Occasionally, it's nice to be wrong. I opened this book reluctantly, fearing that it might be one of those collections by which a profession self-consciously asserts its coming of age and academic legitimacy. What I found instead was one of the best (i.e., stimulating) collections of essays about technical and scientific communication to appear so far.

For some of us, the chore of writing about our research activities is about as exciting as cleaning out the garage or attic; it is an anticlimactic journey into the past, filled with difficult decisions. Thus, any new tool that might make the job easier deserves careful attention. Herbert Michaelson's How to write and publish engineering papers and reports may not convince engineers that report writing should be their favorite sport, but it will help them produce and publish effective manuscripts. That's no small accomplishment.