This document reviews some of the facets of the Department of English at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. The Department has a long tradition of involvement with high school teaching and high school teachers. The scheduling and programming activities of the Department are complex inasmuch as a range of courses must be made available…

Forty-eight American (L1) and 48 Dutch students (L2), half of whom had computer science backgrounds and half of whom did not, were tested for their use of either scientific text (ST) syntactic structures or the less difficult common syntax when writing technical discourse (in Appendix). Results indicate that both L1 and L2 technical writers wrote…

Explains how findings from L. Flower and J.A. Hayes's research into experienced writers' composing processes can be used to teach writing in general and the resume in particular by helping students focus on the audience, their own persona or voice, the content or meaning they wish to convey, and the format for conveying it. (EL)

Describes how a self-arranged instructor internship program oriented a technical writing teacher to the technical communication profession and made clear some of the needed changes in instructional practices. (EL)

Described are the essential elements of memos; suggested are a basic format for organization, and two problems to which technical specialists' memos seem particularly susceptible. Included is a memo assignment used in senior design classes and professional development seminars. (MVL)

While recording is an integral part of social-work practice, technology and accountability issues have heightened concern about recording practices and many issues remain unresolved, including those of client privacy, style, and content. Few texts and curricula on recording exist. Some approaches and resources for integrating recording into…

A study investigated the ability of educationally disadvantaged and limited-English-proficient University of Cape Town (South Africa) students to write about science research projects. Analysis of students' reports showed a strong relationship between task presentation methods, specific task-completion guidelines, and quality of writing. Poor…

An American Indian professor describes how he uses Western science metaphors in his freshman science writing course to help students realize that Western science is only one worldview based on cultural assumptions. Gradually, he introduces Native concepts of science including the interconnectedness of all things, responsibility to the community,…

Discusses written instructional materials created by librarians for end users searching database systems. Highlights include novice user studies; the importance of print instruction in digital information environments; a paradigm shift from system-centered to user-centered focuses in technical writing and user documentation for software; and…

Over a period of 10 years, we have developed a sustainable process of online portfolio assessment that demonstrates both reliability and validity, using both qualitative and quantitative measures. The sustainable cycle is that, each semester, we assess a random sampling of the students' work that they have posted, as per our instructions, in an…

One of the signatures of scientific writing is its ability to present the claims of science as if they were "untouched by human hands." In the early years of experimental education, researchers achieved this by adopting a citational practice that led to the sedimentation of their cardinal method, the analysis of variance, and their standard for…

This article suggests ways of writing a truly effective cover letter, an extremely important document in the search for a job. First, features gleaned from 13 model letters in technical writing textbooks yield figures on the number of words, sentences, and paragraphs per letter, plus the average number of words per sentence and paragraph,…

Students have to learn two distinctly different tasks when writing research papers: a) creating and organizing prose, and b) formatting a manuscript according to the nuances and mechanics of a pre-determined format, such as Modern Language Association (MLA) or American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines. Two studies examined different…

Writing is a valuable learning tool in science classrooms. Written work provides an instructor with a tangible demonstration of learning and gives students the opportunity to connect their personal experiences to the content of the course. Most important, thoughtful writing assignments demand deep analysis of subject material and help students…

The selection and use of instructional materials to develop technical writing skills in limited-English-proficient foreign students are discussed. Focus is on the influence of cultural differences in second language learning and the need for instructional materials that accommodate these differences. The first section examines American…