Writing better computer user documentation teaches good documentation practices by means of a process model that reflects current industry procedures. The book is more philosophical than its highly prescriptive and pedantic predecessors, and its emphasis is on writing for the computer industry, not on writing in general with computers thrown in as an afterthought. Its major audience is data processing professionals, most specifically practicing technical writers, information planners, and writing managers, although the book might well find its way into college classrooms in some of the burgeoning masters' programs in technical writing.

The demand for quality technical manuals has increased. A survey of industry reveals that organizations are developing new techniques of management and are shifting old priorities in order to integrate production, technical writing, and marketing in an effort to produce better manuals. Companies are seeking to specify as much as possible the exact audiences for their manuals, and are writing and testing with users in mind. To facilitate revision and to cut costs, they are automating the production process.

Although Samuel Johnson is best known for his poetry, prose fiction, essays, criticism, and dictionary (the first one in English to deserve the title), he also produced a small body of technical writing. These writings include prefaces to the technical works of others and two technical pieces of his own: one on determining longitude at sea and the other on stresses in bridge designs. These works are of interest to contemporary technical writers for the clarity and conciseness of Johnson's explanations of difficult and complex matters. Of more general interest is the range of Johnson's knowledge and his ability, evidenced in these works, to grasp immediately the essentials of a subject.

The question of what makes technical communication a profession and its practitioners professionals is discussed. Technical communicators as professionals are urged to replace practices and standards of proficiency influenced by the technical aspect of the profession with a concept of professionalism based on elegance, as derived from the humanities.

The previous issue of the Transactions promised a new department intended for consideration of the large and small questions of technical communicators' workaday lives; readers were challenged to raise these questions, and to help answer them.

The author proposes an encompassing concept of clarity, a ubiquitous, yet undefined, concept in technical writing and editing. Clarity, a function of the target audience is analyzed according to its seven components: brevity, accuracy, completeness order, emphasis, consistency, and objectivity.

Here is one aspect of technical communication that has seldom been explored in such revealing depth. Indeed, Sternberg makes a deep penetration of the ways to prepare a successful dissertation and still keep your sanity.

OUR SPECIAL section, “Writing for Disadvantaged Readers,” is unusual and unusually pertinent for engineers. As Andrew Malcolm notes in his “Introduction,” many of the engineers in this country are not native born speakers of English and many readers of technical writing may have handicaps which impinge on their understanding of material. Surprisingly, the techniques that the writers in our special section advocate are the very techniques that good technical communicators should be using anyway to achieve clear communication. For example, they underscore the value of avoiding passive constructions. In addition, the value of technology to improve the quality of life is illustrated in the articles dealing with closed captioning. Professional communicators who read “Writing for the Disadvantaged Readers” will find a new sense of pride in their craft and an awakened sense of the value of technical communication.

It is argued that, with today's growing emphasis on audience analysis in technical communication, there needs to be a sharper focus on the informational needs of various audiences; much empirical study is needed to provide a fuller definition and understanding of the nature of these informational needs and how they directly affect the writing done. Effective upward management communication is directly dependent on the quality of communication moving downward in the organization to the staff, and on how staff is made to understand the decision-making role and informational needs of the management reader. Of all the people involved in technical communications, the manager of the writers may be best equipped to determine the informational needs of readers, especially those of upper management. A brief review of two empirical studies conducted by the author demonstrates the value of such studies and encourages others to undertake similar studies.

It is argued that the management world is becoming more aware of the value of documenting controls for the administration and operation of organizations. That awareness unfortunately does not include the fact that many of these management-system writings-writing that are meant to get things done-are ineffective as well as inefficient. Writing mechanics tailored to the discipline of systems writing developed at the Grumman Corporation are described. They stem from the view that systems writing must be tailed to the system reader's communication needs, where the thoughts and words used in the systems document are not only properly selected and arranged, but are written in the easiest-to-read manner.

The author gives guidance to technical writers, engineers, proposals specialists, and managers who compete for government contracts. Ten writing and illustrating strategies that can help create winning proposals are presented.

Amidst the proliferation of books for the technical writer it is a pleasure to see an old tried and true favorite, Basic Technical Writing, re-enter the field in its Fifth Edition. The new version is handsomely produced and printed in beautiful typographical style.

It is felt that as computers are installed in organizations, people need three kinds of information. They need to know: (1) which systems are available; (2) how to begin to use them; and (3) how to apply them to their specific work. A method for analyzing the needs of new computer users is discussed. Specific vehicles for communication computing information are described, including newsletters, online and offline documentation, training courses, and demonstrations.

