorandums, mission statements, sales scripts, and surveys. Chapter 7, "Oral communication," highlights 165 books in nine categories, including etiquette, interviewing, listening, reference checking, and telephone skills.

We would expect librarians to write a usable volume filled with well-organized facts and leads, and they have. The table of contents lists each chapter's categories, and 70 pages are devoted to name, title, and subject indexes.

Nevertheless, I cannot recommend purchasing this book. I appreciated the detailed research that went into its development, but this type of information is best located on a Web site, where it can be frequently checked and updated. The second part of the book, containing the book lists, is especially problematic. It is not a definitive list of essential works for technical communication libraries. The books are too wide-ranging and uneven in usefulness. Nearly 20 percent (about 125 books) lack annotations. Moreover, many listings are redundant: the book lists three editions of John Lannon's best-selling textbook. Early 1990s resume handbooks cannot address recent changes in the job search process, nor can handbooks from that era incorporate current theories or technological innovations that affect writing and publishing today.

The book is a good idea, but perhaps one executed in the wrong format. I will offer my copy to my university library, and if they can't use it, I will place it on the bookshelf in our student technical communication computer center.

KARLA SAARI KITALONG is a senior member of STC's Orlando chapter. She teaches technical communication, visual communication, and usability studies at the University of Central Florida in Orlando.