Quantifies specific elements of technical writing style in five award winning technical manuals where combined averages for the style elements are calculated. Compares these results to common criteria of good technical writing. Claims that wide variations among these manuals show that defining "good" technical writing is difficult. (HB)

Examines 539 undergraduate course catalogs to determine the percentage of institutions offering courses in physiological psychology, biological psychology, both, or neither. Finds 64.1 percent of the institutions studied offered physiological psychology, and 11.3 percent offer biological psychology. Finds catalog descriptions reveal confusion over…

Identifies and analyzes messages related to food and eating behavior as presented on prime time television programing and commercials. Finds that food references occur an average of 4.8 times per 30 minutes and that over half of all food references were for low nutrient beverages and sweets, which is inconsistent with healthy dietary guidelines.…

Examines the cultural content of advertisements in two superficially similar countries (Great Britain and the United States). Finds U.S. advertising portraying characters in more "individualistic" stances, with social class differences more evident in British advertising. Maintains that advertising should adapt to individual cultural…

Analyzes Herbert C. Hoover's translation of the "De Re Metallica" in the context of the 1922 Mine Strikes. Claims Hoover's interest in Agricola's "intellectual achievements" may have been more than technical. Demonstrates how technical documents reflect political ideologies. (NH)

Discussion of the role of the information industry, particularly publishers, focuses on seven models that are used to illustrate problems in the industry. Rule structures are presented concerning content areas, the use of technology, information markets, research behavior, communications, governmental issues, and the law. (LRW)

Reports on a study that examined how death is presented in young children's literature. Death themes are classified as educationally and developmentally positive or negative presentations. A content analysis was conducted to create a profile of the typical children's book with death themes. (SM)

Reports citation patterns for "The Journal of Business Communication" for the years 1978 to 1992. Investigates authorship trends, trends in intellectual content, and trends in the relationship between the journal and other journals. (SR)

Analyzed the content of racial and ethnic issues in three journals ("Journal of Counseling Psychology,""Journal of Vocational Behavior," and "Journal of Counseling and Development") along specific areas for their levels of commitment versus complacency, study frame, method, analysis, and discussion. Preliminary results indicate that research in…

Explains how to teach students to select information from sources without copying sentences verbatim. This use of information is related to one step in the Big6 information problem-solving process, a high-level task that requires students to evaluate content in relation to a topic or question. (LRW)

Examines 24 years of research published in this journal. Finds that the prevalence of studies failing to replicate has declined; replications are still rarely recognized as random factors; and researchers who use replications appear to do so for purposes of generalizability and control over confounding but without carefully analyzing the burden of…

Examines the production of new history textbooks that appeared after the breakup of the Soviet Union. Argues that the radical revisions in official history in this context are shaped by the Bakhtinian process of "hidden dialogicality." Suggests that the importance of hidden dialogicality between narrative forms must be considered. (SC)

Documents the rise and fall of public relations in public-administration education through a content analysis of textbooks. Notes some early signs of renewed attention. Suggests reestablishing public relations as a valuable part of contemporary public-administration education. (RS)

Examines sex inequalities in both text and pictures of award-winning children's books from 1972 through 1997. Compares findings with a study examining award-winning children's books from 1940 to 1971. Finds few gains in representation of females, and finds that the decade of the 1950's remains that with the highest representation of females in…

Describes an assignment in a corporate-communications class in which students examine the design and the language of their apartment leases. Discusses how this assignment teaches students about the Plain English laws and the need for plain English in leases and in ethics. (SR)