Describes a project in a desktop publishing course in which students work with nonprofit and campus organizations to design brochures that fulfill important needs. Discusses specific tools students use. Describes the brochure project, project criteria, clients, text and graphics for the project, how to evaluate the project, and guidelines for…

Argues that a holistic approach to defining quality is helpful to technical communicators, who often must ensure quality without knowing what is meant by quality in a given instance. Describes a holistic model of quality that includes four emphases: internal, external, subjective, and objective. Notes that the definition of quality differs…

Describes the experiences of a master of arts student in professional writing and editing who undertook ethnographic research to explore ghostwriting in a military headquarters. Investigates the ways in which the military's review process influences writer psychology and the final written product. Discusses changes in local writing and reviewing…

Describes three writing assignments (on a scientist, a topic in science, and a topic in technical communication) that help technical writing students develop their technical backgrounds, familiarity with reference materials, peer editing skills, and writing skills. (RS)

Reexamines the dominant metaphor of "selling" in business/technical writing in view of diversifying readerships and global marketplace. Advocates replacing it with a metaphor of interculturalism/internationalism--"ourselves among others," signifying that "bridge-building" across differences will be the key in these contexts. (SR)

Investigates how and when novice employees (who are also seniors at a cooperative engineering college) learn to write like engineers. Finds that students perceive abstract rules and training as least useful and view the embodied experience of models and interaction with experts as most productive, particularly when combined with practice and…

Investigates whether changes in the written structure of a proposal will affect the reader's attitudes. Maintains that writers can help readers of proposals by providing the information, detail, and structure the reader expects. (SR)

Advocates making technical writing courses more vertical in structure by including an extensive study of at least one specific form of technical documentation. Examines how students can gain experience in the vertical process by designing, writing, testing, and producing user manuals for on-campus cooperative education clients. Lists the benefits…

Reviews models of reading performance as an organizing framework for understanding findings from empirical studies of text and reader factors. Reviews numerous empirical studies of text design and reader variables and their effects on comprehension. Aims to help readers understand this research and its implications in document design decisions.…

Notes differences of vocabulary, grammar, and usage in American English and British English which may cause difficulties. Maintains that, as international interchange of information increases, writers and editors must be alert to these differences and search for forms of expression common to both versions of English. (SR)

Discusses John Dewey's transactional epistemology and Louise Rosenblatt's transactional view of reading and writing as they apply to teaching technical writing. Proposes four maxims to bring the spirit of transaction to teaching. (SR)

Explores how conventional classroom approaches to the discussion of the organization and theory of information can be expanded rather easily into full-scale explorations of the ideology of the language of scientific and technical writing. Uses technical descriptions from biology, engineering, and chemistry to provide examples of this ideological…

Reexamines the concept of usability and methods for measuring it with regard to hypermedia. Argues that the standard usability tests for text may not apply equally well to hypermedia because of its many differences from paper documents. (SR)

Describes how technical language can be manipulated and how technical words become politicized. Discusses technical language as a vehicle of change in corporate culture. Offers examples of judgment and controversy in technical writing. (SR)

Using a discourse interview method, the way that professionals read resumes was investigated. Results showed that professional readers shared a special inferential reading of resumes; however they did not share the kind of consistent reading that might result in a formula of how to write resumes. Shortcomings of popular prescriptions for writing…