This book introduces scientists, health professionals, and engineers to principles of communicating with the public and to practical aspects of dealing with the press. Part I focuses on the advantages, principles, and problems of communicating with the public. Part II discusses the nature of science reporting and offers advice for presenting…

To help develop a curriculum program for technical writers, Cincinnati Technical College used the Developing a Curriculum (DACUM) method to produce a technical writing skills profile. DACUM develops an occupation analysis through a modified brainstorming process by a panel of expert workers under the direction of a qualified coordinator. This…

Intended as an introduction to an interactive writing workshop, this paper presents a general description of the Document Design Center's writing model to be used by workshop participants. Suggesting that the model is an aid in analyzing and revising writing, in developing new documents, and in applying writing research to practical writing tasks,…

The J. M. Tull School of Accounting at the University of Georgia has developed a program that integrates the teaching of writing skills with the regular accounting courses. Students in a three-course sequence write a total of eight papers--technical, memos, or reports--in assignments that resemble writing tasks encountered by professional…

Engineering students can use a humanistic research project on the poetry of Walt Whitman as the basis for a technical report. Students must first become familiar with the scientific method so that they will have a general procedure for gathering and analyzing data for the project. To use the scientific method, students isolate the problem, observe…

This article stresses the need for French technicians and science students to study scientific and technical English. Language instruction should also reflect the students' academic life and cultural environment; reading texts, for example, could consist of scientific articles at the appropriate level of difficulty. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

This article presents a method to make scientific written English accessible to speakers of other languages, specifically speakers of French. (Text is in French.) (CLK)

A study of the implementation and effectiveness of a unique magnet program, this first-year evaluation deals with the International Baccalaureate/Writing Academy magnet program implemented at San Diego (California) High School during the 1985-1986 school year. The first chapter points out issues and concerns of the program, while the second…

Data collected from an exploratory study concerned with the technical communications practices of aerospace engineers and scientists were analyzed to test the primary assumption that aerospace managers and nonmanagers have different technical communications practices. Five secondary assumptions were established for the analysis: (1) that the…

Recognizing the rapid establishment of the computer as a routine instrument of instruction, this guide demonstrates with lesson outlines and materials the many ways in which English and/or computer literacy teachers can use microcomputers to teach RCT (Regents Competency Test) English Writing Practice topics. Front matter consists of a foreword,…

This book discusses the updated methods of technical communication and the recent trends in the field of engineering. The first three chapters discuss the motivations and objectives of communication. Chapters 4 through 17 explain in detail the techniques of planning and writing engineering documents. Later chapters deal with matters of publication…

A study was conducted to determine the efficacy of two prewriting strategies--outlines and rough, rather than polished, first drafts--in lessening the writer's workload. Eighteen college students were assigned a persuasive business letter writing task in control, outline, rough first draft, and polished first draft conditions. The letters were…

An 18-item survey was distributed to 308 faculty members at Tennessee Technological University to elicit information about the kinds of writing students are expected to do in courses both inside and outside the English department, the relative importance of writing in various courses, and the specific expectations faculty members have concerning…

The English Microlab Registry (EMR) was first designed as a database, or research tool, for planners of English microlabs in order to give them access to information about all aspects of microlab management. But EMR also provides descriptive data about what a microlab is and may well provide insight into whether those labs will survive. An…

Organizational stratification and writers' attitudes played an important part in the rejection of a proposed editorial review program at a university computing center. A peer review board, which consisted of four composition instructors, was established by the center director, in cooperation with a composition teacher consultant, to ensure the…