Examines the communication problems that can arise in policy-making situations requiring public input and assent when the ethical and cultural assumptions of technical people representing a government entity differ from those of the citizen participants. Technical people often operate from an "ethic of expediency" that values clear, precise technical data as the basis for decision-making, but when citizen participants hold sharply different cultural values and interests, they may perceive such communication as privileging the interests of government over their own. Drawing on Habermas's (1979) concept of the "ideal speech situation", the authors present a case study in which engineers representing a city government attempted to gain the assent of a minority community to a well drilling project. The study suggests that the engineers' communication, although presented in good faith, did not meet Habermas's "claims to validity" and was thus seen by community residents as ideologically distorted. Because they did not trust the communication, the residents could not enter into consensus building, and the project remains at impasse. The engineers' propensity to frame the situation as a technical space for rational decision-making, from which cultural concerns and political motives could be excluded, made them blind to reality as the citizen participants perceived it. Government representatives in such situations have an ethical obligation to observe cultural difference and to create a communicative context in which consensus building is possible.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

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.

Although the use of e-mail is prevalent, few articles address the legal and ethical implications of e-mail monitoring. The paper argues that managerial monitoring of e-mail is ethically questionable because of its potential to violate privacy rights. After examining the legal guidelines related to e-mail monitoring, the article explores the ethical considerations surrounding this type of monitoring. Privacy issues and implications for management are addressed. The paper also offers suggestions for organizations that choose to monitor employees' e-mail.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

American document design process models reflect the assumption that comprehension and usability are the most important characteristics of effective documents, but it is increasingly evident that other cultures value other communicative features of documents and that purposes and intentions vary across cultures. This case study examines the responses of four sets of American readers (three sets familiar with American document design research and practice and one set of content specialists-engineers by training) to the visual aspects of an annual report. The original document was prepared for a mid-sized Japanese corporation and published and distributed in Japan; the American version is an almost literal translation of the original document from Japanese to English, with no changes in visuals, graphic design or format. Protocol analyses of readers' responses revealed distinct patterns of expectations and preferences based on (1) cultural biases, (2) degree of familiarity with the American document design model, and (3) ignorance of Japanese culture and corporate communicative practices. This study raises questions about the effectiveness in terms of cultural sensitivity of what we have called the "American" document design process model and usability testing procedures, and calls for extensive collaborative research designed to describe and analyze current practice in international settings.

Defines and critiques three cultural models for structuring and using information: accumulation, circulation and association. In these "economies", information is something to be hoarded (as accumulation), moved (circulation) or connected to other pieces of information (association). By examining the ways information acts like financial economies of the past, present and near-future, technical communicators gain crucial social and political perspectives normally not considered in the design and use of information spaces.

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>

Communicators have special opportunities to promote environmental ethics. This paper shows how environmental ethics relates to the workplace and gives ideas about how communicators can help the environment in their work.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

This case study explores how engineers at one consulting firm analyzed intended audiences using an array of analysis strategies. It finds that the engineers most often used these strategies intuitively and that their use of the strategies was influenced by values considered important in their organization's culture. This suggests that communicators can intentionally choose among an array of audience analysis strategies, and the choices of analysis strategy, information to include/exclude and style are influenced by the organizational culture in which the communicator works. This further suggests that professionals can analyze their intended audiences to determine whether the audience is likely to share the organization's assumptions and values upon which a communication is based.

Because corporations today face fierce international competition, they must produce and maintain high-quality documentation-but at minimal cost. Optimizing a writer's time and effort will no doubt become a key study area as we try to do more with less, without sacrificing quality. One way to increase a technical writer's productivity is to design documentation so that it covers a broader product area. This approach gets more use (or reuse) of the text. The paper describes the productivity and cost benefits of creating single-source manuals, that is, two or more manuals output from the same set of source files created and updated by one writer. It also describes how to create single-source manuals based on an actual case.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The failure of a delivered information system (IS) to match users' expectations of it is a frequent cause of project failure. This paper examines some of the causes of expectation failure, in particular the development of inappropriate mental models of a new IS by users. The documents traditionally used to express the requirements for a new IS are seldom fully understood by users, and often prove hard to verify. Documents written for, with, and sometimes by the users-the user manuals-have proved more successful in these respects.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

This paper discusses the needs of the Russian academic and research community in non-commercial networking, as well as the technical base for it. It also describes developments in SUEARN (Soviet Union/European Academic and Research Network) and FREEnet (Network For Research, Education and Engineering).< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

There is a rising interest within the world community in what is occurring in professional communication in Russia, and in the social and market opportunities that will appear there in the future. We live in a world in which the pace of change is more rapid than at any time in our history. The most important aspect of this change is the fact that we are making a transition to a democratic society at the same time as we are in the process of establishing the principles of a market economy. Russia is a country with enormous reserves of raw materials, vast territories, and rich intellectual resources. And now, as Russia is experiencing a painful transition to a market economy, the nation's economic potential becomes more and more dependent on the sophistication of its infrastructure. That is the reason why the information technologies and professional communication have become key factors of social progress. The Russian centers of research and industry are widely dispersed geographically, in such cities as Vladivostok, Irkutsk, Novosibirsk, Tomsk, Ekaterinburg, Saint Petersburg and Moscow. The last three or four years have seen a sharp increase in the demands for business information, electronic mail and communications for far-flung business and financial operations.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Those who have read "Roughing It" or "Life on the Mississippi" or "Pudd'nhead Wilson" will have seen Mark Twain's flair for technical descriptions and definitions. You know that he liked nothing better than turning a challenging process or device or term into a clear picture for the reader. His descriptions of a quartz mill, of assaying, and of pocket mining in "Roughing It" are models of fine technical style, as are his descriptions of sounding in "Life on the Mississippi" and fingerprinting in "Pudd'nhead Wilson". His definition of "lagniappe" is a classic. But Mark Twain was more than a practitioner of technical writing: he was also a theorist about the qualities of the writing craft. His novels, letters, essays, and miscellaneous prose are sprinkled with comments on writing, comments that can be made to read like a set of rules. And that is what the author does in this article: he turns these scattered comments into a list.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

At the end of 1990, a research company (NTC-HINTECH) was formed to develop new information technologies. This article describes a project to define formal algorithms for the creation of a sequence of nodes with certain semantic properties. It also describes a project for developing a generalized hypertext network, in which the relationship between the user and the system is dynamic and flexible.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Describes industrial information, which is information about industrial and consumer products, new technologies, and the engineering decision-making process. Today, in addition to the two information centers from the Soviet era, there are about 70 local information centers and more than 10,000 databases in Russia. The main potential information customer is the Russian government. The August 1991 coup, which led to wide-scale privatization, sharply reduced government subsidies to information centers. The production of information in a computer-readable form is now a large business, but creating this information remains a long and difficult process.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Enormous changes that have taken place in the last few years in Russia have revealed a need for Russian technical communicators to refocus their expertise and skills in order to enter the global marketplace successfully and competitively. Rather than dwell on the familiar differences between Americans and Russians, Cold War adversaries, a common ground exists and is growing. We share a mutual interest in the successful entry of Russian technical communicators in the global marketplace. We also share an understanding that technology is central to civilization as we know it, and that the masters of technology have a substantial influence on all activities that they touch; a belief that technology has had a major beneficial effect on the peoples of the world, but that with such power comes the potential for large, serious, and potentially devastating influences; the idea that the embrace of technology is a good cultural fit with cultures formed from revolutions, for technology in the later part of this century has come to be synonymous with rapid change, and cultures with revolutionary heritage welcome change; the notion that technological breakthroughs have profound influences on the nature of work, liberating the traditional intensive physical nature of labor to the emergence of a knowledge worker; and the belief that the global marketplace forces the need for clear and rapid communication across borders, as well as among cultures. If we can agree on these technical communications issues, then we have a firm foundation for building a gateway to communication in the global market.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Describes the background of the creation of SOVAM TELEPORT, the first Soviet-American venture to offer international telecommunication services using computer networks, analyzes the problems it has faced and how it has attempted to solve them, describes the organization's customers and services, and speculates on the synergistic relationship between Russian society and its telecommunications industry.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

