Explores intercultural communication in one multinational organization in Quito, Ecuador where United States and South American personnel developed documentation and instructional texts. Finds that communication of South Americans was usually oral, contextual, concrete, personal, and narrative; and that of U.S. personnel was written, acontextual,…

Describes conditions observed when North American technical communicators visited China, discovering the technical-communications field at its earliest stages. Asserts that the windows of opportunity are open in China for technical communicators and technical communication teachers to establish ongoing business, cultural, and professional…

Discusses how teachers can support students in primary grades by establishing an environment that is conducive to inquiry and by helping children develop basic research skills. Highlights procedures for teaching students how to write informational reports, and describes how the procedures were applied in a third-grade and a first-grade class. (KB)

States that service learning educates students to volunteer their expertise for the benefit of society. Suggests that teachers of business and technical writing can apply this pedagogy by assigning students to write for nonprofits. Describes service learning's origins; proposes a rationale for it; explains sequential projects and teaching methods…

Describes a course in international business writing that has been taught simultaneously since 1994 at institutions in Belgium, Finland, and the United States. Describes the course's three components: instruction; simulation, in which students exchange business documents internationally; and case studies of business people who communicate…

Describes how the clinical early intervention assessment report (CAR) can be used as a tool to promote family-centered practice. Strategies and examples for incorporating a family perspective into the CAR are presented, along with suggestions for using family-friendly terminology. An example of a rewritten CAR is provided. (Author/CR)

Argues for the long-term values of client-based group projects (lasting five to six weeks) in an introductory technical communication course. Presents survey results from 73 former technical communication students with two to seven years of workplace experience. Concludes these projects reinforce research, analysis, and reporting skills, such as…

Examines General Beauregard's inability to communicate in his report of the First Battle of Bull Run. Suggests that Beauregard's success on the battlefield came from the initiative of his junior officers. Concludes that Beauregard failed to consider political ramifications of certain statements in his report, offending President Davis and leading…

Outlines educational needs and new ways in which the Society for Technical Communication can take an active role in helping to meet them. Outlines education's need to prepare people to function in a learning society; to manage research enterprises that enhance competitiveness; and to support educational programs that merit public trust. (SR)

Describes a series of exercises designed to help students of technical writing to see the virtues of revision. Suggests that students may learn from finding sections of their own textbooks that they can revise both linguistically and graphically. (TB)

This article offers some guidance to clinicians faced with the responsibility of preparing reports documenting learning disabilities of students or workers and necessary accommodations. Basic assumptions that underlie documentation, components of reports documenting learning disabilities, and cautions that should guide the preparation of such…

Argues for the use of autobiography paired with radical doubt as a strategy to arrive at intersubjectivity, thereby avoiding false claims to objectivity and failure-prone inner (hyper) subjectivity. Uses this argument to introduce the contributions to the special thematic journal issue of which this paper is a part. (Contains 24 references.)…

Surveys doctoral research in technical, scientific, and business communication from 1989-1998. Finds a robust theoretical, historical, and practical scholarly production of knowledge occurring across a broad range of departments and institutions. Identifies what academic institutions sponsor such research, and what methods researchers employ.…

Makes the case for the claim that internships in nonprofits often can provide many of the same transitional benefits as internships in industry plus provides practical guidance for professors who oversee internships for business and professional communication students. (SC)

Measures of research self-efficacy have the potential to facilitate graduate training and mentoring, but the hypothesized factor structures of these measures have not been confirmed empirically. Moreover, the underlying dimensions of research self-efficacy across multiple measures are unknown. Graduate students in psychology programs (N = 1,004)…