Analytical reports, being one of the most difficult genres to teach in a technical writing course, are best taught through the "open case" method. Open cases take advantage of the fact that students are already situated in a workplace environment, the college campus. Engineering students can use the genre to impose order on this chaotic environment, conducting various forms of research on engineering-related campus issues. A process for developing open case assignments is provided.

We often hear the expression that mathematics is the universal language of science and technology. Yet, while mathematics can cut across certain communicative boundaries, it is not the actual language of the sciences, for that role has already been filled by English. The author considers how English is the international language of technical communication.

As multimedia communication continues to grow, online technologies have dramatically changed the ways we use and present information-so much so, that we need new theories and models for understanding how technology and content are related in the new communication environment. The paper presents a theory of digital architecture, explains how SGML, HTML, and information architectures are related in the creation of a new online literacy and rhetoric, and discusses concepts, skills, and resources needed for educating tomorrow's technical communicators.

Computer mediated communication (CMC) via the Internet is fast becoming a significant communication medium for technical and professional communicators. Research emerging from a number of disciplines is beginning to articulate the numerous social and organizational factors involved in the use of CMC. A significant question for communicators to ask is how organizations, which traditionally prefer structured and accountable communication, can exist in the open ended and unregulated world of the Internet. A rhetorical analysis of the protest over Lotus MarketPlace illustrates the complexity of traditional corporate communication in the nonhierarchical and often highly emotive forum of the Internet. Organizations can interact within this complexity more successfully by changing their rhetorical strategies.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Socializing technology is the rhetorical goal of technology transfer. Specialists from all walks of the technical communications profession can participate in this goal by involving themselves in key processes such as developing market awareness, creating inreach and outreach programs, and facilitating collaborative ventures. By broadening the market for our services in the technology transfer movement, we will increase the scope and value of our skills in a high-visibility endeavor that will be on the national agenda for years to come.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Approaches to using visual language in a cultural context can be placed on a continuum, with global (universal) on one end and culture-focused on the other. Each approach reveals contrasting assumptions about three central design issues: perception, aesthetics and pragmatics. The global approach is characterized by attempts to invent an objective, universal visual language or to define such a language through perceptual principles and empirical research. The culture-focused perspective is founded on the principle that visual communication is intimately bound to experience and hence can function only within a given cultural context, to which designers must be sensitive. While the modernist, universal approach has been losing ground to the postmodern, culture-focused approach, the two complement each other in a variety of ways and, depending on the rhetorical situation, offer pragmatic benefits and drawbacks.

Suggests that current theories about how even the simplest elements of graphical design function in professional communication do not adequately convey the complexity of the element's actual role in communication. By showing how producers of computer interfaces rely on the possibility of multiple interpretive trajectories in the use of any sign and how users of such signs respond in ways that are far from being totally predictable, we argue that it is best to think of the communication act not as a simple exchange of information between two minds (producer and user) but rather as a field of possibilities that requires flexibility and an experimental attitude from both the producer and the user. Examining theoretical developments in the history of physics and cognitive science, we contend that the dominant paradigms of understanding communication-the old cognitive (or computational) model and the social constructionist model as currently employed in the fields of composition and technical communication-fall short of accounting for even fairly straightforward exchanges of information. In place of the communication triangle that both of the old models rely upon, we offer a new model that uses the concept of "consensual domains" as the basis for a general theory of rhetoric. As a starting point for our investigation, we present the history of a still evolving sign-the trash-can icon in the user interface of the Macintosh operating system-from the perspective of a single (also still evolving) human user.