As part of Phase 4 of the NASA/DoD Aerospace Knowledge Diffusion Research Project, studies were conducted that investigated the technical communications practices of Dutch and U.S. aerospace engineers and scientists. The studies had the following objectives: (1) to solicit the opinions of aerospace engineers and scientists regarding the importance of technical communication to their professions, (2) to determine the use and production of technical communication by aerospace engineers and scientists, (3) to investigate their use of libraries and technical information centers, (4) to investigate their use of and the importance to them of computer and information technology, (5) to examine their use of electronic networks, and (6) to determine their use of foreign and domestically produced technical reports. Self-administered (mail) questionnaires were distributed to Dutch aerospace engineers and scientists at the National Aerospace Laboratory (NLR) in the Netherlands, the NASA Ames Research Center in the USA, and the NASA Langley Research Center in the USA. Responses of the Dutch and US participants to selected questions are presented in this paper.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Describes Russia's specialized agencies, which are now actively engaged in their own research and development activities, surveys the influence of the 1989 political and economic changes on the structure and ideology of information networks, and describes VNTIC's current information activities.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The paper surveys studies of the process model for understanding writing, focusing in particular on problem-solving strategies in the writing process. It then presents a case study of the use of issue trees-a hierarchal network of goals not unlike the decision trees used in management science and artificial intelligence-to guide the writing process of the second author as he wrote a technical report. A good issue tree shows the relationships between various pieces of information: which information is central and which is supportive or incidental. Issue trees offer engineers a visual view of their writing plan. By building a hierarchal issue tree to illustrate the logical links of the proposed writing task, the engineer can put an overlay of "technology" on the task of writing-an overlay that may "trick" the unwilling writer into writing, and writing well.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

This study comparing Spanish and Danish negotiation styles suggests that culture-specific factors are critical in understanding multicultural communication. Although the two groups received identical training in negotiation styles, they retained key differences in terms of topic allocation, verbal immediacy and topic progression; the Spanish were substantially more people-oriented, whereas the Danish were substantially more task-oriented. These results suggest that the two groups of negotiators would view each other's negotiating styles critically because of the differences in their cultural styles.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

This paper presents an overview of the ways in which self-esteem operates in employee communication. As they develop effective communication skills, managers need to consider the consequence of stress on employee self-esteem and performance. Persons with high self-esteem are less likely to experience workplace demands as stressful and are better able to respond effectively to those demands. This paper discusses the relationship among self-esteem, occupational stress, and communication quality, then recommends ways in which self-esteem can be enhanced through employee communication.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The critical issues of technological change involve people, before profits. However, the authors consider how technology and profits drive most organizations. Responsible managers understand how people reacted to change in the past to prepare them for future changes. They ask how change shifts the values and responsibilities within their own organizations. Learning from history, managers break from the past and lead people who use technology to further the interests of all.< <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>

A study was conducted to examine employees' reactions to computer monitoring. Associated issues that were examined included the employees' level of stress, job satisfaction and commitment; their feelings of personal control; and their opinions regarding management's use of information gathered through monitoring. Results of the study indicated that, contrary to many reports, computer monitoring can be positive when used correctly and accompanied with effective management communication. Employees' levels of stress were negatively correlated with their feelings of job satisfaction, personal control, commitment to the organization, and the employees' feelings about the appropriateness of the way in which their managers used the information gathered by monitoring. These results highlight the importance of the responsible use of monitoring, the significance of communication, and the value of recognizing and rewarding good performance.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

As we approach the year 2000, corporate America is focused on improving communications; yet most of the effort is directed toward improving writing and speaking. This paper describes training to encourage and improve better listening skills and attitudes. Workshops to improve interpersonal communications, negotiation, and supervisory skills have been offered to employees for a number of years. The training sessions were different from others in that they were wholly devoted to learning about listening, and managers participated in the design of the learning experiences by using case material drawn from their work situations. This focused their attention on why listening is an important part of good management, and enabled them to understand that it is their responsibility to improve their listening behavior and skills.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

