How to Write a Manual by Elizabeth Slatkin

Slatkin, Elizabeth. How to Write a Manual. Berkley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1991.

Even in an age of searchable, hypertext-enabled electronic documents, many of the manuals I’ve resorted to using are poorly organized, off-putting and unhelpful. When I have every expectation of technology making manuals better, I find them getting worse.

Apparently, the writers of these manuals have not read How to Write a Manual. Though references to computer technology and software are a little dated, as one might expect after 18 years, Elizabeth Slatkin’s directions for preparing a well-organized, user-friendly manual are still on the mark. Ironically, the book is geared somewhat to preparing software manuals, though is broad enough to apply to any kind of manual.

As you read the book, you get a sense that Slatkin used the very process she describes in preparing it. It is orderly, simple and easy to follow. It is aimed at a specific audience, people who need to write a manual, and focuses on the details most important to them. If you come from a background in publication production, you’ll find the book light on related material.

Slatkin incorporates project management into the approach. The author of a manual may be called upon to oversee the entire process of its production, so she provides enough information on this process to help someone maneuver it.

Planning is key to a successful manual. Slatkin gives a lot of attention to planning in the early chapters of the book and throughout references how planning lays the groundwork for succeeding steps. The book and its chapters are short, so it won’t take much time to reread the section on planning before starting work on a manual.


She also provides solid advice on technical writing. If someone is writing technical material that may be on a smaller scale than a manual, the chapters on good writing would be a useful reference to them.