Technology informs many aspects of our lives. Many critics perceive technology as a system of values, seeing it as an incomplete "ethic". I explore the converse. Using Ellul's (1990) technique (translated as "technologism"), I ask, "Can ethics be technologized?" I show how the Challenger disaster delimits the range of technologism with regard to ethics. Collecting additional technical information cannot of itself prevent ethical lapses. Furthermore, the investigations implicitly show the assumption that technologism can apply to ethics in their call for additional procedures. The recognition that procedures already in place were adequate, however, shows this assumption to be fallacious. I also show that trying to technologize ethics is a recent instance of an old reductive fallacy. The ancient sophists were criticized for trying to technologize both rhetoric and ethics. In recent philosophy, too, many critics insist that ethics cannot be reduced, systematized or technologized. Ethics then is innately problematic, so ethical choices must always be continually deliberated among people in an indeterminate way.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Technical writing tries to be "objective" and "audience-oriented", but it neglects an element of persuasion known in ancient rhetoric as "ethos". This concept translates from the Greek as "character", but that English word does not convey the concept's richness; nor does the Latin "persona", a term sometimes used to describe the narrative voice in technical prose. "Ethos" is the root of "ethics", which tends to objectify values and choices, alienating them from the people making them. In this paper, I suggest that an understanding of "ethos" in all its richness can help writers of technical prose to produce work that, in relation to traditionally "objective" prose, is both more readable and more ethical.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

From the time that rhetoric first differentiated itself from philosophy there has been a widespread belief that the craft of rhetoric is, to a considerable extent, the art of deception with impunity. As early as Plato's Gorgias dialogue and as recently as a proposed rule from the Food and Drug Administration, one finds those who argue that even the skills of technical and scientific communication are, in effect, artful forms of misrepresentation. These critics indict not only those who sell and apologize-easy targets-but also those those avowed purpose is merely to make messages clearer. Can it be true that all forms of communication skill, even those that enhance clarity and precision, are merely elegant forms of lying? Does the word "rhetoric" deserve its tainted historical connotation? Or, even worse, is writing itself an inherently self-serving (i.e. misleading) way of adapting to one's environment?.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The subject of ethics in graphic design has been only lightly treated in the literature regarding issues in technical communication. Because there is great potential for deception, conscious or unconscious, through graphic design, readers and writers of technical communication should develop an ethical sense and apply it to technical design.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

People who write in English as a second or foreign language often find it difficult to write clear, coherent, idiomatic English. Contrastive rhetoric studies the structure of language beyond the sentence (discourse), as well as the influence of culture on writing. Findings from contrastive research should be incorporated into writing instruction and teacher training to give nonnative speakers of English more help in writing for the world of work.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Kenneth Burke's New Rhetoric (1951) was meant to describe language as the basis of the interaction of individuals, objects, and courses of events in the human communication process. However, his theory can also be a useful rhetorical model to explain hypertext as a language event that relies on nested dialogues of visible text and invisible scripting. Moreover, Burke's belief that the purpose of discourse is to share knowledge with others provides a striking parallel to Vannevar Bush's original theory about hypertext. Even Burke's metaphor of a drama fits the purpose and process of hypertext.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Organizations such as universities and corporations are increasingly using electronic text media such as electronic mail and conferencing systems to communicate with associates. However, technical communicators currently have no rhetorical strategies to deal with these new and unfamiliar media; they must generate new strategies to communicate and persuade through electronic text. This paper discusses the characteristics of electronic text that call for new rhetorical strategies, examines how users function rhetorically in the new media, and outlines several strategies that technical communicators can use when communicating through electronic text.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

To better understand the complex relationship between academic researchers and funding agencies, the author interviewed 15 academic researchers regarding their views, suggestions, and difficulties in coordinating the proposal process. Data suggest that academic research funding is highly rhetorical, and that successful researchers have well-developed managerial, organizational, and communication skills. The author concludes by describing the competitiveness and complexity of contemporary research relationships, and by briefly outlining guidelines for improving collaboration between researchers and funders.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

