Examines issues involved in merging training and documentation departments in organizations, and emphasizes the need for leadership, patience, customer involvement through joint field studies, and strategic planning. Discusses the traditional separation of training and publications, personality differences between trainers and writers, problems…

Proposes a four-level model for adapting the Kirkpatrick model of training evaluation to suit technical manuals and services assessing: (1) user satisfaction; (2) user performance; (3) client performance; and (4) client satisfaction. Discusses assessing of the value of work, limitations in evaluating technical communication products, and the…

Examines how writers used the World Wide Web to create and change documents, and how changing documentation challenged the production models and processes at a supercomputing company. (RS)

Describes how reference-based instruction can be incorporated into an instructional system design. Provides specific examples of learning objectives and student exercises. Defines reference-based instruction and outlines its benefits. Lists guidelines for how to structure usability tests for Help systems. Advises how technical communicators can…

Focuses on writers' strategies in establishing and explaining the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) for the benefit of practitioners and researchers who would later treat and investigate the problem. Uses an analysis of the introductions, patient histories, and discussions in these reports to argue that establishing and explaining AIDS…

Suggests how to stimulate interest in and support for a program in technical communication. Focuses on generating the publicity and contacts needed to get students and local industry involved in such a program. Maintains that encouraging professionalism among students promotes program growth, high standards, and high visibility. (SR)

Examines fundamental rhetorical constructs that students and business professionals should consider when analyzing textual and financial information contained in corporations' annual reports. Discusses how students in business communication classes evaluate the rhetorical effectiveness of specific annual reports, as well as the ethics associated…

Explores the use of journals as teaching tools. Finds modifications are necessary to accommodate the differences between the psychology professor's goals and the composition teacher's goals. Recommends using dialectical reasoning entries and lists some practical methods to encourage students to think critically. (NL)

Describes the problem-solving approach implemented in the University of Manitoba's first-year technical communication course. Considers technical writing as a process which can be broken down into steps: classify, analyze, test, and solve. Explains that this process offers students the methodology and flexibility they need to solve either…

Proposes 10 hypothetical "mini-cases," and calls upon upperclass technical writing students either to select from 1 of 4 given responses or to devise their own. Explains that, after choosing answers, students collaborate to devise the best answers, then talk about their solutions in open class discussion. Provides suggested answers. (SG)

Outlines features of new-venture, or entrepreneurial, management, and discusses how this type of management complements the oral, interpersonal, and written requirements of a communication class. Presents a detailed unit using this approach in a technical communication class. (SG)

Explores the need for technical writing instruction for English majors. Reports that English majors entering M.B.A. programs felt unprepared for technical writing and business communication. Argues that technical writing instruction would broaden preservice English teachers' discourse education and their knowledge of the kinds of writing people do…

Studies the visual markers which students employ in writing descriptive and instructional text. Applies the guidelines approach, design decisions approach, and the information/reader model approach. Reports that beginning technical writing majors used fewer illustrations and visual markers than did technical majors. Suggests that the results may…

Presents major findings from two survey studies which gathered data about technical communication courses and teachers in two-year colleges. Includes descriptions of courses, curriculum logistics, course content, demographic characteristics of teachers' qualifications, work load and salary, and professional application of technical communication.…

Reports survey results on the major factors or stressors related to teaching business and professional writing and the actual or potential coping strategies to reduce that stress. (SR)