The work in editing which is outlined here ensures that graduate students become aware of editing processes through experience and research, through practice and theory. By developing and using levels of edit and editorial dialogue in editing workshops and by researching and examining their own and other people's techniques, the students develop their own theories of editing processes. And through their group editing and their individual editing experiences and research, the graduate students learn basic editorial values and editing techniques that they can use to help others communicate well. Included is an appendix of selected resources on editing processes consisting of approximately 150 items.

Analogical models are common in scientific and technical literature but scientific/technical communicators may be reluctant to write clarifying comparisons for fear of producing inaccurate or inappropriate similes. Technical writers can use the logical operations that underlie all metaphorical thinking consciously as prewriting strategies: they can learn to construct their comparisons using the logical operations of identification, distinction, re-classification, and division. Applying these logical operations to the generation of useful analogies can give writers confidence that their comparisons possess the qualities of specificity, clarify, richness, scope, and validity.

The authors of Technical Writing believe that students best acquire technical writing skills through imitation. They state in their preface that the purpose of their text is “to give students access to models that truly represent papers in technical disciplines.” The concept of learning by imitating is certainly not new, but Brinegar and Skates have selected, organized, and presented their material with creativity and imagination, and the result is a technical writing text that is innovative and interesting, as well as accessible and adaptable for instructors and students alike.

For those who teach short courses on technical communication for engineers, or for engineers who want a short, self-teaching aid to improving communication on the job, Richard Arthur's new book may be just the thing. This slim paperback is part of the Procom series on professional communication, intended to provide practical advice and information for specific audiences-nurses, trial attorneys, corporate managers, and now engineers.

In the preface to Style and readability in technical writing, the authors assert: “No other book takes this approach [to technical writing].” That approach, which has produced quantifiable success in writing intelligibly and effectively in other fields, is sentence-combining. To indicate the technical nature of sentence-combining, the authors refer to it as “tinkering,” a process of manipulating word clusters until the writer has put together unified sentences that are “economical, clear, and readable.”

A description is given of the EPICS program at the Colorado School of Mines, which teaches problem solving and communication as one. The design of the program's curriculum is discussed, as is the author's experience with the program.

Typical model curricula in engineering disciplines assume that training in communication will occur early in the student's academic career in the course taken to meet the general liberal arts requirements of the university. This paper argues that this assumption defines communication as a preliminary skill to be learned as a prelude to technical study. An alternative view perceives increasing sophistication in the technical disciplines as requiring a simultaneous increase in sophistication in communication. The Program in Scientific and Technical Communication at the University of Washington is designed according to the latter view. The courses address the needs of engineers as these needs emerge and change across the academic and professional life of the engineer.

Experience at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University indicates that students in engineering and science need a course in technical writing. A one-quarter course there begins with a review of general editing principles, based on Strunk and White's `Elements of Style', and an introduction to specific principles of organizing and editing technical material. Students then write a series of assignments using specific formats, such as technical descriptions, memos, instructions, letters, proposals, and formal reports or articles.

Bachelor's, master's, and doctorate programs related to technical communications in US colleges and universities are tabulated by state from 1983-4 academic data. The programs are grouped into six categories: communication, communication theory, English (technical writing emphasis), technical communication, technical journalism, and technical writing.

Five class exercises are suggested for inclusion in the syllabus of any course in technical writing or technical communication. The exercises are designed to develop strategic decisions in writing and publishing. They cast the student in the role of decision maker instead of a tyro, whose sole class work is drill in basic principles.

The authors investigate the reasons for the existing university-industry written communication gap and suggest ways for bridging it. Most university programs do not adequately help students with technical communications. Consequently, the new engineer, when hired, will have the burden of overcoming the gap of technical writing apart from other important engineering tasks. Industry and university should cooperate in helping new engineers with this important facet of their careers. A first action could be to supplement the college-level curriculum with courses on technical writing, documentation, editing, and the use of new communication systems based on real industry requirements. These courses, which could be continued in industry in the form of seminars, help from senior peers, and the publication department, along with personal efforts, would enable young engineers to comprehend the basic principles that help in writing effective reports and proposals in the real engineering world.

It seem paradoxical that industry indicates that engineers need communication skills, and universities appear to agree, but that universities allocate little time in the curriculum to train engineers in written communications. This paper identifies that paradox and stresses that in response to limitations of time, the technical communications teacher must design an introductory course which reflects current research in communications and teaching methodology. The course must serve the engineering student efficiently and effectively. One such design for the beginning course is presented. Centering the introductory course on the feasibility report and shorter accompanying reports serves the engineer by permitting the design of a report which serves the reader. Such design demonstrates the writing process and dramatises the relationship between the student-writer and the reader-client.

