The rationale behind teaching native English speakers to be sensitive to the cultural differences they will find when they communicate with nonnative speakers in the classroom and in the professional marketplace is considered. A teaching strategy that technical writing instructors can use in their classrooms to foster cultural awareness is described in detail. It is concluded that such an educational strategy is important for a future in which interaction with multicultural colleagues becomes inevitable and essential for business success.< <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>

The author compares 1970 and 1990 versions of the US Army publication PS: The Preventive Maintenance Monthly. it is seen that visual communication becomes dated even more quickly than does textual communication. The later version of PS offers a visual design that has been toned down, tamed, subdued; what had been a visual rhetoric with clear (in hindsight) sexist assumptions has yielded to a rhetoric with more professional, more inter-racial, and more neutral assumptions that reflect the changed demands of contemporary culture. Nevertheless, it is asserted that a rhetoric of visual attractiveness will probably continue to exploit gender, and that attempts to neutralize gender bias are likely to fail (to some extent), for only the distance of time allows sexism to be seen.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Despite forecasts of the increasing use of cross-functional project teams in industry, too little is known about how such teams function and how they might come to function more effectively. One organization, a small manufacturing firm in the Southeast, and members of a selected cross-functional project team consented to have a researcher present during the life cycle of a single project. Reflections based on the resulting case study highlight three overarching areas of concern in cross-functional designs: first, equity as an evolving blueprint for project-team work; secondly, trust as the foundation upon which solid progress depends; and thirdly, authority as the visible framework of the process and products of the team's work.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Distribution of documents in electronic form, often called soft copy, permits more rapid sharing of information and the acceleration of new knowledge; however, barriers to soft-copy document distribution have arisen out of the diversity of the tools currently available in publishing technology. The authors address solving these problems by means of the development of a public font standard, and novel tools and services. They describe a cooperative effort now under way among graphic arts professionals, representatives of industry, and national and international standards-making organizations to develop such a standard along with the associated tools and services.

Increasingly, documentation for computer systems and products addresses diverse audiences, ranging from professional computer engineers to novice readers who have never used a computer. This diversity presents a challenge to the computer documentation professional: how to address the needs of both novice and sophisticated users? Effective user documentation must be procedure-oriented: how to combine this goal with the fact that different user audiences have different goals and face different problems? A discussion is presented of the challenge of audience diversity in computer documentation. Using case studies (i.e. an accounting product, a database management system, and a decision support system), it reviews and recommends different ways to meet the needs of various audiences.