The author discusses two books that relate technology transfer to professional communication. Stephen Doheny-Farina (Rhetoric, Innovation Technology: Case Studies in Technology Transfers, MIT Press, 1992) builds an argument for a rhetorical perspective on technology transfer; Frederick Williams and David V. Gibson (Technology Transfer. A Communication Perspective, Sage, 1990) describe the current technology transfer process from a communication perspective. In both books, the reinterpretation of technology transfer suggests enhanced roles for professional communicators.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The inclusion of a course in gender issues in a technical communication curriculum affords students the opportunity to confront objectivist and rationalist paradigms still found in the discourse of technical communication. The theoretical and practical foundations of a course that examines feminist inquiry into the production and dissemination of knowledge, as well as the language practices associated with professional writing and communication, are discussed. Issues of gender roles within organizational collaborative work groups, as well as issues related to gendered assumptions in science and technology, are also integral parts of the course design. A description of objectives, assignments, and tests for the course, as well as a full syllabus, are included.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The author analyzes two reports describing a now abandoned MagLev (magnetic levitation) rail system that would have run from Ontario, California, to Las Vegas, Nevada. Unlike traditional technical reports, the Budd Company Transit Division's MagLev reports appeal to utopian visions of futuristic technologies that would solve America's social and economic problems of the 1980s. The writers of these reports employ economic and political rhetoric such as risk modeling, market projections, appeals to the American dream and new frontier mentality, as well as xenophobic Japan-bashing, and downplay technical constraints on rail corridors. An analysis of these reports reveals the ethical and rhetorical dilemmas that writers face when the companies they work for seek funding for untried and untested visionary designs.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The application of work force diversity and business ethics to advance employee growth and satisfaction while improving production and profits for corporations is described. An ethics/diversity synergy model that involves accommodation of change and assimilation into the organizational environment is discussed. A comprehensive, targeted corporate communication program combining consistency, continuity, and content that serves as a vehicle for the ethics/diversity synergy model is described. Activities and communication channels that enhance the ethics/diversity synergy model are examined.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Specific quality assurance techniques used in corporate environments that help communication professionals meet the communication challenges of today's quality revolution are discussed. These quality control techniques stress the necessity of identifying the customer's needs and ensuring that products meet those needs. It is shown that the quality control process is similar to the communicator's concern for the audience, for ensuring that communications address the needs of the audience.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

It is shown that the state of the art in proposal preparation makes available a wide array of techniques and devices to help make the proposal compliant, clear, convincing, and appealing. The techniques discussed are modular format, topical outlining, topic thesis sentences, required figures for topics, graphics oriented (GO) charts, figure enrichment, expanded figure titles, phrased topic titles, action topic titles, key issues visuals and lead topics, topic level storyboards, group wall review of storyboards, proposal manager's win strategy worksheets and customer's requirements worksheets, section level win strategy worksheets, compliance control system and worksheets, and early red team reviewing. In particular, the Sequential Topical Organization of Proposals (STOP) system, which introduced the modular format and topical storyboarding, is described.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

It is argued that foreign students, who spend four or more years studying at US universities, often do not realize how much their years in America have changed them. Nor do they realize that these changes will have a profound effect on them when they return to their native cultures. The difficulty they will have upon returning to their home countries has been called cultural reentry shock. The professional writing classroom seems a good place for educators to make foreign students aware of cultural reentry shock. Teachers can define the various problems associate with this phenomenon, lead students in discussion of the problems, and propose ways to ease the severity of the problems. Writing assignments may be structured in such a way as to allow students to do self analysis of the changes they may have undergone during their years in the US. The students can be encouraged to design their technical documents using their native environments as the source of data, examples, and issues to write about. These documents can also be written for an audience in the native culture, rather than to an American audience.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The overall legal significance of multiple drafts of professional communications is discussed. In particular, some of the legal principles that govern the status of written documents, such as the applicable rules of court are reviewed, and the types of litigation in which previous drafts can figure prominently are examined. The possibility of multiple draft liability in light of the current emphasis on writing as a process, with writers encouraged to turn off the editorial sides of their brains during the early stages of composing, is considered.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

A course design and the material for implementing a course in which students explore the status of women and minorities in the scientific and technical professions and the possible reasons for that status are presented. The course is offered as a model for the integration of intercultural and gender issues into the technical communication classroom. Since cultural and gender issues are neither scientific nor technological but humanities issues, core readings for the course are humanities texts. By working in teams of culturally and gender-diverse colleagues, students explore the intercultural concerns and gender issues in the field of technical communication. Students conduct personal interviews, study published reports, obtain policy statements and current statistics, analyze data, draw conclusions, and submit a comprehensive technical report to audiences who might act on those findings, such as the National Science foundation.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

