Introduces and discusses briefly 10 multimedia products that are fun, useful, and that can teach a lot about communicating technical and business information. Discusses seven things that designers can learn from such examples. (SR)

Describes what expert systems are. Explains that they can make hypertext more usable by allowing the author's expertise to reside with the document, in effect performing run-time audience analysis, customizing documents to users' needs, advising users in selecting documents, and choosing effective reading strategies. (SR)

Describes why developers of multimedia products face a more complex legal landscape than do developers of "few-media" products. Describes the laws that pertain to multimedia. Discusses how developers of multimedia products might walk the legal labyrinth and protect themselves and their companies from lawsuits. (SR)

Describes how, when Intel Corporation undertook development of a line of desktop conferencing products, the company's writers assumed active roles in the process, conducting usability testing, identifying usability issues for the engineering teams, testing products, and using their findings in the design of both online and hard copy help systems,…

Argues that the best approach for technical editors is to abandon the language cops' billy club, listen to what the authors want to say, and give those authors friendly expertise, without rigid prescription or blanket condemnation. (SR)

Discusses how to choose the medium or media to communicate technical information, how to combine and integrate media, and what the user can use. (SR)

Argues that guidelines are required if a team of technical writers is to create consistent, usable online information. Examines research on screen design, schemata, and readers' styles. Concludes that online help information should be easy to access, structured with different levels, specific to the situation, consistent, and concise and easily…

Analyzes postings from a database users' help bulletin board. Finds that technical instructions should concentrate on likely errors that users may commit and how they can overcome and learn from them; provide may procedural options at once; give minimal conceptual and much procedural information; and integrate troubleshooting with task procedures.…

Argues that technical writers must construct proper contexts for readers' understanding. Discusses reader-oriented syntax, rhetorical confidence, and three kinds of context qualifiers. Offers various examples. (SR)

Discusses six warning signals that can help decide when to consider quitting a job. Advocates including those warning signals in business communication courses to help students develop problem-solving skills and prepare them for the working world. (SR)

Assesses three conflicting views: that the author is the final authority; that the author is incompetent; and that the editor has final authority. Reveals editors' four rhetorical strategies to establish authority: using editorial dialogue, defining the audience, citing authority, and teaching. Classifies editors as having high or low status. (SR)

Notes that many companies want to reduce paper documentation necessary to support their products. Maintains that, if technical communicators are to avoid being downsized out of a job, they must build on their existing communication skills and move toward product design, helping to produce products so obvious that they need no manuals. (SR)

Maintains that the goal of editing technical writing is not to resist incursions against "correctness" but to facilitate communication. Argues for letting authors use the words native to their own technical idiom. (SR)

Examines preconceptions of four proposal developers about three factors: effective and ineffective collaboration; gender's effects on collaboration; and gender's effect on persuasion. Finds the discourse techniques used by men and women do not parallel a person's gender. (RS)

Describes a new pedagogical model in the teaching of technical writing based on "technical writing as enculturation." Examines this model's relationship to the workaday world and its roots in classical, especially Ciceronian, rhetoric. Argues that this model's roots in both the modern and classical world enhances its usefulness. (HB)