New technology has enabled the audience to shape a writer's message. Today, publishing technical information often consists of letting the receivers search the files, extract what they judge relevant, sequence and organize it any way they wish, and even print or display it to their own specifications. Often, the writer is not creating deliberately worded and presented messages but rather, feeding molecular articles to rhetorically neutral databases, from which readers may extract what they wish. Such technologies as SGML even further limit writers and deprive them of such basic presentation devices as deciding where pages will begin and end. The rhetorical implications of technology that empowers readers and enfeebles writers are reviewed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Professional educational philosophers C.A. Bowers and D.J. Flinders (1990) describe the classroom as an ecology comprising interrelated linguistic and cultural patterns that determine how information is communicated in the classroom. their classroom ecology model centers on the observation of three interconnected areas: the metaphors that the teacher and the textbook use to introduce students to the formal and informal curriculum, the manner in which the teacher frames student expertise and classroom relationships, and the nonverbal communication between teacher and students. Using Bowers and Flinders' model, a technical writing class taught by a teacher who emphasizes relationships, understanding and acceptance, and collaboration was studied. The teacher's metaphorical language, framing of instruction and student relationships, and nonverbal language are shown to reflect a rhetorical approach to technical writing, a caring approach to teaching, and a supportive, community environment for learning. This ethnographic study provides a snapshot of how one teacher defines technical writing and how he answers the question of how is should be taught.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

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 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>

Starting with the premise that there are two different ways of viewing readers, as empirical subjects and as rhetorical participants, the author presents a taxonomy of roles that readers play within technical documents. Even though these roles are shaped by distinct, often contradictory, theoretical traditions, they take on an independent existence during the reading process. Actual readers can assume a variety of roles, depending on the nature of the document and the willingness of each particular reader. Further, the author argues that this taxonomy is not complete, but subject to changes and additions as new technologies are developed requiring new roles to be played. It is concluded that researchers and teachers should encourage this more fluid view of audience in usability testing labs and classroom settings.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Two recent books that extend the claim that scientific inquiry is rhetorical are compared and contrasted: Science in Action: How to Follow Scientists and Engineers Through Society by Bruno Latour, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1987, and The Rhetoric of Science by Alan G. Gross, Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, 1990. Latour argues the importance of social networks in science: claims become facts when numerous resources and allies are gathered to support them. Gross applies rhetoric as defined by Aristotle to scientific texts and argues that the claims of science are solely the products of persuasion.< <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>

Drawing on recent studies of visual design and current feminist theory, and based on a research project in which males and females were asked to create visual representations of factual information, a feminist theory of design is posited. Three primary positions relevant for technical communicators are argued: (1) social constructionism is a feminist perspective; (2) technical communicators need to eliminate the hierarchy of visuals and text and represent information by balancing both; and (3) technical communicators need to emphasize the rhetorical, contextual situations in which visuals and texts co-mingle.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The point beyond which promotions, raises, and job opportunities in general are defined to women and minorities solely because of their sex or their race, the so-called glass ceiling, is addressed. A communication-based theory of the organizational glass ceiling is outlined. The theory considers communication style, regardless of race or gender, to be an organizational member's most critical business behavior. The theory suggests a way to understand communication style in the context of the glass ceiling.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

To discover the similarities and differences between primary and secondary computer manuals, and to account for the popularity of the secondary texts, two best-selling books for word processing and spreadsheet programs are compared to documentation supplied by the manufacturer. A heuristic for analyzing software documentation based on cognitive and rhetorical principles is developed and applied to the corporate documentation for (WordPerfect 5.0) in contrast to Stewart's Using WordPerfect 5 from Que, and the corporate documentation from 'Lotus 1-2-3' in contrast to Gilbert and Williams's 'The ABC's of 1-2-3 from Sybex.' It is shown that the trade texts from Que and Sybex contain more conceptual background information than the corporate documentation and differ in their rhetorical stance: the writers provide a richer context by giving more examples for applying the software; the writers provide global and structural frameworks; the writers use persuasive marketing techniques to ease the reader's anxieties and remind them of the software's benefits; and the writers identify themselves.< <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 veteran technical writers and editors sometimes suspect that the professors who teach technical writing and editing are too deeply immersed in their academic culture to translate effectively into the classroom the world of work culture in which technical writing and editing are practised. It is argued, however, that the two cultures are remarkably alike, sharing the same goal-to improve communication. Differences arise primarily in the approaches taken to achieve that common goal. Drawing on 25 years of experience as a visiting professor in a university writing program, the author discusses the different approaches that industry and academia take to such topics as grammar, rhetoric, audience, editing, artwork, decision-making, and collaborative writing.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Social constructionist theories suggest that scientific knowledge is the product of socially created conceptual frameworks. These theories have influenced the study of scientific writing because of their emphasis on persuasion and consensus. These issues are developed by the authors of three recent books: Gould demonstrates the social nature of science; Bazerman shows the social nature of the development of scientific genres; and Myers explores scientific writing as socially mediated narratives.