A model for the design of information products is presented. The model serves as a resource to diagnose ineffective designs as well as a guide for the construction of effective displays. It accommodates many factors affecting the reader's processing of visual displays, including cognitive and perceptual processing, ergonomic factors, and the influence of cultural differences. Because the disciplines employed in this paper are incomplete and often depend upon speculation, the model should not be viewed as complete or comprehensive. However, the model can be modified as information design matures as a discipline.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Many engineering students are unprepared to address public policy issues because their education is fragmented: they tend to focus narrowly on technical solutions to closed-end problems in engineering and science courses, and they do not see how technical communication relates to either engineering or public policy. A multidisciplinary approach to professional communication which addresses this fragmentation is discussed. In the four-semester engineering practices introductory course sequence (EPICS) program, students learn professional communication skills by working in groups on 'real world' projects for which industry and government professionals serve as clients. These open-ended problems involve numerous nontechnical constraints, including a variety of public policy issues. Communication skills and the important connections among competent technical analysis, effective communication, and effective policy formation are reinforced and extended in the policy analysis course and senior design sequence, where students are required to consider and articulate the public policy implications of complex technological projects.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

It is pointed out that, both in methodology and in findings, the investigations of the Challenger disaster by a Presidential Commission and by a Congressional committee demonstrate that even in highly technical matters meaning is socially constructed. The author examines the evidence and testimony before the investigating bodies and finds that, before the launch, NASA officials construed information about O-ring charring in socially contingent ways and ultimately pressed engineers to work under similar assumptions in declaring the shuttle flightworthy. Although the two investigations examined much the same evidence, differing methodological assumptions led them to different conclusions and recommendations. It is found that both investigations emphasized procedural concerns while largely neglecting personal judgment and responsibility, even though the evidence suggests a key role for personal and social judgment. It is concluded that the field of professional communication needs to become more alert to the role of social factors in technical matters.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Three books that provide an overview of current practice in organization communication, look into the future of the field, and a penetrating critique of key assumptions and definitions are reviewed. Several of the issues under consideration-especially organizational culture, generalisation conflicts, and the relationship between communication and productivity-are of special interest to the business community. It is concluded that the issues raised demand consideration by everyone in an organization who writes and speaks on the job, from engineers and managers to technical writers.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The varied treatments, introductions and conclusions receive in technical writing textbooks are explored from the dual perspective of the students who must incorporate the advice into their work and the professors who must present the material to students. The books attempt to focus on specific techniques for generating clear, concise writing, delineate methods of authorial analysis and offer student and professional examples of technical reports. It is concluded that these textbooks are successful when the structure of introductions and conclusions is tied closely to the context of the actual report.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

It is argued that, although corporate writers recognize the power of language as a marketing tool, they often fail to realize the legal implications of their words. Liability issues have become a prime concern in four areas where language plays a major part: investment information, goods and services marketing, safety information, and employee handbooks. It is concluded that understanding the legal problems attendant to these areas will allow corporate writers to better avoid language that risks litigation.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Issues surrounding the ethics and social responsibility of public relations are addressed through a discussion of J. Grunig's (1987) distinction between asymmetrical and symmetric organizational communication. His development of a research tradition for public relations is examined with particular attention given to conceptualizing organizations as political systems and exploring the contrasting presuppositions of asymmetrical and symmetrical models. Symmetrical presuppositions are presented as an ethical and effective framework for public relations theory.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The phrase 'public relations' (PR) is often misunderstood in the business world, and the inaccuracy can be traced back to the evolution of PR. It is argued that companies may prefer to have their PR executives function in roles that are decades out of date, namely, as press agents (phase I) or as publicity agents (phase II) rather than as PR counselors (phase III). The result is that problems that could be solved when they are small grow into crises unnecessarily. The effective phase III PR counselor functions as an 'early-warning system' by following a five-step process to improve the flow of communication between an organization and its many publics.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The author suggests that those interested in creating or refining corporate communication policies should consider ethnographic analysis-observation, interviewing, and collecting situational data-to understand the complex web of meanings that make up organizational culture. She maintains that such an analysis can provide diagnoses of organizational policies and procedures as well as deeper understanding of communication behavior in organizations. As such, ethnographic analysis can promote beneficial change in policy issues.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The so-called computer explosion has had a number of undesirable effects on corporate communications. One of these is that well-established and integrated communication systems have been replaced by poorly designed and mismatched computer systems. This has caused a number of communication functions to be performed and administered by amateur communicators rather than by communication professionals. The effects on people and output have been drastic, even affecting management credibility. Professional communicators are exhorted to reestablish themselves as the experts on corporate communications so that the undesirable effects due to the computer explosion and the amateur communicators can be corrected. Computers can then assume their proper role in corporate communications.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The US Federal Securities Laws extensively regulate disclosure by publicly traded companies. Overregulation has sometimes hindered management's ability to develop effective and timely communications. The author discusses how two recent developments have returned some degree of flexibility and control over the communication process to management. In January 1986, the commission approved the use of the summary annual report. Unlike conventional glossy annual reports, summary reports are subject to substantially less regulation. Companies largely have a free hand to determine the contents of the reports, raising the prospect of shorter, more readable, and more effective documents. The Commission also adopted rules providing companies with access to lists of shareholders holding stock in street name and nominee accounts. With the information, companies can mail corporate communications directly to beneficial owners. Direct communications will permit more frequent communications at reduced costs.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

