The use of generative artificial intelligence (GAI) large language models has increased in both professional and classroom technical writing settings. One common response to student use of GAI is to increase surveillance, incorporating plagiarism detection services or banning certain composing activities from the classroom. This paper argues such…

Leaders of higher education institutions can create top management teams of academic administrators to guide and improve their organizations. This study illustrates how the leadership of top management teams can be accomplished successfully through a combination of goal setting (Doran, 1981; Locke & Latham, 1990), understanding of team roles…

The 13th iteration of the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2020) was originally arranged to take place in Ifrane, Morocco. Due to the SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) epidemic, EDM 2020, as well as most other academic conferences in 2020, had to be changed to a purely online format. To facilitate efficient transmission of…

Describes the importance of metaphors in technical writing. Presents an explanation of metaphor from G. Lakoff and M. Johnson's "Metaphors We Live By." (SR)

Points out that most technical communication groups within larger organizations are considered support organizations. Argues that, by moving from the support model to a services model based on entrepreneurial ideas, these groups are better able to place value on the work they produce by setting themselves up as development groups to pitch bids and…

Explores how the eminent scientist George Washington Carver applied his "voice" to technical documents that needed to be persuasive and readable. (SR)

Demonstrates a model business-report format that can be used in business classes other than business report writing. (RL)

Presents an overview of principles and heuristics for designing minimalist instruction, with examples and theoretical or empirical arguments. Provides a starting point from which to create minimalist instruction to suit a variety of uses. (SR)

Shows how accident reports in a large government agency fail to account for the multidimensional nature of accidents in tightly coupled technologies. Proposes a three-dimensional model of accident analysis to illustrate how underlying models of causality influence the structure of technical reports and the nature of the argument over…

Offers a model of the elements and disciplines that contribute to the field of technical communication, and develops from the model a framework for a taxonomy that recognizes differing names for parallel processes. (SR)

Discusses four levels of awareness (from simple letter substitution to cross-cultural transfer of technology) in how product developers view producing national language versions of their products. (SR)

Although many dimensions of multimedia are already familiar to technical communicators and educators, producing documents with this technology requires a complete reconceptualization of the communication process. One major obstacle to developing a multimedia rhetoric is the power that print technology holds over people's ideas concerning formal or…

Based on the theme of assessment, this proceedings presents papers and discussions from the annual meeting of the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC). Three papers in the proceedings discussing curricula are: "Model(s) for Educating Professional Communicators" (Marilyn M. Cooper); "Summary of…

Defines elucidation as writing to teach and inform "all" about a complex sequence or process so that even a novice can complete the process without problems. Provides a model for writing description/instruction, using elucidation in the introduction, conclusion, and body of the essay. (HTH)

Describes a new pedagogical model in the teaching of technical writing based on "technical writing as enculturation." Examines this model's relationship to the workaday world and its roots in classical, especially Ciceronian, rhetoric. Argues that this model's roots in both the modern and classical world enhances its usefulness. (HB)