Discusses the development of academic programs in technical communication and examines how entrance requirements to master's programs have implications for technical communication as a profession. (SR)

Describes the author's experience of recuperating from a broken arm. Discusses management issues in technical communication for managing people with temporary or permanent disabilities. (SR)

Presents a procedure to compose or evaluate structurally sound text, encompassing inclusiveness, exclusiveness, hierarchy, sequence, and language. Offers guidelines for making text structure visible to the reader with headings, format, signals, reminders, and effective paragraphing. (SR)

Describes an assignment in an undergraduate technical writing class in which students establish a mini-internship with an off-campus employer and complete a major writing task that will meet the needs of the employer. Discusses typical projects, monitoring the projects, feedback from supervisors, handling occasional problems, and benefits of the…

Discusses ways an editor can cut out words to help the reader understand quickly. Discusses dead wood, redundancy, redundancy in thought, smothered verbs, false precision, editing and academia, and making copy smoother. (SR)

A critique of an article series in "Public Administration Review" challenges assumptions about the nature of social science research and scientific writing style, criteria by which article authors judged public administration research. The critique concludes that public administration research does address core issues in the field. (SK)

Explores William Harvey's work, "On the Motion of the Heart and Blood in Animals." Highlights Harvey's fear of publication and his strategies for reducing resistance to his ideas. Underscores his use of circular references, metaphors, and organizational techniques that enhance and demonstrate his underlying thesis. (SG)

Discusses critiques by prospective employers of communication students' traditional resumes and application letters. Describes characteristics of nontraditional application letters and resumes based on their comments. (PRA)

Compares the time required to perform four tasks on the basis of information gleaned from a traditional manual and from a hypertext version of the same manual. Finds that searches in the paper document were significantly faster than those in hypertext. Suggests that direct importation of existing word-processing files into hypertext format is not…

Identifies how researchers have defined active learning, and synthesizes current findings on the instructional designs that facilitate hands-on problem solving. Proposes three additional areas of inquiry into the instructional needs of active learners. (SR)

Analyzes the document review process in organizations as described in the literature and describes 1 real-life case at the General Accounting Office in which 20 drafts are written and 9 people review them a total of 31 times. Discusses additional research needed to prepare students for this process. (SR)

Asserts that most technical writing textbooks are artificial as they do not force students to deal with writing problems in the same way as in the workplace. Maintains that technical writing instructors can provide their students with realistic writing alternatives. Discusses realistic alternatives for writing instruction and definitions. (PRA)

Describes techniques, based on four of the journalistic prompts (what, where, why, and how), that can help writers create contexts for their readers, thereby improving readers' comprehension and enlisting them in the creation of the discourse. (SR)

Describes the development of, and examines the assumptions behind, Frank Aydelotte's 1917 theory and pedagogy of technical writing, called the "thought movement," in which engineering students were required to think and write about issues important to their education and future careers. (SR)

Documents the increased interest about collaboration in technical communication, identifies and categorizes research topics, notes an increasing interest in balancing quantitative and qualitative approaches, and poses a continuum as a way of organizing and characterizing research about collaboration in technical communication. Situates the…