This study examines how students enrolled in two Web-based sections of a technical writing class performed compared to students enrolled in a conventional version of the class. Although no significant difference in student performance was found between the two learning conditions, our data reveal intriguing relationships between students' prior knowledge, attitudes, and learning styles and our Web-based writing environment. One finding that we focus on is that reflective, global learners performed significantly better online than active, sequential learners, whereas there was no difference between them in the conventional class. Our study highlights the complexity of effective teaching and the difficulty of making comparisons between the online and the classroom environments. In particular, we maintain that the transfer of active learning strategies to the Web is not straightforward and that interactivity as a goal of instructional Web site design requires significant elaboration.

Recent years have seen increased attention to the examination of the genres that people use in professional communication. C. Berkenkotter and T.N. Huckin's book "Genre Knowledge in Disciplinary Communication" (1995) is an important contribution to this discussion. Their view of genre has important implications for the teaching of professional writing. Their view gives us an insight into the ways in which people both acquire and use genre knowledge as they participate in the knowledge-producing activities of their field or profession. It shows us how important the process of genre acquisition is in the learning of disciplinary genre knowledge. Linguistic knowledge is necessary for effective communication, but it is not sufficient for writers to achieve their goals. Just as important, writers need to understand the underlying views, assumptions and aims of a field. They need control of the rhetoric through which they are expressed. They also need to understand the history, knowledge and expectations of their particular area, and to locate their writing clearly within the context of this work. The notion of genre can provide students with the tools for both recognizing and adapting to the changing genre landscapes that their professional lives will travel across. While we cannot hope to predict all of our students' possible future genre needs, we can help them ask questions of texts, of contexts, and of themselves, so they can produce and understand the kinds of texts which they need to control in their professional lives.

The Writing Program faculty at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), developed a unique three-quarter writing sequence for College of Engineering freshmen. These students write a variety of engineering documents: design proposals, project management plans, status reports, instructions, poster papers, etc. The genres in the sequence, their identification, and their teaching result from outreach to the engineering community. Although this curriculum benefits from a three-quarter sequence, the methods used are applicable to shorter courses in academic and industry settings. This curriculum may be of interest to industry professionals who recruit or who wish to contribute to undergraduate engineering curriculum innovations.

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.

Geographically distributed software development projects have been made possible by rapid developments primarily within the data communication area. A number of companies recognize that distributed collaboration has great potential for the near future. The article describes the empirical study of a cooperative student project located at two different geographical sites. The project was carried out at two universities: one in Sweden and one in Finland. The initial goals were to give the students the opportunity to learn about the practical aspects of cooperation between two geographically separate institutions and to study specific problems anticipated by the teachers with regard to communication, coordination, language, culture, requirements' handling, testing, and bug fixing. The article focuses on communication and coordination within the cooperative project, as these were identified as the most significant problem areas. We also thought that these areas were the most interesting and the ones most likely to lead to improvements. The article not only describes our findings but also gives hints about what to think about when running similar projects, both with respect to project related issues and teaching issues.

Foreign engineers and scientists must publish their research in professional journals in English, but they often lack the proficiency and skills to do so successfully. The commentary describes a course that teaches these skills to Ph.D. students before they enter the job market. The techniques described are also effective tools for teaching professionals in the workplace.

Practitioners of research in a particular field have extensive knowledge of how to operate successfully in that field and communicate effectively with others, within the boundaries of their own language and culture. However, when it comes to inducting novice researchers into these skills, difficulties are often encountered, and more so when the novice comes from a different language and cultural background. At the same time, specialists in English teaching or cross-cultural communication aiming to prepare novices to enter such a research environment often lack access to the details of how things are really done there. At The University of Adelaide, South Australia, this situation is being addressed through a new program for international postgraduate students in their first semester of enrolment. This Integrated Bridging Program (IBP) relies on collaboration between the discipline specialist researcher and language and learning specialists and is informed by the perspectives of systemic functional linguistics (SFL). This paper presents an overview of the IBP, followed by details of its operation in the Faculty of Engineering. Information is included on outcomes of the collaboration in specific instances, and how SFL theory has been applied to develop a flexible and effective induction which is highly valued by both staff and student participants.