When technical students begin their professional careers, they are not always adequately prepared for the complex communication demands that will be made of them/spl minus/especially during the process of developing a technical proposal. A real-world investigation of technical proposal development is an excellent way for the technical writing course, often constrained by time and standard writing assignments, to prepare students to meet these demands. The investigations include practice in collaborating, planning and scheduling, and oral reporting.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Document ownership attributions often have direct consequences for evaluation, in both classrooms and workplaces. But when writers work collaboratively, ownership attributions are not straightforward. This study, about how and why collaborative writers make such attributions, reports that interviewed workplace writers emphasized product criteria (quality and liability), while surveyed student writers emphasized process criteria (teamwork and workload). A review of previous research suggests that such a difference may result from cultural differences between the academy and the workplace. That analysis further suggests how both instructors and practitioners could help newcomers make successful transitions to professional writing, by foregrounding ownership attitudes.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

An employee's failure to differentiate himself or herself from the perceived attitudes of another is at the heart of much stress in organizations. The world of family systems psychology identifies a dysfunctional process, called psychological fusion, which stems from insufficient self-definition by an individual and results in a dependency upon others to meet an innate need to feel accepted. People suffering from psychological fusion perceive any criticism as a threat, making it impossible for them to receive the critical feedback that is necessary for growth. To experience intrinsic motivation, people require a sense of relative self-determination and competence. This paper argues that much as employers take an interest in such emotional health issues as substance abuse and stress, they should also address psychological fusion; the paper offers methods for dealing with this interpersonal communications issue.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

In today's competitive markets, organizations may be tempted to reduce costs by cutting staff or hiring less skilled, and thus less costly, staff. At the same time, and for the same reasons, the need for higher quality in reports and manuals grows. As companies begin to invest in quality, they are finding that "good" is no longer good enough. To achieve excellence, staff must have the right skills. The paper describes how to find technical editors who can make documents more than just good, editors who can think about the content of the message, not just its presentation.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Structured document processors (SDPs) are specialized document production systems integrating word processing, databases, document management, and other functions. SDPs make heavy use of standardized document layout and format to convey meaning. They replace less specialized word-processing or desktop-publishing programs when a project requires production of a large interlocking system of standardized documents or the rapid generation of data-intensive documents or periodicals. Three industry examples are examined to illustrate the ways industry is using SDPs and to describe strengths and weaknesses of this new approach to document production.< <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>

Investing time, energy, and money in a usability test pays off when the data you collect answer your questions. Who makes sure usability tests meet their information-gathering goals? The project manager, who has to be ready to solve the many problems that inevitably arise. The paper assumes the reader has taken a course on usability methods or has conducted a usability test with the assistance of a professional in the field.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The availability of computers to university faculty members and the capability of those computer systems have increased exponentially over the past several years; however, many faculty still do not use the technology. The extent of diffusion of the capabilities of computer-mediated communication (CMC) among faculty is a core issue. This paper surveys literature on CMC with regard to diffusion of the practice among faculty. Through interviews and case studies, the authors examine characteristics of faculty who are active users of CMC as well as those who do not use the communication technology. Possible barriers to a more widespread use are examined, and implications for further research are discussed.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

E-mail style has received little attention from corporations and other institutions. The absence of stylistic guidelines may create problems: communicating inappropriately with some audiences, losing sight of the message purpose, or wasting company resources in other ways. To solve such problems, technical communicators can use their unique abilities to promote e-mail formats that consider the strengths and limitations of the medium in addition to the traditional concerns with audience, purpose, and content of messages.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

