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Earth as seen from the International Space Station (ISS)

Writing Resources and Style Guides

Key to writing success is the ability to organize a discussion in a logical, well-thought-out manner, one that conveys the desired message with clear language and accurate syntax. For this reason, many authors find themselves referencing various resources for writing, style and usage. With so many options available, it is difficult to know which resources are best.

The truth is that most highly rated industry standard resources on technical and scientific writing approaches—or on grammar and usage—should suffice.

The Agency-preferred style guide is

Style Manual: An Official Guide to the Form and Style of Federal Government Publications, 30th edition, Washington DC: United States Government Printing Office, 2016. A downloadable pdf is available at: https://www.govinfo.gov/gpo-style-manual launch .

Additional Resources

While NASA does not endorse any products, the author might include as desk references the GPO Style Manual partnered with the following, and a solid suite of resources for the researcher-writer are at hand:

Another great resource is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers ( https://ieee.org launch ), access to which is available to NASA employees and on-site contractors. The IEEEXplore Digital Library (( https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/Xplore/home.jsp launch ) includes numerous guidance options on how to prepare and present information. Two wonderful, albeit older, short articles of great value on clear writing are: