Argues that absentee coaching is a successful instructional method to improve journalism students' writing because it provides specific feedback, writers maintain control, it builds writers' confidence, and it develops reader awareness. Discusses putting it into practice, coaching and grading, and the advantages of coaching. (SR)

Gives sound advice on how to turn the disappointment of having a manuscript rejected into a growth experience. (JOW)

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)

Discusses briefly some ways professional writers create fine titles, using allusions, puns, rhyme, alliteration, and paradox. (SR)

Discusses how too much caution can lead authors to simple verbosity or to the overgeneralization of simple concepts. (SR)

Discusses a proposal's executive summary: its purpose, how long it should be, what should be in it, when it should be started, who should write it, and how it should be reviewed. (SR)

Reconsiders the modern classic "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" by Robert Pirsig. Discusses three issues from the book that speak to the technical writer in particular: finding the proper perspective, using metaphoric writing, and avoiding gumption traps. (SR)

Describes the difficulties in assessing writing improvement in high school students based on national reports. Discovers that students' fluency, their use of dialogue, and their ease in moving between the abstract and the concrete is increasing. Suggests the resources of the National Assessment of Educational Progress might yield the information…

Tips for writing more effective case studies are (1) writing them in the form of a story; (2) giving the characters names; (3) using dialogue and realistic details; (4) describing vividly; (5) making the flow easy to follow; and (6) giving all necessary information but leaving enough mystery to maintain interest. (SK)

Notes that reader analysis is essential in writing technical documents. Reviews several ways to analyze readers, and groups the ways into three manageable categories: demographic, organization, and psychological approaches. (SR)

Provides advice for technical communicators about using statistical terms. (SR)

Describes several ways that a good marketing message conveys benefits to the reader and differentiates the product from its competition. (SR)

Argues that there should be a place in English classrooms for the teaching of style in writing. (SR)

In a writing-intensive course, 54 nursing students wrote professional letters and a professional-issues paper. In precourse self-evaluations, 42% rated their writing skills poor/fair; afterward only 14% did. Helpful strategies included stylistic coaching, multiple drafts, and rapid positive feedback. (SK)

Supplements existing rhetorical scholarship by returning to the notion of invention as general preparation of the communicator. Explores the need for invention in technical communication and summarizes Kenneth Burke's theories of dialectic and rhetoric. Presents strategies for invention, and offers advice for incorporating them into teaching…