This paper reports a survey on how users maintain context in an electronic mail (e-mail) dialogue and, in particular, the use of quoting as a response strategy. The target group belonged to a community of experienced users of computer-mediated communication systems: readers of Usenet newsgroups. The results showed that quoting a message, i.e., including it in a comment or reply, was a widely used technique in e-mail dialogues, but that the majority of respondents used it selectively. Factors that affected the use of quoting were the category of receiver and the length and nature of the message. Contrary to expectations, the results showed that users perceived the use of quoting as contributing to the sense of conversation when communicating in e-mail.< <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>

In a companion paper (1994) I argued that the mismatch of a delivered Information System (IS) to the users' expectations of it is a frequent cause of project failure. These expectations are held in a conceptual structure, referred to by some authors as a mental model. Helping users develop appropriate mental models of the new IS in an early project phase is an important element in managing expectations, but the documents traditionally used to express and check users' requirements often fail in this regard. Over the last two decades a few authors have found that user manuals written early in the project can be very effective as a means of communication between developers and users. This paper reviews the literature and describes the different roles that user manuals can play throughout a project. It provides practical advice for professional communicators, project managers, and other project personnel.< <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>

Because usability data can be expensive to collect and analyze, it is important that you collect the data you need to answer the usability test-questions. The article describes a two-part strategy to help with this aspect of a usability study. The first part of the strategy is to investigate the questions the product team has about its product and turn these questions into well-defined usability questions. The second part is to take those usability questions and develop a data crosswalk, a framework that gives you a systematic way to decide what specific evidence you need to answer the test questions, and what data you need to collect to get that evidence.< <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>

The paper examines collaborative writing practices students in the Air Force Institute of Technology's Graduate School of Logistics and Acquisition Management use to produce team-authored theses. In analyzing how student writing teams plan, execute, and assess writing activities, the researchers identify and describe some of the forms that collaboration takes, thereby successfully connecting their work within a broader research continuum concerning collaborative writing, particularly when applied in academic settings.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

This essay explores legal and ethical issues related to electronic mail (e-mail) systems in the United States and Canada. Among the recommendations made, based on analysis of actual cases, are: better education in computer-telecommunications technologies should be provided for government officials to enable them to make and uphold appropriate laws concerning electronic mail; clear published policies, consistent with the law and with the professional ethics of users, should be developed for e-mail systems; access to up-to-date legal information should be available to computer system operators and those who employ them; and ongoing monitoring of legal and ethical issues related to computer-telecommunications technologies (and applications such as e-mail) is needed to maximize the democratic potential of the Information Age.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

This paper presents a longitudinal case study of the introduction of voice mail, applying media richness theory to develop and assess a set of 16 tasks with varying levels of equivocality, and to compare different media. Through t-tests, reliability, factor, and multidimensional scaling analyses, evaluation of task equivocality and voice mail is discussed and potential shortcomings of current approaches are highlighted. Results show that equivocality does not seem to be unidimensional and includes aspects of authority across organizational boundaries. Across all tasks, telephone would be most likely selected by respondents, but face-to-face and telephone were more likely to be selected for more equivocal tasks. Unlike prior studies, voice mail is perceived as similar to documents and face-to-face.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The application of computer tools to mediating and promoting collaborative design efforts between mutually distant parties has become feasible. Technology is again ahead of practice, and problems of assimilation have only begun to be explored. This paper postulates the requirements of environments for computer-mediated collaborative design in architectural practice, drawing upon experiences of design collaboration among schools of architecture on three continents and supplementing these with enquiries into design excellence in practice.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

In response to the above-titled paper by M. Markel (see ibid., vol.36, no.2, p.81-6, June 1993), which clarified the philosophical issues that accompany the ethical aspects of the engineering profession, the commenter attempts to take the basis for ethics another step.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Utilitarianism, the ethical system of free-market capitalism, is limited in that it sanctions contingencies. Immanuel Kant's second formulation of the categorical imperative-to treat ourselves and others not merely as means but also as ends-offers a clear and powerful ethic that enables technical communicators to subordinate contingencies to an understanding of people as rational entities possessed of full human dignity. John Rawls's (1971) model of an ideal society derives from and extends Kant's thinking on the primacy of human dignity in an ethical system.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>