Many well-written online documents fail because their visual design does not account for the many differences between the paper page and display screen, nor do they take advantage of the display power of the computer. The author provides guidelines for practitioners based on extensive research on computer display. It is concluded that the visual design of the online document should be crafted to match its use, ensuring displays that are scanned quickly and read reliably.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Correction of errors is a major part of the editor's task. However, the definition of what is an error, and what is correct, is not clearcut; rule transformations and reader context can affect the dividing line between the two. The author examines the concept of error from phenomenological and rhetorical perspectives, and suggests a model based on communication economics.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

As the means by which written communication is conveyed, typography is in many respects analogous to classical rhetoric. The elements of persuasion, emotion and pleasure, balance, perception, dynamics, style, form, and shape are discussed as they apply to both the concept being communicated and the typographic medium.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Technical writing in English by Japanese authors is examined. It is pointed out that Japanese rhetorical structure addresses an underlying communication goal that is very different from the goal of Aristotle's persuasive discourse; Japanese technical writers also consider elements such as beauty, surprise, and easy flow as desirable measures of good writing. This fundamental difference in approaching the problem of writing often produces confusing results.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The author provides an overview of the application of cartoons in technical information. The theory of cartoons is tied to a rhetorical view of communication in that cartoons are deliberate deformations of realities. In addition to this rhetorical basis, the cartoon also depends on cultural biases and the recognition of certain iconic types to be useful communication elements. Based on a discussion of this theoretical and historical background, several guidelines for the use of cartoons in technical information are offered.

Professional technical communicators and academicians who study and teach technical communication have opposing perspectives on the ethics that should guide the work of communicating technical information. Valuing most the well-being of their profession and the organizations in which they work, the professionals advocate an ethics in which competence is the principle and market success is the purpose that guides good technical communication. The academicians, valuing most the well-being of the larger society in which all technology is situated, advocate an ethics in which responsibility is the guiding principle and the protection of that society's interests is the guiding purpose. The author considers that an alternative perspective founded on rhetoric might be acceptable to both. He makes cooperation the principle and compromise the purpose that should guide technical communication, suggesting an ethic in which open interaction and collaborative judgment become the context in which technical communication functions.

The author considers ethical issues involved in technical advertising by examining several documents produced by a major insurance company to promote and explain a health care plan. The documents (newspaper advertisement, followup brochure, and policy) are evaluated for truthfulness, according to general rhetorical criteria as well as legal and industry standards. The author concludes that technical writers are obliged to acquaint themselves with a variety of ethical principles governing advertising practices. To ensure that readers understand the truth, technical writers should also apply a variety of readability assessments and edit documents carefully to ensure that advertising and promotional literature are intertextually consistent with contracts, warranties, and policies.

The general area of communications is a large field in which to swing a cat, or to edit a journal: • It encompasses not only written documentation, but oral (and oral/visual and even video) presentations, plus those pictures that are worth a thousand words. Even those that aren't. • It includes not only what is written, said, and depicted, but the techniques with which they are produced. Communications technology is changing daily, and it is changing the ways we work. It addresses an audience ranging from the publications professional with 30 years experience in getting books out the door, through the PhD in rhetoric, to the engineer who is simply trying to communicate research results to management.

