Details the "technical documentation process," a basic five-step process for managing technical documentation projects: assessment, analysis, design, development, and validation. (SR)

Presents an approach to document numbering, document titling, and process measurement which, when used with fundamental techniques of statistical process control, reveals meaningful process-element variation as well as nominal productivity models. (SR)

Argues that scientific style manuals provide much sound advice, but also pass along advice at odds with recently published literature regarding how scientists actually conduct research and write up their findings. Presents a revised model for the scientific article based on information in recently published research on communication in science.…

Examines the concept of intellectual development, focusing on how differences in writing reflect different developmental models, such as those developed by Piaget and Vygotsky. Discusses the consequences of developmental models on theories of composition and the function of narrative. (MM)

Argues that comparing developments in the process approach to writing and the design methods movement sheds light on the evolution and future direction of the writing paradigm. Argues that sensitivity to the variety of writing tasks and social contexts is more effective than a single amorphous model. (RS)

Discusses how the professional writer's approach to writing has influenced current thinking about writing processes. Examines how projects like the Somerset/Wiltshire "Write to Learn" have altered writing attitudes. Provides a list of booklets in the "Write to Learn" Project. (MM)

Proposes a model which connects the acts of reading and writing in three cyclical components: the forming cycle, the coding cycle, and the reviewing cycle. Explains in each interlock of the cycles are the subprocesses generating, organizing, and editing. Notes that the sensor is centered where all three prime processes overlap, serving to…

Discusses the development of a pragmatic model of the writing process in the workplace, focusing on the importance of "drafting" as part of that process. Discusses writers' attitudes about drafting and the structures of the workplace that drafting has to accommodate. Introduces a drafting model and discusses results of using this model…

Maintains that an understanding of software development models gives insight into the problems of writers and the teaching of technical communication. Focuses on analogies between the two processes and domains, and suggests concrete ways for writers to proceed beyond analysis. (SR)

Discusses a process to guide technical writers engaged in writing a script for a video production on a technical subject. Offers an example of the development of such a script from a video demonstrating a surgical procedure. (SR)

Responds to Myra Kogen's article, "The Conventions of Expository Writing" (JBW; v5 n1). Discusses several misunderstandings about models of intellectual development. Argues that developmental schemes are useful when interpreted cautiously, but risky if used to classify a student's intellectual development. (MM)

Both evaluators and storytellers pull together the events they hear and see; they create unified, coherent entities out of the parts they gather. This guide considers two levels at which the understanding of the nature and methods of narrative writing, or storytelling, can be of use to the evaluator. The highest level is to use the notion of…

Intended for composition teachers who see "editor/writer" conferences as the ideal teaching strategy, this booklet offers a procedure for training tutors--staff or students--to respond skillfully to a writer's work in a one-to-one context. The first half of the booklet discusses theory and research regarding the tutorial process and some…

This paper presents a model for teaching written language to hearing-impaired students, emphasizing a high degree of student involvement with planning, revising, and rewriting as well as transcribing. Recommendations are made regarding direct instruction in necessary writing skills, including fluency, syntax, vocabulary, content, and conventions.…

The process of getting a thought out of the mind and onto paper can be divided into five major categories: (1) discovering the word, (2) excavating the mythic word from the subconscious, (3) perceiving the word in the conscious, (4) verbalizing the expressed word, and (5) comprehending the unsaid word. When humans experience anything, their minds…