Provides an annotated bibliography of all articles published in "The Journal of Technical Writing and Communication" from 1990 through 1992. Classifies articles under five headings: The Profession, Education and Pedagogy, Preparation and Presentation of Technical Information, Research and Theory in Technical Communication, and Application of…

Discusses ethnographic studies in business and technical writing, noting that ethnography comprises four essential, overlapping contexts: the phenomenal context, the site's cultural context, the research community context, and the researcher's interior context. Claims ethnographic accounts should balance the input of each of these areas rather…

Discusses interdisciplinary writing as a recasting of disciplinary boundaries insofar as it negotiates the borders between the various disciplinary rhetorics involved. Explores the work of S. E. Jelliffe, a prominent physician-writer, as a prime example of a boundary rhetoric. (HB)

States that many technical writing handbooks advise avoiding passive voice. Identifies functions of passive as well as active voice by determining the frequencies of active and passive verbs in 185 documents written by 28 civilian and military members of the Air Force. Confirms the importance of agency in choice of active or passive; reveals other…

Examines the "whats" and "hows" of first-grade urban children's appropriation of sports and sports-related media material for participation in unofficial peer worlds and official academic ones. Reveals the potential hybrid nature of even the earliest of children's written texts. Suggests that learning to write involves work of the imagination on…

Focuses on the nominal expressions in the discourse on management. Finds that these nominals recursively delete not only agent roles but also those of experiencer, object, and goal, and at the same time conflate the interests of researchers and managers. Suggests that management nominals are a particularly intense expression of modernity itself.…

Considers the evolution of writing-tutor pedagogies, from the job-specific training of tutorial-centered "practical" manuals to the professionalizing approach that establishes awareness of the specialized discourse of writing-center scholarship. Suggests that the latter approach also writes tutors into the field's most painful and…

Examines experimental research reports and published practitioner accounts to show that few users, even "experienced" users, used a word-processing package at anywhere near its full potential. Encourages students in two postsecondary institutions in Japan to use word processing more fully, but finds little improvement. Discusses the need…

Finds that college students were aware of, and understood the function of, some common design elements (boldface, italics, numbered lists) but were much less aware of other design elements (headers, indentation, and line spacing); and that perceptions of design elements correlated strongly with self-reported experience using word processing…

Examines the effect of collaborative writing on cohesion in poetry therapy groups with 33 graduate students. Finds that post test scores on the Group Environment Scale indicated a significant difference in cohesion for those groups using collaborative writing compared to those without collaborative writing. (SR)

Puzzles over questions about writing and identity revealed in the author's kindergarten classroom. Focuses on the story of a child struggling to find her own way and her own place to examine the notion that writing, understood as a philosophical and artistic practice, might make a more explicit contribution to the process of…

Examines relationships among computer experience, attitudes, writing behaviors, and writing quality for advanced undergraduate students who have owned Macintosh computers for at least three years. Finds that writing attitudes and practices are fairly well ingrained for the less competent writers, and they need to become comfortable with the…

Suggests that technical writing students need to learn to write effectively online because electronic mail is becoming the preferred mode of communicating in industry. Explores how students can be taught to use the network effectively in group and collaborative projects, especially through the writing of critique memos. (RS)

Examines critically the claim that computers give rise to nonlinear writing. Presents a new computer-based research tool, "S-Notation," that can automatically trace a writer's revisions to a text in their natural order. Presents an ongoing study that applies this method to assess the effect of the writing task on the linearity of text production.…

Investigates gender effects in critique of student writing. Finds that readers spontaneously constructed the author's sex even when they were not informed of it; rated the essays lower when they knew the writer was of their own sex; and showed an anti-male bias (measured by holistic rating) and an anti-feminine bias (measured by attribution of…