Book excerpt: This book provides the reader with knowledge needed to understand and apply the symbols and documents used to define a modern industrial instrumentation and control system. The documents that describe modern industrial processes, like most technical work, assume some level of understanding on the readers part. The documents use a schematic, symbol-based language that may resemble Mayan hieroglyphics to those unfamiliar with the process nomenclature. The symbols, however, include a wealth of information once you are able to translate them. This book will train you to read, understand, and apply the symbols and documents used to define a modern industrial instrumentation and control system. For more experienced professionals, insights into using the symbols and documents more effectively are provided. Variations in the use of symbols and documents are given as well as the pitfalls to avoid. To better understand process documentation today, insight into how and when documents are developed, who develops them, why they are developed, and how they are used is provided. The types of documents discussed include process flow diagrams, piping and instrumentation drawings, instrument lists, specification forms, logic diagrams, installation details, location plans, and loop diagrams.