Stresses the fact that on-the-job training in written communication is a continuous process. Presents a writing curriculum, developed by the Illinois Office of the Auditor General, that offers a planned sequence of learning activities. (PD)

Describes how to use two-digit numbers to illustrate the four techniques that add emphasis to key points in business communication: positioning, spacing, repeating, and flagging. (AEA)

Suggests that, although writing instructors cannot completely eliminate writing anxiety in students, they can create a positive environment and offer strategies that will help reduce students' fears and build confidence in their writing skills. (AEA)

Identifies and describes 51 publications that indicated they would consider for publication manuscripts from members of the American Business Communication Association. (AEA)

Refutes some of the arguments often given by students majoring in technical fields to explain why they supposedly do not need to write. Identifies the kinds of documents writers in several fields actually write and offers instructional implications for what should be stressed in technical writing courses. (HTH)

Recommends a practical analogy for understanding and teaching the communication dimensions of a business report. (AEA)

Examines two technical writing assignments involving analysis of particular audience adaptive techniques used in five published technical articles from diverse sources on the same limited subject. The first is a discussion exercise involving the entire class, and the second is an individual written exercise. (HTH)

Provides a rationale for including technical writing assignments in a freshman composition course. Describes several possible writing assignments, including descriptions of mechanisms, abstracts, and research reports. Also discusses possible texts and other readings for the class and how such assignments affect student attitudes and performance.…

Suggests that student involvement in developing formal report topics can be stimulated by using nominal grouping (a three-step process involving listing, recording, and voting on ideas generated). (HOD)

Maintains that whole areas of the greatest interest and centrality to scientific, technological, and ordinary workaday writing will be ignored if they are divorced from the liberal arts. (JL)

Outlines a course designed to teach students how to write descriptive and informative abstracts. (HOD)

Compares five style manuals for their differences in stipulating the mechanical rules of preparing research reports. Notes that the really necessary criteria for judging technical writing are legibility, effective presentation, and honesty of content. (RL)

Provides guidelines for establishing a business writing laboratory for college to meet student needs. Suggests ways to select and train tutors, prepare materials, and develop an effective public relations program for the lab. Offers sample materials used in one such lab. (FL)

Practicing engineers find that much technical writing is done in small groups. A course is described which gives students such group technical writing experience. (BB)

Shows how practical problems in readability can be solved. Provides an example: an office of student financial assistance form, before and after revision. (PD)