The article discusses designing electronic writing classrooms and the various decisions that classroom designers face during this complex task. In particular, it considers four key stages in the design process: establishing a plan, developing a room design, working within budgets, and maintaining a smoothly running computerized classroom. The article provides specific suggestions in these four stages informed by sound instructional goals appropriate to the teaching of technical communication.

From both a technological and educational perspective, cyber education creates a multitude of challenges for students and instructors. Both novice and experienced computer users alike must master the use of Internet tools quickly, while also working to overcome conceptual misunderstandings about the technology and its root metaphors. The technology also makes commenting on student documents cumbersome but does have the benefit of creating a digitized record of students' writing processes, while also allowing for the online publication of students' work. Other benefits include more active learning and better interactive collaboration. Preliminary assessments further indicate that, despite critics' concerns about the rigor and quality of distance learning, for a variety of technical and social reasons, student work is equal to and sometimes better than that of on-campus students.

The article discusses how assignments using the Internet can be integrated in an introductory technical communication course without compromising two fundamental pedagogical goals of the course: teaching students how to gather data and how to evaluate it. Three traditional introductory technical communication course assignments (instructions, literature review, and analytical report) that utilize Internet resources to achieve these two goals are described.

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>

Examines several aspects of communication methods ('vehicles') and the various types of progress that have been made over the years. Much of the progress we have made in communicating is rooted strongly in our past. Much of the future of our communication vehicles will be rooted in our present and our understanding of our present. In this paper, we focus our discussion on six aspects of communication: (1) communication vehicles for teaching and learning; (2) forums for communication-wide interchange of ideas; (3) vehicles for search-and-retrieval of information; (4) the richness of the communication media set; (5) venues of communication-where we communicate and the tools we use; and (6) the idea of linearity in communication.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Existing research on lecture comprehension and note-taking, and a course designed to teach nonnative English-speaking college students lecture comprehension strategies and note-taking techniques, are discussed. Nine listening strategies and eight note-taking techniques, focusing on both macro- and micromarkers in lecture discourse, are introduced. The strategies and techniques are taught progressively and are accompanied by specially designed listening tasks. Improved student performance is shown by a t-test comparing the pre-test and the post-test scores. Suggestions are made to native English speaking lecturers on how they may adapt their lecturing styles and methods of presentation to help non-native audiences cope with lectures successfully.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The early planning of a project organization and process is critical to the eventual success of a large, complex project. Beth Israel Medical Center, a 1180 bed teaching hospital in New York City, embarked in 1991 on a plan to implement clinical information computer systems throughout its facilities. This project is described. The project manager considered the unique cultural and organizational aspects of Beth Israel in order to develop a strategy for the project. Strategy objectives included promoting broad educational awareness, establishing quick project momentum and visibility, gaining the approval of a competing organizational department, and developing a productive and effective project team. The start-up phase of any project can make or break the project. If one does not set the correct tone and build the correct organization, one can easily doom the project before it has ever had a chance to develop.< <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 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>

Publications on the broader history of technical communication that have appeared over the past decade are reviewed. It is suggested that historical studies can easily be pursued in North America owing to the availability of source material. Recent microfilm or microprint publications of both primary sources and reference guides to them are identified. Three examples of engineering reports published in the early 19th century are discussed, and their historical implications are explored. The author holds that there is a role for history in the teaching and research of technical communication.< <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 preparing people to work collaboratively allows them to experience some issues of professional ethics, cooperation, responsibility, and decisionmaking. A model for teaching people to work collaboratively is described. A teaching team, comprised of a technical communication professor and a clinical psychologist, explains group dynamics and the three phases of group development to students. The team then asks the members of a group to rehearse roles and discuss various issues that may arise in their groups. It is concluded that people experience and work through issues of collaboration and professional ethics before they begin to work as a group.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The journal article is a uniquely effective case assignment for teaching technical communication students a central, work-world, writing demand faced by all professional writers: accurately defining and effectively writing to multiple, hierarchical audiences. The author examines how two technical communication students successfully construct journal articles based on research from analytical reports completed earlier in the term. The students analyze their target audience(s) and revise their reports into technical articles by assessing their purposes in writing the article; by selecting the most appropriate journal and audience for the article; and by adjusting the article's topical slant, organization, content, and style to fit both the target journal's editorial needs and the interests of its audience(s).< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

