The author has taught a distance education version of the undergraduate technical communication service course at Boise State University since 1997 and shares the strategies he has found to decrease the time instructors spend teaching online, thereby enabling them to use the time they do have to enhance their students' online experience. These…

The first part of this article shows that research in the history of technical communication has increased in quantity and sophistication over the last 20 years. Scholarship that describes how to teach with that information, however, has not followed, even though teaching the history of the field is a need recognized by several scholars. The…

Response to smoking cessation treatment programs sharply decreases when applied to smokers with psychiatric comorbidities. Consequently, the development of smoking cessation treatments that address the needs of psychiatric patients is greatly needed. The primary purpose of this article is to detail the process of development of an empirically…

Sooner or later, every educator hears the following plea from a current or former student: "Will you write a letter of recommendation for me?" Usually, the student is seeking employment or applying to a college or university for additional education. Many times instructors--taken off guard and unprepared for these requests--find themselves staring…

Instructions are an essential communication component of organizations, but even advanced students seldom admit any shortcomings in direction-writing. Whether printed material for customers on how to use a product (construct the children's play set, connect a DVD player to a home entertainment center, or program a car radio's stations), formal job…

To help alleviate issues of free-riding and conflicts in team projects, this study proposes the systematic incorporation of project management methods to introduce a process-oriented approach to and a critical praxis in team projects. We examined how the systematic use of project management methods influenced students' performance in team…

This pilot study obtained baseline information on verbal and visual rhetorics to teach microscopy techniques to college biology majors. We presented cell images to students in cell biology and biology writing classes and then asked them to identify textual, verbal, and visual cues that support microscopy learning. Survey responses suggest that…

A case study questioned essentialist feminist assumptions about the marginalization of females in technical writing courses. A student team composed of a female (Jane, the team leader) and three males enrolled in an advanced writing course required of juniors and seniors majoring in the applied sciences to investigate solutions to the student…

Written for Canadian public servants and written with their help, this handbook presents principles and tips to make official writing clear, concise, and well organized. The handbook defines "plain language" writing as a technique of organizing information in ways that make sense to the reader--using familiar, straightforward words. The…

This proceedings contains papers presented at the sixth annual conference of the Assembly for the Teaching of English Grammar. Papers in the proceedings are: "The Politics of Grammar" (Sabah A. Salih); "(Still) Trying to Find an Answer to the Problem of 'Error' in Writing" (William McCleary); "Grammar and Literacy:…

Focusing on what quality "is" in technical and scientific communication programs, the papers in this proceedings are divided into five sections: Quality in Programs; Quality in Administrators; Quality in Teachers; Quality in Students; and Quality in Graduates. Papers in the proceedings are: "The Proof Is in the Pudding: Evaluating…

The business world now offers careers for writers in internal/external communications and technical documentation. Although some people work in both areas, most writers will choose one or the other, depending upon their backgrounds, skills, and interests. Technical writers may write detailed instructions for installing, assembling, testing,…

Describes three metallurgical engineering courses taught by both an English instructor and an engineering instructor, and in which students earn both English and engineering credit. Required reports and case histories are used to teach English as an integral part of the course. Includes suggestions for improving technical writing. (MLH)

The efforts of the Austin (Texas) Public School District to improve the readability and usefulness of technical reports are reviewed. Coincident with, or consequent to, a 1977 letter by W. E. Jones to the editor of an Austin paper (the "Austin American Statesman") complaining about excessively lengthy (500-page) evaluation reports, the…

Legal language is discussed in the context of concern about the comprehensibility of consumer documents and the trend toward simplification of the language used in these documents. Specific features of legal language and its functions within the legal community and society are identified. As a primary tool of the legal profession, legal language…