Although computers are important tools to help learners improve their writing skills, the instructor must still establish the instructional goals of a course. This study presents an instrument, the `technical writing attitude measurement', that measures students' attitudes towards their technical writing skills and provides data and objectives which help the instructor develop instructional materials and assignments to improve student skills. The `technical writing attitude measurement', a Likert-type, self-report questionnaire, is based on instructional goals that may be divided into three categories: rhetorical principles, planning strategies, and drafting skills. The instrument was used to measure changes in student attitude toward technical writing skills. These changes were influenced by two main methods of instruction, the case method and the rhetorical approach to teaching technical writing.

The mathematical equation is truly an element of the engineer's vocabulary. As such, it is a vital tool in technical communication. To make it an effective tool and to achieve maximum reader comprehension, engineers and editors must observe certain rules. These rules divide logically into the major categories of writing, editing, and layout. All three categories are treated and examples are discussed. The rules are aimed at facilitating the typing task, ensuring accuracy of the mathematical treatment, making the mathematics meaningful and unambiguous, and fitting the equations into the report style. The writer is responsible for the use and accuracy of the mathematics, and the editor is responsible for the clarity and presentation of the mathematics, including accuracy checks, arrangement, and typography. Examples stress how correct use of certain rules by both the writer and the editor can change inaccurate, ambiguous mathematics into accurate, clear mathematics that is understandable and meaningful.

In the March 1983 issue of the TRANSACTIONS, I reviewed four books intended to instruct writers on how to develop computer documentation. No sooner did the review appear than I discovered another book in this genre by Richard Zaneski. Mr. Zaneski's book does not cause me to reconsider the earlier pair of books that I described as best buys (Documentation Development Methodology by Sandra Pakin and Associates and The DP Professional's Guide to Writing Effective Technical Communication by J. Van Duyn). In fact, I don't recommend that you buy this book. I do, however, suggest that you borrow a copy and take notes on the 30 to 40 pages that are worthwhile.

Four parallels between technical communication and user-friendly systems are discussed. They are: (1) its overall structures should be apparent to the user; (2) it should be congenial without being chatty or too personal; (3) its nomenclature and syntax must be consistent throughout all functions; and (4) its logic must not trap users in loops but should lead them straight to their goals.

At the University of Akron, mechanical engineering students learn technical communication skills in their senior laboratory course. Experiments are designed to allow role-playing by both student and instructor, so that work is conducted and findings are presented within hypothetical contexts of realistic interactions between industrial firms and their clients. Through role-playing, students learn to analyze an audience and to state objectives clearly. Role-playing reinforces the realistic training students receive in cooperative education programs by allowing them to experience the pressures of professional communication responsibilities. It also narrows the gap between classroom and industry by focusing students' attention on the results and organizational implications of their work as well as on theory and method.

Technical writing need not be dry either by design or default. Without neglecting precision and conciseness, language and phrasing can be used to assist rather than impede understanding. Putting style in technical writing can be aided by awareness of these devices: alliteration, anaphora, antemetaboly, antithesis, climax, colon, epistrophe, metonymy, and simile. Examples of each are included.

The engineer faces daily the challenge of communicating. To ease this challenge, professional communicators offer practical suggestions based on their own experience and training, combined with their observations of writing in engineering environments. The articles in this issue range from suggesting a variety of techniques for producing clear technical writing to contrasting human and mechanical editors.

An in-house writing course needs a knowledgeable and skilled manager for sponsorship and leadership, technical expertise from inside or outside the company, a well-written text, and a curriculum that addresses the common and recurring in-house communication problems. Having the employee students suggest topics and provide troublesome documents for diagnosis adds interest and generates commitment to the program.

A process is presented for planning a company's overall approach to technical documentation. A hierarchical document tree is used which guides the company to set policies, develop standards, write procedures, and produce drawings and manuals in a coordinated fashion. Using this system, each item that is produced becomes part of an accumulating body of documentation that improves the efficiency of management, production, and contract fulfillment. The program for technical documentation will support the company's quality assurance program.

A scorecard is introduced for evaluation by authors, peers and instructors of technical writing that guides technical professionals to shared standards for good writing. Methods for applying the scorecard to both classroom and industrial situations are described.

Graduate interns in technical writing and editing can be a valuable source of professional support for a publications department, especially if their managers keep certain management principles in mind. Fresh from year-long internships at New Mexico State University's Physical Science Laboratory, two interns briefly describe their experience and offer publications managers eight suggestions for the effective management of technical writing and editing interns. They also include an annotated bibliography of recent literature about internships in technical writing.