When the professional who teaches technical communication uses quality control techniques that are common in industry, technical reports and presentations show continual improvement. These techniques emphasize participative management, which in the classroom means student involvement in improving the process of writing a technical paper or making a technical presentation. Another effective technique derived from industrial management is applying quality control at checkpoints during the process instead of relying on control points at its end. A third improvement technique used by successful Japanese managers encourages and rewards suggestions to an extent unmatched even by the best US programs. The author describes the application of these industrial management techniques in the technical communication classroom. She reports that these techniques help create a strong classroom culture that helps students improve the quality of their work.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

It is shown how the staff of a publications department can contribute to the efforts of experienced, as well as new, marketing specialists. The activities of the publications staff are summarized, with suggestions on how to hold down costs and meet publishing schedules for marketing materials. Types of marketing publications are reviewed, with suggestions on how to make them more effective. This discussion is designed for marketing and publications professionals, who might find in it some useful suggestions about how to develop marketing materials more effectively, and for students of marketing and technical and business communication.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The author describes the senior design project he developed as a partial fulfillment of the mechanical engineering technology degree and his experience with the senior design communication curriculum provided to assist students in writing the technical reports for their projects. He discusses the particular writing problems he encountered and how the writing course helped him overcome them. He illustrates his points with quotes from his report.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

“Working alone on an Independent Learning Program can prove to be a lonely experience; it can also take a long time.” That's how Ron Blicq, the principal author of this learning guide, acknowledges what anyone who has ever attempted an independent learning course must surely think about the prospects for actually finishing. This time, however, it will be different; this learning guide was prepared with your loneliness in mind. Stopping just short of making a house call, black bags in hand, Blicq and his associates have gone to a great deal of trouble to give their students a mindset that will make them want to keep going, in spite of all the usual distractions and demands on their time. This is both a comprehensive course in professional communication skills and a carefully thought out independent learning guide.

This index covers all technical items - papers, correspondence, reviews, etc. - that appeared in this periodical during the year, and items from previous years that were commented upon or corrected in this year. Departments and other items may also be covered if they have been judged to have archival value. The Author Index contains the primary entry for each item, listed under the first author's name. The primary entry includes the co-authors' names, the title of the paper or other item, and its location, specified by the publication abbreviation, year, month, and inclusive pagination. The Subject Index contains entries describing the item under all appropriate subject headings, plus the first author's name, the publication abbreviation, month, and year, and inclusive pages. Note that the item title is found only under the primary entry in the Author Index.

AS a teacher of technical and professional writing, I have in recent years become acutely aware of what practicing technical communicators have always known: all communication has effects both intended and unintended. We communicate in dynamic and multidimensional environments and, no matter how hard we try, we sometimes cannot anticipate the consequences of our communications. Two powerful dimensions that we must try to be aware of are the legal and ethical aspects of our communicative activities.

The Professional Communication Society's renewed goal of increasing support to the technical community must have struck a happy chord for some engineers who have responded on a positive note. The following letter from Bill Hibbard, an engineer with the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, is typical of the responses we've received: Your editorial in the September PC Transactions says you would like to hear from us. So, I'm writing yet. I am one of the ‘engineers’ (i.e., not a professional communicator) who belong to the Society. I joined for the very reasons you suggest: to get help and support in my professional communications. As a space systems study manager, I have lots of opportunities to write and to speak. (I also enjoy the English language.) And so it follows that I enjoy and appreciate your publications.

Engineers transmit more words through speech than through printed, film, or electronic media. Even though 15 to 30 percent of an engineer's day may be spent on writing, another 15 to 30 percent is generally spent in technical discussions of current work. Further, most of us can generate 1000 words in a technical discussion in far less time than we can generate 1000 words of final copy for a technical report. Engineers also transmit spoken words in formal presentations, briefings, and meetings.

By surveying a sample of 116 articles and six book reviews, the author shows how contributors described the purposes of engineering writing, the engineering writer's audience, and the engineering writer's task.

