A work-study student assistant was employed at the Carnegie Mellon University Engineering and Science Library to help prepare documentation for a new library program. The student, a junior professional writing major, used the Apple Macintosh microcomputer to design a brochure, billing worksheet, and spreadsheet for the new program. On completion…

Each discourse community teaches and uses a particular version of reality. In the field of accounting, the interpretation of reality is an objective one. Such an interpretation is a constraint on writing, as are accounting's reliance on exclusionary language, its need to meet legal and professional requirements, its adherence to stylistic and…

Presents the results of a survey showing that very few professional people use written outlines in preparing their work, raising the question of whether students should be taught to prepare written outlines in technical writing classes. (RB)

This workbook is intended to aid in the preparation of the New York State Conservation/Preservation Discretionary Grant Program application and should be used in conjunction with the current Discretionary Grant Guidelines. The workbook contains hints on grant writing, a completed sample cover sheet and other application forms, good and…

Short, intensive technical writing classes have been found to have a very positive effect on adult personality, especially in the area of self-esteem. Over the course of several years, groups of high school-educated adult learners who entered college after being out of school for years were found to have their anxieties about reentering school…

Internships in technical writing offer students an opportunity to apply the principles of technical communication learned in the classroom to on-the-job situations. The internship program at Oklahoma State University gives students practical experience needed to meet the demands of the world outside of academics, even at a time when companies and…

Assessing the current state of writing instruction for the business world as well as promising developments of theory and practice in this expanding field, this book contains 14 articles by nationally known leaders in this teaching specialty. The first section of the book, looking at the writing process as it applies to professional writing,…

The University of Southwestern Louisiana offers an English major in technical writing. Many assignments and topics are covered in the junior technical writing course, but one of the most effective projects combines the students' and the professor's expertise and focuses on writing for a specific audience. The technical writer's job is to know how…

The cooperative efforts of the customer and service information department in IBM's Kingston, New York, laboratory and members of the academic community designed to improve technical communication and knowledge skills for all concerned are described in this report. These efforts described include (1) study groups working to design a library of…

This 44-item, annotated bibliography provides an overview of the major viewpoints and methods in current technical writing practice and instruction. It is intended for instructors, students, and managers of engineering firms. Entries are presented in three categories. The first category (8 entries)) focuses on the requirements for technical…

This paper was based on a study of the writings of six scientists for lay readers and discussions with the authors on their concepts of audience and audience adaptation. Scientists who write popular or literary essays use several devices and methods that allow the successful transference of technical or scientific information to a general…

Criticisms of current science reporting in the mass media are discussed, and college programs aimed at upgrading science writing are described. (DT)

To aid the student or researcher in the development of an effective procedural schematic (a graphic description of a research plan showing the steps needed to reach a stated objective), guidelines are presented under three topic headings: Compositional elements, taxonomy of research terms, and examples of procedural schematics. An introduction…

The author gives an interpretation of the environment of the independent researcher and reasons for considering the academic environment as important to basic and applied research. Suggestions for obtaining support for independent research are presented. Balance between basic and applied research in the university environment is urged, as are…

Designed for those who are concerned with gathering job performance information, this manual presents methodology and techniques used to analyze jobs and to record the analysis. Chapter 1, an introduction, discusses briefly the uses of job analyses in trade and technical course construction and instructional materials development, in career…