Bachelor-, master-, and doctorate-level programs related to technical communication in U.S. colleges and universities are tabulated by state, based on 1982–83 academic data. The programs are grouped into six categories: communication; communication theory; English (technical writing emphasis); technical communication; technical journalism; and technical writing.

New this edition: Up-to-date information on on-line research and computer resources. A unique four-way access system enables users of the Handbook of Technical to find what they need quickly and get on with the job of writing: 1. The hundreds of entries in the body of the Handbook are alphabetically arranged, so you can flip right the topic at hand. Words and phrases in bold type provide cross-references related entries. 2. The topical key groups alphabetical entries and page numbers under broader topic categories. This topical table of contents allows you check broader subject areas for the specific topic you need. 3. The checklist of the writing process summarizes the opening essay on Five Steps Successful Writing in checklist form with page references related topics, making it easy use the Handbook as a writing text. 4. The comprehensive index provides an exhaustive listing of related and commonly confused topics, so you can easily locate information even when you don't know the exact term you're looking for.

This is a lucid, easily readable, and beguiling book that will succeed both in its stated purpose, which is to help people teach themselves to write business and technical material, and in classroom use.

The technique of repetition violates what most writers have learned about good writing (and good manners). It is, however, a prominent and effective rhetorical feature of technical communication. In the way that it is used in technical writing, repetition establishes that technical authors are “reader friendly.”

Accuracy, clarity, and efffectiveness are basic qualities of good technical writing. If there is conflict in accommodating all three simultaneously, or when stylistic choices are being considered, writers should not sacrifice accuracy for clarity nor accuracy and clarity for effectiveness. The priority of accommodation is accuracy, clarity, effectiveness: ACE.

Teachers who consider adopting Technically-Write! must make a crucial decision: Can a technical writing course thrive on a single, elaborate fiction? If the answer is “Yes,” this textbook is well worth considering.

WITH the half-life of an engineering education today being between five and ten years, many industrial organizations are concerned with the technical proficiency and vitality of their engineering employees.

This bibliography contains a list of books, journal articles, and other works that should be useful to writers and editors. The 261 references are in three sections — general, business, and technical writing — and range from 1953 through 1981. The entries in each section are alphabetical by author and, if an author published more than one item, chronological by date of publication.

To effectively communicate with lay audiences, it is helpful to use verve — enthusiasm and energy for an idea. We can add verve to technical writing and attract audiences by using intriguing titles and good beginning sentences. We can hold an audience's attention with colorful, interesting opening paragraphs. We can communicate by using analogies, using colorful words and phrases, using illustrations, using humor, repeating and explaining, being colloquial, translating terms, and detailing implications.

I have begun to suspect that many of the problems I see in technical writing books are introduced by the editor or publisher rather than by the author. A recent letter I received from an author whose book I reviewed sustains that opinion. I see a tendency by publishers to want to create a “universal” book to appeal to a larger audience and make more money. If that impression is true, I think the publishers' efforts are counter-productive.

This paper describes the problem of teaching technical writing to engineering students who are convinced they will never need or use the skills. A possible solution to the problem is to use the case method. The case method changes the nature of the traditional classroom environment by reflecting life on the “outside.” This paper describes how the case method is used in one technical writing course and how it changed some students' minds about the importance of a technical writing course in helping them prepare for their professional careers. The ten-week syllabus is described and samples of “before” and “after” are offered.

Instructors of technical writing can teach Japanese specialists more effectively by being aware of some basic linguistic differences. One of the difficulties with traditional instruction is that it is prepared from the native speaker's point of view. Instruction should be prepared to meet the foreign students' needs. Japanese students experience difficulty in three areas: First, they have trouble with technical terms, often relying too literally on a dictionary to offer a synonym. The consequence is their selecting imprecise terms which in turn produces an awkward expression. Second, Japanese students have trouble with English grammar — in particular with articles, prepositions, tenses, auxiliary verbs, and the subjunctive mood. Finally, they are challenged by rhetoric, that is, choosing and arranging words effectively. Examples of each problem are offered with suggestions on how to make the students more aware of the principles involved.

Bond graphs offer a simple, efficient method for developing models of physical (e.g., mechanical, electrical, thermal, fluid), chemical, economic, and other types of systems. They are a communication device that can be easily interpreted by workers with differing technical and mathematical backgrounds, thereby facilitating interdisciplinary discussion and exchange of information. This paper provides a quick introduction to bond graphs with examples and references.