Describes the elements of an effective style guide. Presents methods and techniques required to develop a style guide tailored to the specific needs of an organization. Focuses on two critical steps in the development process that are often ignored or overlooked: (1) conducting the Requirements Analysis; and (2) promoting the style guide. (SR)

Suggests that visual communicators have much to learn from Rudolf Modley, who designed many pictorial symbols in the 1930s and 1940s worthy of study. Argues that his call for an international system of symbols is as pressing and pertinent today as it was when he made it over 20 years ago. (SR)

Discusses and illustrates how technical communicators can read and write complex documents dialogically by using a new/old strategy to help them in three activities: breaking down complex documents and data into components; solving problems by locating and describing causal components; and following and organizing sequences of components. (SR)

Discusses the situation in Germany regarding technical writing: how the situation developed, limited possibilities for training, support from the legislative branch, and pressure from end users. (SR)

Discusses documenting object-oriented projects from the technical writer's perspective. Suggests that writers prepare themselves by becoming educated, getting comfortable with object-oriented concepts, understanding reuse, defining a development process with the rest of the project team, and defining document requirements using rapid prototyping.…

Discusses the growing need for usability (both information usability and product usability) and the shrinking resources to promote usability. Discusses four possibilities for technical communicators to help make usability happen. (SR)

Outlines advantages and disadvantages of the Foreign Language Education Forum (FLEFO) on the CompuServe Service. Discusses the future information superhighway and the future of large multilingual global translation projects. (SR)

Discusses (using a hypothetical case) how technical writers can defend themselves if caught up in an administrative fight because management did not want to deal with an employee who was out of line. (SR)

Relates the life journey of one woman and how it brought her into the profession of technical writing, and beyond. (SR)

Discusses how too much caution can lead authors to simple verbosity or to the overgeneralization of simple concepts. (SR)

Discusses a proposal's executive summary: its purpose, how long it should be, what should be in it, when it should be started, who should write it, and how it should be reviewed. (SR)

Discusses error messages in computing support services as an example of the opportunities technical communicators have to help establish reasonable expectations with users. (SR)

Examines the significance and uses (for a company) of a vision statement, how to set one, and what to include. Illustrates this by discussing the visions for Xerox Cooperation over the last 40 years, and John F. Kennedy's national vision of landing a man on the moon. (SR)

Discusses drift within technical publishing departments--the kind of soft, subtle change that occurs when manuals of today no longer look like the publications of three years ago, and there is no really good reason why. Discusses the usefulness of setting standards, and ways to investigate and recover from the drift away from standards. (SR)

Argues that new technologies can work hand-in-hand with localization and customization of products, starting in the planning stage, to address the international market. (SR)