Discusses some aspects and strategies of persuasion that might underlie any written persuasive business message. Focuses more on "Think about It" rather than "How-to." (KEH)

Defines technical writing, the importance of audience awareness, and the fog index. Analyzes examples of technical writing and tips on developing skills such as writing instructions and assembling a model. Offers assignments and projects as well as class activities. (PRA)

Asserts that Great Britain's National Curriculum is based on the flawed assumption that by attending to purpose and audience, the student will write in a preferred manner. Argues that form needs conscious formulation, using a language that needs to be taught and that is not self-evident from an attention to either "purpose" or…

Discusses the problem of asking students to write for the teacher, an authoritative, superior reader. Asserts that a better approach is to ask the students to first address their papers to a small group, and second to choose a specific value system to characterize the attitudes and beliefs of the group selected. (PRA)

An organization's dramaturgical facade (ability to present an appearance in keeping with the script) is a better measure of effectiveness than its actual results. An organization must match its theatrical production--stage, props, drama, and actors--to audience demands. As directors, playwrights, and actors, superintendents play a vital role in…

Class-produced newspapers are clear examples of product-driven learning, which requires a visible, though not always tangible, product; an audience other than the students themselves; whole-class involvement; and completion during normal school hours. Further examples are provided, including a first-grade circus, a fourth-grade rain forest tour,…

Cites the benefits of publishing student writing. Defines informal and formal publication. Discusses how students consider the audience. Offers further information on publishing student writing. (PRA)

Discusses the importance in business communication classes of the "You Attitude" (focusing messages on the interests and needs of the receiver rather than the sender) and "Naturalness" (using everyday wording). Studies their use in actual business correspondence. Finds only 27 percent of the correspondents making satisfactory use of the "You…

This study investigated the standards children between 9 and 12 years of age use to evaluate the quality of four types of children's programs: news, educational, dramatic, and cartoons. The quality standards children considered most important were comprehensibility and aesthetic quality. Additional standards were entertainment, involvement,…

Discusses the challenges of designing a Chinese/English Web site in Taiwan for both Chinese- and English-speaking audiences, creating a single, consistent presentation. Explores how the Web-site development team reconciled different audience responses and tackled technological, cultural, and political issues. (SR)

Systematizes the fragmented approaches to framing in political communication and integrates them into a comprehensive model. Classifies previous approaches to framing research along two dimensions: media frames versus audience frames; and the way frames are operationalized (independent variable or dependent variable). Identifies four key processes…

Relates a student's experience writing a college application essay. Argues that switching topics should be redefined as global revision, a "pregnant pause" providing evidence of recursivity, and that adolescent writers who talk about their emerging texts are more likely to reconceptualize their written documents. (SR)

Discusses mission statements from various English departments. Finds that the most successful mission statements move credibly and convincingly between three kinds of rhetoric, using the specialized rhetoric of disciplinary insiders, the rhetoric of academic inquiry that can function across disciplines, and the general public rhetoric that serves…

Describes how and why the author requires at least one assignment in his business writing classes in which students write a document for the Web using an HTML editor and devoting time to audience/design considerations. (SR)

Suggests ways to add the dimension of workplace reality to the teaching of business writing in the classroom, focusing on audience analysis, collaborative writing, and effective models of a variety of workplace documents. (SR)