Discusses ways to make the professional consulting experience successful and to understand an organization's communication problems. States that consultants should be aware of how the organization's culture may affect its members' communication practices, and should learn to read various signs of organizational culture. Emphasizes that effective…

Reviews: (1) ways in which researchers have used the term "professional communication"; (2) democratic and knowledge-based contradictions between rhetorical scholarship and professional powers; and (3) current challenges facing professional workers. Argues that if professional communication research and teaching are to remain prominent…

Provides an overview of hypertext for instructors of business and technical communication. Discusses hypertext's definition, uses, advantages, terminology, theoretical bases, essential structure, and associated problems. Notes instructor behaviors that encourage use of hypertext. (SR)

Proposes a postmodern reconceptualization of technical communication pedagogy to make student and professional agency a major concern, especially because technical communicators must compete in a global economy that rewards flexibility and penalizes inflexibility. Uses postmodern mapping metaphors and Robert Reich's methodology for training…

Undertakes to build on a knowledge base and articulate issues involving ITexts (information technologies with texts at their core). Reviews existing foundations for a research program in IText and then scopes out issues for research over the next five to seven years. Directs particular attention to the evolving character of ITexts and to their…

Identifies several typical, but not predictable, organizational problems that involve technical communicators. Presents them in a how-to, anecdotal fashion that focuses on actual experience in the workplace. (SR)

Argues that technical communication courses, particularly introductory courses in technical writing, must include a translation component if they are to prepare students for the kind of work they are now likely to encounter as technical communicators. Suggests the time is ripe for changing the curriculum so that students receive instruction in how…

Describes elements in a teacher-training program for graduate assistants teaching business and technical writing at Miami University in Ohio, including preparatory seminars, apprentice-teaching with mentoring by master teachers, and supportive evaluation. Notes that these strategies can be adapted to other programs in which graduate students teach…

Discusses the history of business and technical writing based on a survey of over 200 articles and books grouped into 13 categories according to historical period (from ancient times through the twentieth century). Presents suggestions for further research. (NH)

Presents an overview of the shift from handwritten to typewritten to laser-printed text, examining three areas central to this development: the development of visual rhetoric, the rediscovery of aesthetics, and the use of empirical research. (NH)

Discusses ethnographic studies in business and technical writing, noting that ethnography comprises four essential, overlapping contexts: the phenomenal context, the site's cultural context, the research community context, and the researcher's interior context. Claims ethnographic accounts should balance the input of each of these areas rather…

Considers the process of translation in the framework of the postmodern debate about language and reality as well as the economic, cultural, and social phenomena that have transformed the communication landscape during the past 50 years. Suggests students would become better professional communicators if they spent more time reading, especially…

Explains the work for hire doctrine and describes the circumstances under which it has been applied in academic workplaces. Enables readers to recognize and understand the legal concepts surrounding work for hire. Explicates related case law and suggests treatment of work for hire by instructors and administrators in rhetoric and technical…

Describes the importance of annotation to reading and writing practices and reviews new technologies that complicate the ways annotation can be used to support and enhance traditional reading, writing, and collaboration processes. Emphasizes issues and methods that will be productive for enhancing theories of workplace and classroom communication…

Explores three ways to design cross-cultural studies to be more valid and ethical: (1) intercultural researchers need to distinguish broad rhetorical and cultural patterns from regional, organizational, and personal patterns; (2) United States researchers need to distinguish differences in rhetorical patterns in a form of communication and ways…