A rationale and description are presented for an approach to teaching ethics, as a process rather than a product, in a technical writing course. The students carry out a series of related assignments based on the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI). The intent is that by writing and speaking about SDI technologies, students will develop the ability to form responsible value judgments in addition to doing factual reporting. To develop their sense of ethical reasoning, they are encouraged to use generalizations that evaluate the subject rather than just describe it. It is suggested that this method of raising ethical awareness could easily be adapted for use in professional seminars.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The above mentioned paper (W.A. Kennedy, ibid., vol.PC-31, no.3, p.130-4, Sept. 1988) put forth a case for using speaking assignments in the technical classroom as a means of addressing deficiencies in the oral communication skills of graduates of technical programs. In an introduction to this initial article, readers were asked to submit their critical comments and observations in order to provide the basis for a followup dialogue. The author summarizes and discusses the ensuing comments. He explores areas of general agreement with the suggestions contained in the initial article and areas of concern, and he offers some general conclusions and recommendations.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The use of speaking assignments in the technical classroom is proposed as a means of addressing deficiencies in the oral communications skills of graduates of technical programs. Why current communications courses have failed to address the oral skills improvement needs of the technical student is analyzed, and the special advantages of the technical classroom as a forum for improving speaking skills are identified. Some considerations for designing and evaluating speaking exercises are outlined, and some of the concerns that might occur to the technical educator considering such a program are anticipated.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

A student perspective is provided on the process of teaching technical writing as a process parallel to computer programming. The idea that each follows a recognizable series of discrete steps is presented, and the steps that parallel each other are contrasted.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

It is suggested that students can learn the fundamentals of project leadership, team writing, and production of a major document if the teacher plans and structures the assignments for the project leader so that the project leader and the student writers share the same understanding of the document, know the lines of authority for decisions, and see how individual parts fit into the whole. The principles of cooperation necessary to complete the project also engage the students in issues of professional ethics.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

As more colleges develop technical communication programs, often to boost sagging enrollments, more attention must be paid to the proper balance in such programs. Employers will want high quality in the programs from which they hire their technical writers. Engineers and other professionals may be interested in the training of those people who help them produce the manuals, proposals, and reports by which industry functions. This paper presumes that coursework must be balanced among several disciplines of learning, that theory must be balanced against practice, that course demands must be balanced against teaching innovation, and that the scholarly concerns of the academy must be balanced against the pragmatic concerns of industry.

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 syllabus for a course in teaching technical writing is presented. The course is intended for graduate students, who will in turn use the course material to teach technical writing to college undergraduates.

After 25 years of practical experience as a technical writer, I turned to teaching. During the first several years I tried a number of texts, but finally abandoned them, preferring to develop my own materials. I also learned to utilize, whenever possible, writing from the students' professional fields, because it was real motivation for them. It seemed to me that most texts were a mishmash of information and examples happened upon (not chosen or written) by the textbook author, and then adapted poorly to the book's purpose.

Writing last year in a Carnegie Foundation special Report, Nell Eurich reported that “more and more companies are teaching analytical skills and critical thinking” in corporate training classrooms (Corporate Classrooms, p. 77). A recent Associated Press story tells of Xerox Corporation's decision to spend $5 million to start a nonprofit institute at its Palo Alto Research Center that will “study how people think and learn and … try to develop new, more effective ways of teaching.” David Kearns, Xerox chairman and chief executive officer, is quoted as saying that “one of every three major corporations now is teaching new workers basic reading, writing, and mathematics.”

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.

An approach to teaching writing ability is described that involves having students examining their present writing behaviors, experience very diverse writing processes, and research writing processes. An appendix provides an extensive listing of selected resources on writing.

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.

Clarkson University is developing software tools to help students write with more skill and thought. The new programs include a powerful word processor, a spelling checker, an authoring system, numerous pre-writing programs, and computerized prose analyzers. The components of the Clarkson writing system function as an integrated whole, setting a standard for writing packages. Early use of these programs indicates that the computer is making itself indispensable to the writing teacher.