Verbal and written language has become so dominant that it virtually excludes the perceptual languages from the thought process. However, Musil [1], in keeping with his thesis on the “other condition,” posits that visual and verbal statements must be kept in mind in a kind of complementary condition, if valid communication is to occur. But is visible language currently being used properly as an integral part of communication? Is it a means for addressing falling literacy levels? Can it be used as a tool to assist the programming function? To see, or not to see: that is the question.

The author argues that technical writers need to pay close attention to writing good headings because headings not only provide information to users but also motivate users to examine a document. Writing a good heading is a rhetorical action; that is, the writer first determined how the writer wants users to perceive the document and then uses language and structure to project that image.

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 author examines the classical notion of persona (the role adopted by the writer) as a term useful in analyzing technical documents. It isolates rhetorical strategies that are components of the user-friendly persona and briefly speculates on the usefulness of those strategies given the interactive relationship between the writer and the audience.

Since World War II, proposal writing, especially that which involves government funding, has become one of the most important communicative functions of the industries that employ engineers and technical writers. An immense literature on the subject of how to prepare, write, and submit proposals has grown up in the last 25 years. The 80-item bibliography provided here is designed to help the engineer, the technical writer, and the engineering manager find and use the literature most appropriate and helpful in the overlapping realms of industry and government. The bibliography lists sources of information under the topics of education, evaluation, format and preparation, general, grantsmanship, management, and style and rhetoric. The precis provide a general guide to each of these topics; occasional annotations supplement this information.

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.”

To increase general readers' understanding and sympathy for scientific and technical subject matter, authors need a literary form that allows the material to be effectively related to common human experience. The imposing formality of scientific papers and technical reports must yield to the organic form and rhetorical richness of the personal essay. Stephen Jay Gould's essay “Of Bamboos, Cicadas, and the Economy of Adam Smith” demonstrates how the use of organic form and rhetorical techniques like examples, analogies, metaphors, historical background, and general personalism can enhance communication with nonspecialists. Excellence in essay writing is achieved only through careful planning, writing, and rewriting, but effective interpretation of science and technology for the intelligent general reader is worth the effort.

In A Guide for Writing Better Technical Papers, Craig Harkins and Daniel Plung show admirable concern with all aspects of the writing process through their editorial comments and their selection of articles. Unfortunately for the less dedicated writer, the text mixes theory and practice unevenly. And the editors' concern with publication detracts somewhat from the importance of day-to-day writing tasks of the technical writer-communication tasks as important as the finished technical article. Let us consider each of the five sections they include in the text: “Getting Started,” “The Rhetoric of Papers and Articles,” “Tricks of the Trade,” “Some Research Results,” and “Following Through.”

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.

Winston Churchill was not a “natural” orator but he overcame his handicaps so well that he was awarded a Nobel Prize for his writings and “brilliant oratory.” Seven lessons in speech making are abstracted from a study of his life and oratory: (1) Know the language; (2) listen to good speakers; (3) endure any handicap; (4) read good books; (5) use rhetorical devices; (6) prepare and practice; and (7) show feelings and personality.

The use of emotionally laden words in the scientific literature, especially on controversial topics, tends to undermine objectivity. Readers begin to respond emotionally rather than rationally. To investigate this phenomenon on some systematic basis, we reviewed all the articles and letters published in two major medical journals in 1971 on the subject of commonly used psychoactive drugs, Many of these articles contained words used rhetorically rather than scientifically, which undoubtedly altered opinions or reinforced prejudices among many readers, words such as “alarming,” “abuse,” “addiction,” and “epidemic.” We believe that such rhetoric has no place in the scientific literature. It involves value judgments and not scientific evaluation, and as such concerns social and not scientific issues. We conclude, then, that authors must avoid language that persuades rather than explains. Moreover, editors must accept a special responsibility to prevent semantic abuses from creeping into their journals.