This index covers all technical items - papers, correspondence, reviews, etc. - that appeared in this periodical during the year, and items from previous years that were commented upon or corrected in this year. Departments and other items may also be covered if they have been judged to have archival value. The Author Index contains the primary entry for each item, listed under the first author's name. The primary entry includes the co-authors' names, the title of the paper or other item, and its location, specified by the publication abbreviation, year, month, and inclusive pagination. The Subject Index contains entries describing the item under all appropriate subject headings, plus the first author's name, the publication abbreviation, month, and year, and inclusive pages. Note that the item title is found only under the primary entry in the Author Index.

DURING the past few months, members of the Professional Communication Society (PCS) Administrative Committee (AdCom) have been reevaluating their specific areas of activity, establishing long-range goals, and writing formal plans to achieve these objectives.

This book is aimed at persons in the work force who want to acquire good writing skills in order to “increase their chances for success.” The first section, entitled “Writing and the Successful Manager,” emphasizes that all managers should be concerned with creating an image of success and looks at how writing can either enhance or detract from that image. This section also offers helpful guidelines for determining when to write and when not to write, and suggests other options for communicating. The final chapter of this section is a brief overview of the four stages in the process of a major writing project. This section seemed rather premature at this point in the book, before a more thorough analysis of writing projects. The four stages — exploring, planning, drafting, and revising — are crucial to any writing project, but for the discussion of them to have maximum effectiveness in this book, it needs to be more carefully focused on business writing situations.

“The first edition emphasized techniques for sound writing and successful publishing that aid the professional development of the engineer. In the present edition I decided to add several chapters to serve the same purpose.” Engineers and teachers who are familiar with Herbert Michaelson's first edition might wonder about his motives for writing a second. The answer, as this statement from his new preface indicates, is that he decided to add some new content to the original. The result is to make a useful book even better.

The authors describe two of the organizations involved in standards development in the US: the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) and the National Information Standards Organization (NISO). They discuss the mechanism for standards development, the life cycle of a standard, and the revision of American National Standard Z39.18-1974, Guidelines for Format and Production of Scientific and Technical Reports.

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.

It is an honor to succeed Dan Rosich as President of the Professional Communication Society (PCS) of the IEEE. I want to thank the Administrative Committee members for their trust in electing me to this challenging position. We are chartered to serve all members of the IEEE and the engineering profession in general with activities that involve the transmittal of information by any form of communication.

Charlotte, North Carolina, is the site of the IEEE PCS International Conference, October 22–24, 1986. The Conference is the Society's annual opportunity for engineer communicators from around the world to renew acquaintances, learn of new developments, and make new friends.

This index covers all technical items - papers, correspondence, reviews, etc. - that appeared in this periodical during the year, and items from previous years that were commented upon or corrected in this year. Departments and other items may also be covered if they have been judged to have archival value. The Author Index contains the primary entry for each item, listed under the first author's name. The primary entry includes the co-authors' names, the title of the paper or other item, and its location, specified by the publication abbreviation, year, month, and inclusive pagination. The Subject Index contains entries describing the item under all appropriate subject headings, plus the first author's name, the publication abbreviation, month, and year, and inclusive pages. Note that the item title is found only under the primary entry in the Author Index.

Principles of and guidelines for using a conference approach, in which managers and engineers can work together successfully to improve engineers' reports, are discussed. It is argued that most managers feel underprepared for working with an engineer's writing process, but they can make a difference in the quality of the writing without overediting, rejecting, or rewriting reports. Managers need to face two related challenges when facilitating an engineer's report writing: managers can help engineers to write better, but the engineers themselves are responsible for their own writing. It is concluded that with the conference approach, both manager and engineer have clear responsibilities. The manager is responsible for listening and making suggestions. The engineer is responsible for writing and rewriting the report.

This is a `starter' bibliography for those who would like to read further into the field of management communications. It has been compiled from lists of pertinent references submitted by various contributors to the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.

Although the Professional Communication stem is firmly committed to integrating visuals and text, we are also committed to having a quality transactions. Since the inception of the Transactions on Professional Communication, the cover has varied between the table of contents, and artwork. To preserve the integrity of the Transaction's institutional identity, we are, as a matter of policy, conforming to the standard table of contents on the cover. Our pages will continue to emphasize the importance of visuals.

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.

I came to Holcombe's and Stein's new book, Presentations for Decision Makers, after having read and reviewed their earlier book, Report Writing for Decision Makers (IEEE Trans. Prof. Commun., 27(1):47). Therefore, before I opened it, I couldn't resist guessing about several features I thought I would find in the new book. It would have, I (correctly) predicted, a strong emphasis on • Careful audience analysis • The composing process • Visual techniques to develop and refine logical and effective organizational patterns.

With this issue of the Transactions on Professional Communication, we are introducing new personnel and a new policy. With the strides taken by Rudy Joenk to establish a regular publishing schedule and a growing readership, we are ready to move on to a more ambitious publication.