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.

By their very nature as training grounds, engineering classes establish a misleading context for writing. Through the writing done for these classes, students learn to ignore their readers, to misunderstand the purpose of the writing they will do on the job, and to misconstrue the crucial process of revising their texts. Nevertheless, despite the liabilities that may hamper their efforts to teach students about writing, professors of engineering must not abandon their efforts to encourage clear writing. Neither teachers of engineering nor teachers of writing can alone turn students into capable writers. Working together, however, they may succeed.

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 ergonomics of word processings suggestions for teaching writing in the classroom and workplace, systems for improving technical reporting, and mathematics editing are discussed in this issue.

This book tells you virtually everything you care to know about letter writing; resumes; interviews; sales and customer relations letters; libraries and their resources; note-taking; the differences between a summary and an abstract; preparing and using questionnaires; designing visuals; writing instructions; sales, progress, trip, and incident reports; and various types of oral reports, from telephone conversations to formal speeches. It is written for undergraduate students preparing for such careers as (I quote from the first chapter) “executive secretary, computer operator, forestry, law enforcement, dental hygienist, and nurse.” This comprehensiveness is either a strength or a drawback, depending on the use you wish to make of the book. A teacher's guide is available.

This book uses as a springboard the studies conducted by Roger Sperry and associates at the California Institute of Technology during the 1950s and '60s, who determined that the two hemispheres of the brain “employ different methods or modes of processing information.” Studies of the left and right hemispheres still abound, appearing in recent national publications and still affecting the teaching of cognitive theory. As Dr. Edwards searched for a better way to teach her students to learn to draw well, she settled on the premise that one can consciously learn a specific set of skills, such as drawing, by exercising the right hemisphere of the brain — the creative side we normally associate with intuition and talent rather than conscious learning.

In making speeches or dealing with news media, engineers will be effective to the extent their language is understandable. Skill in avoiding the use of jargon can be developed with practice. Opportunities to talk to teachers are easily created and are especially valuable because of the teacher-student multiplier effect. A dual goal in public speaking is to tell the audience how you feel on an issue and to find out how the audience feels about it. Advice on dealing with news media is provided.

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.

Research about writing and teaching writing indicates that it involves the simultaneous coordination of hand, eye, and brain. Because of the inseparable nature of thinking and writing, writing need not be preconceived and planned but can be a means for discovering a purpose and inventing a plan. Good writers can be self-made, and taught, as well as born. One learns to write by writing, over a period of time. Trainers should be successful writers (for credibility) and adapt their methods to individual needs and differences.

We all share some basic information about our native language but we are not conscious of ever having learned or worked out the principles involved. For example, we “know” upon hearing them that certain sound sequences could not be words in our language although we have never been taught the principles that govern English word structure. In addition, we possess information about language which could not plausibly be attributed to learning. This unlearned knowledge as well as the knowledge acquired without overt teaching is attributed to innate mechanisms-the consequence of the genetic endowment that differentiates between humans and other species.

The teaching system of the Open University of Britain is briefly summarized and related to a feedback model of the educational process. It is shown that the main further development needed is to improve the remedial components of the system and several developments towards this goal are described. These include computer-based information retrieval and educational systems; a dedicated teleconferencing network; and use of the standard TV set coupled, for example, to an audio-cassette recorder, a telephone line, and a light pen.

In making speeches or dealing with news media, engineers will be effective to the extent their language is understandable. Skill in avoiding the use of jargon can be developed with practice. Opportunities to talk to teachers are easily created and are especially valuable because of the teacher-student multiplier effect. A dual goal in public speaking is to tell the audience how you feel on an issue and to find out how the audience feels about it. Advice on dealing with news media is provided.

Rändi (Rondie) Smith, in Written Communication, presents old advice and warnings in a new tone with refreshing informality. Her text reads like the classroom talks of a relaxed and experienced teacher-practitioner whose straightforward conversational statements are well organized, well illustrated, and well justified, with no I…er…um's but many personal examples.