We evaluate the use of a Virtual Exchange (VE) writing task, Stimulus Writing, which we assigned to groups of UK and Finnish business students. There were two learner cohorts in the study: one in the UK (mainly Chinese students), the other in Finland (mainly Finns). The Finnish students wrote authentic case studies about Nordic businesses, while…

Writing and Rhetoric 3326: Legal Writing is an introduction to legal analysis and writing. It is offered at St. Edward's University in Austin, Texas, a Holy Cross liberal arts university of approximately 4,300 students, mostly undergraduates. This course focuses on applied rhetoric, and is designed to give undergraduate students experience in…

If students are to accurately model how scientists use written communication, they must be given opportunities to use creative means to describe science in the classroom. Scientists often integrate pictures, diagrams, charts, and other modes within text and students should also be encouraged to use multiple modes of communication. This article…

Employers of computing graduates have high expectations of graduates in terms of soft skills, the most desirable of these being communication skills. Not only must the graduates exhibit writing skills, but they are expected to be highly proficient therein. The consequence of this expectation is not only performance pressure exerted on the…

We introduced writing activities into a project style third year undergraduate biomolecular science laboratory to assist the students to produce a final report in the form of a journal article. To encourage writing while the experimental work was proceeding, the embedded writing activities required ongoing analysis of experimental data. After…

While formats and conventions of scientific and technical writing vary from field to field, the transcendent requirement is precision, so that the work can be understood and, if necessary, reproduced. Science teachers undoubtedly tell students about the importance of precision in collecting data and analyzing results; what is less commonly…

The right course in report writing improves trainees' writing quickly. With good assignments at its heart, it provides trainees repeated opportunities to write successfully, bringing their own language resources into conscious awareness. Not an academic subject, writing is a form of behavior. Five criteria for effective writing assignments are…

Describes the characteristics of legalese--inflated and obscure legal language--and suggests strategies for helping present and future document designers create understandable prose. (MM)

Describes the use of cases in technical writing and ancient exercises of impersonation and "suasoria." Discusses similarities between the two, and argues that the historical tradition both validates and broadens the uses of this modern methodology. (RS)

Discusses a method that reinforces and monitors "correct" writing and editing, reviews the rhetoric for "effective" writing, and demonstrates how specific technical writing tasks fit into an engineer's everyday writing. An example of a technical writing task used in sophomore engineering classes is included. (JN)

Describes a writing exercise in law enforcement report writing--writing a report based on a crime photograph--and discusses 10 writing problems revealed by this exercise. (RL)

This paper examines technical writing at the high school level and suggests methods of teaching technical writing to students. Such topics are discussed as demonstration, mechanism description, causal analysis, detail, spatial order, and chronological order. It is argued that writing about objects can sharpen a writer's powers of observation and…

Suggests having students write letters of inquiry to companies as a practical way to research a specific area and then write for a specific audience. Argues the benefits of this assignment, such as increased student motivation when writing for a real audience rather than a teacher. (SRT)

Recounts the rationale and design of an ongoing attempt to use sentence-combining as a basic component of an effective instructional technology and to integrate that technology into a course in technical exposition. (TJ)

Describes how creating "mythical machines" can develop students' technical writing skills. Describes how students work in groups to produce documents for various purposes related to their machine. (MM)