Discusses the process of writing usable instructions, relying on organization, formatting, and visual displays to aid comprehension. (JAD)

Establishes a practical model of the document-development process for writers in nonacademic settings. Pulls together and builds from recent research about writers and writing in the workplace. Reveals the process to contain both linear and recursive elements. Asserts that writers must be involved early in the process. (SR)

Reports highlights from the first phase of a long-range study into the nature of the rhetorical principle "cover-your-ass" in technical communication. (SR)

Presents technical communication as both discipline and profession. Explores the nature of research, discusses linking theory with practice, examines the gap between theory and practice, challenges conventional wisdom about the applicability of research, and offers suggestions for bridging the gap. (SR)

Asserts that qualitative research is undervalued and cites evidence of its value, presents a definition of it, discusses how to evaluate the quality of a study, and suggests when and how qualitative findings can be applied to actual situations. Concludes with examples of two actual qualitative studies and two hypothetical situations where the…

Introduces the process of survey research, focusing specifically on the questionnaire method. Lists and discusses eight essential steps in the process, reviews the relevant literature, and ends with the hope that readers will become better consumers of research and possibly researchers themselves. (SR)

Reviews the research literature to show that academics and practicing editors do not share the same view of the editing process: academics emphasize "intentional diagnoses," and practitioners perform "rule-based" editing. Discusses editing in the workplace, and notes that the editor can be of most service to the writer through involvement in the…

Examines the attitudes toward, and uses of, published research of a large random sample of technical communication practitioners. Shows that they value and use research but do not read academic research studies. Analyzes differences among various subgroups of practitioners. (SR)

Explains the use of true experimental designs in technical communication research, lists the eight steps in the research process, and concludes with the hope that practitioners should now be able to read research studies critically and perhaps design empirical studies of their own after further reading. (SR)

Finds that both experienced scientists and college students found it difficult to carry out intellectual teamwork involving collaboratively authored documents without the interactivity and expressiveness permitted by face-to-face communication. (SR)

Investigates how college students in an upper-division professional writing course respond to user input at the draft stage of writing computer documentation. Finds that writers perceive user input in different ways and suggests that draft-stage user testing produces better documentation. (PRA)

Summarizes the results of searches of two databases containing abstracts of doctoral dissertations in technical communication. Analyzes those studies, offers suggestions for future research, lists institutions conducting doctoral research, identifies researchers' methods, and summarizes the topics they examine. (SR)

Shows that organizational metaphors have a significant effect on the way writers think about readers and compose written reports. (SR)

Describes how recent research in industry and academia on collaborative writing has redefined authorship, documented writing experiences, developed models, and established guidelines for successful collaboration that include attention to both writing processes and group processes. (SR)

Describe the specifically literary nature of engineering design and discusses preliminary evidence concerning how students of design engineering manage their literacy practice. (SR)