Describing the emergence of the first shipbuilding texts, particularly those in English provides another chapter in the story of the emergence of English technical writing. Shipwrightery texts did not appear in English until the middle decades of the seventeenth century because shipwrightery was a closed discourse community which shared knowledge…

Presents a colloquium in which five scholars examine issues facing researchers in the history of business communication: how to identify topics and research questions; where to find archival and published sources; how to interpret texts and set them in context; special problems to overcome in historical research; and what work needs to be done.…

States that advanced technology, cost control concerns, and worldwide expansion in distance education programs challenge technical communication teachers to find ways of delivering quality technical writing courses by distance. Describes a distance platform at Texas A&M. Sees examining, applying, and testing existing distance theory in…