Describes a prewriting technique in which technical writing students are given a tool or mechanism with which they are unfamiliar and told to figure out what the object is from a series of clues. (HTH)

Discusses the job market for technical communication graduates and the process for setting up a college degree program in technical communication. (AEA)

Suggests that "specialists" writing for professional journals consider an audience beyond their peers and offers recommendations for business communication instruction to help narrow the gap between "jargon" in various fields and plain English. (HTH)

Offers format and content guidelines for writing quality press releases. (HTH)

Discusses three main factors pertinent to successful proposal writing: the primacy of the agency's request for proposal, seeing the university through the agency's eyes, and defenses against faulty proposals. (HTH)

Presents a model for the long report that can be used to subsume several technical writing forms and skills: the proposal, the progress report, formal and informal oral presentations, and the format of the long report itself. (FL)

Examines the four steps a technical writing teacher should follow in organizing the technical writing course and in allowing for adjustments during the course. (RL)

States that sound translation practice rests on a clear understanding of linguistic and cultural constraints combined with a punctilious search for equivalences. Describes various levels of constraint and proposes a statistical investigation of the degree of freedom left to translators, suggesting that most of the translated text results from…

Classifies and explains three types of technical writing. Discusses ways English teachers can help writers involved in each classification of technical writing. Offers principles for organizing a program of technical writing instruction. (RL)

Examines the problems the passive voice element creates for style in technical writing. (HTH)

Uses a broad definition of technical writing (practical writing) as a backdrop for two freshman composition courses. Introduces a student planning sheet for "thinking in"--examining the audience and purpose of a writing assignment. (RL)

Discusses the problems of quality and cost-effectiveness of machine translation, with remarks on future needs and prospects. (AM)

Provides guidelines for the preparation of lexicographic documentation. (AM)

Suggests several ways to prevent intentional and unintentional plagiarizing by students writing research papers. Suggestions include: limiting topic choice, requiring formal research proposals including bibliography, requiring recent periodical references, and asking for an informative abstract of the paper to be written in class the day the…

The business and technical writing teachers at Iowa State University conducted a public relations campaign within their English department to gain respectability, understanding, and acceptance from their English department colleagues. Their campaign included examples of student work, lists of their course objectives, and explanations of business…