Students are often required to write literature reviews in advanced business communication courses, especially as part of a research project. Likewise, in the workplace, business communicators may need to review the literature in analyzing a problem or proposing a solution. However, instructors often find that even students who otherwise write…

Developed as part of the ABCs of Construction National Workplace Literacy Project, these instructional modules are designed to help low-level readers develop paragraph composition skills. The first module is a list of 10 topics about which students are daily to write several paragraphs related to their craft. The second module consists of 10…

This handbook documents the comprehensive evaluation and training system that is being used with Indiana's adult basic education programs. It consists of a set of instruments to assess the effectiveness of ABE programs and a series of workshops to train program providers to carry out the evaluation. Two introductory sections contain a guide to the…

A study explored the reliability of methods for analyzing the thematic organization of texts. Five linguists, two of whom were native speakers of Swedish and three of whom were native speakers of Finnish, analyzed the thematic organization of a Swedish popular scientific article, using an analysis that focused on coherence reflected in the…

Teachers of advanced technical and professional writing need to provide credible ways in which their students can extend the cultural critique the teachers try to engage them in into the world outside the classroom. The nature of resistance in nonacademic discourse can be explored to help both the teachers and students think through the imposing…

This handbook offers psychology students, as well as professional psychologists, a central resource for the construction and organization of psychological test reports. It aims to help the reader conceptualize the theory of psychological report development by examining the integration of the concepts and data of personality analysis and the logic…

This document, developed by Mercer County Community College (New Jersey) and its partners, offers lists of topics covered in each day of a 24-day course designed to teach General Motors employees the following skills: document information; write clear directions and instructions; outline and organize thoughts and ideas; write memos and business…

The Technical-Professional Communication (TPC) Option at Maryland's Frostburg State University is a response to the growing demand from government, business, and industry to prepare MBAs to meet the high performance requirements of managers who must communicate and communicators who must manage. Students taking this 15-hour writing-intensive…

A Georgetown University course in English writing for academic purposes for foreign linguistics graduate students is described. The Writing Lab was conceived as a discussion session to accompany two commonly selected linguistics courses in which much writing is required. The initial class consisted of seven Japanese and two Taiwanese students with…

A communication course dealing specifically with interviewing theory was designed to meet the needs of technically oriented university students. Several communication theory, interviewing, and interpersonal communication texts were chosen. Additional library searches on interviewing in the areas of vocational rehabilitation, home economics…

Both teaching technical editing skills in a logical sequence from introductory through intermediate and advanced levels, and helping students learn how to offer creative help to authors call for a structured approach to the editing course. Editing students should already have a firm knowledge of spelling, punctuation, and grammar, as well as…

The 26 articles in this journal issue discuss the use of the computer in the English classroom. Among the topics and applications discussed are (1) computer assisted invention, (2) word processing, (3) overcoming computer anxiety, (4) using computers in technical writing classes, (5) grading student essays by computer, (6) the experiences of an…

Once its source has been identified using the multidimensional model developed by D. W. Stacks, R. W. Boozer, and T. D. P. Lally, writing apprehension, especially among business writing students, can be treated in the classroom with specific pedagogical techniques. Emphasizing the writing process rather than the product--stressing peer and teacher…

Many writing process researchers have shown that students make only minor mechanical changes instead of revising their documents significantly. Effective revision pedagogy must address this problem by encouraging revision of content, arrangement, and style, and by directing student attention to all levels of the document, from the overall essay…

Using schema theory as a contextual framework, three studies were conducted to examine the effects of two triggering mechanisms on transfer of learning across two noncontiguous passages: similar terminology for shared concepts and a brief review of the first passage read immediately before the second passage. The first two studies served to pilot…