This TRANSACTIONS is directed to practicing engineers and scientists, technical project and program managers, and writers, editors, and teachers who have a significant interest in the communication of technical information. It is a refereed publication with quarterly distribution in excess of 3500 copies per issue and is indexed and abstracted worldwide.

This TRANSACTIONS is directed to practicing engineers and scientists, technical project and program managers, and writers, editors, and teachers who have a significant interest in the communication of technical information. It is a refereed publication with quarterly distribution in excess of 3500 copies per issue and is indexed and abstracted worldwide.

WHO is the nonspecialist? We all are — except in that narrow band of the technology spectrum where we earn our living. For example, how much do you know about genetic engineering? nuclear reactors? computer programming? black holes? the greenhouse effect? interferon? cloning? Your peers, your boss, and your neighbors are probably nonspecialists where your work is concerned.

For the more minutely you describe, the more you will confuse the mind of the reader and the more you will prevent him from a knowledge of the thing described. And so it is necessary to draw and describe.

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

Employment is the subject of the first four papers. In “Writing Resumes and Cover Letters” you learn that the resume is an attention-getter — not to be taken lightly in the job hurting process. The second paper confirms many ideas presented in the first, but some traditional ideas are challenged (one such is that one-page résumés are inadequate). The third paper, “The Cover Letter,” encourages you to consider the communication's style, tone, and appearance to enable you to write the best possible cover letter. The last paper on employment identifies questions you can expect at an interview and suggests how to emphasize your strengths and minimize your shortcomings.

This Transactions is directed to practicing engineers and scientists, technical project and program managers, and writers, editors, and teachers who have a significant interest in the communication of technical information. It is a refereed publication with quarterly distribution in excess of 3500 copies per issue and is indexed and abstracted worldwide.

Many engineers and scientists have — or could have — the opportunity (some would say responsibility) to interpret developments in engineering, science, and technology for non-specialists through community organizations and news media. Many such opportunities are missed or muffed, however, because it's not easy to shed jargon, simplify technical concepts at the risk of imprecision, and develop a public presence.

ALL of us have experienced frustration in dealing with abbreviated forms of language that are supposed to make our reading easier. Perhaps by understanding more about them, we can better cope with their proliferation.

“I know I read something on that some place.” We all know the situation. A colleague invites our comments on a topic in which we have some interest. We rummage our memories for a clue to what we've read or where we've read it. Finding no help there, we search our files. Alas! We have either not filed it or misfiled it. “One of these days,” we promise ourselves, “I'm going to organize the information I pick up.”

IN September 1978 our special issue (PC-21/3) on the design of audio and visual information gave pointers on achieving clarity and communication in the individual pieces of artwork that are often included in technical reports and publications. In the March 1981 issue (PC-24/1), several authors discussed the prose-text aspects of making information usable, particularly instructional materials.

IN September 1978 our special issue (PC-21/3) on the design of audio and visual information gave pointers on achieving clarity and communication in the individual pieces of artwork that are often included in technical reports and publications. In the March 1981 issue (PC-24/1), several authors discussed the prose-text aspects of making information usable, particularly instructional materials.

Computers make it easy to tabulate text style variables [1]. In our laboratory we have gone farther, creating an automated system that uses those tabulations to make detailed editorial comments [2]. Relying on advice from writing experts and psychological research, our “Writers' Workbench” calculates several readability measures, comments on misspelled words and awkward phrases and sentences, measures text abstract-ness, and compares these properties of a text to other texts. Writers find these aids useful, and there are obvious management and educational implications. Before putting these tools together, however, we considered how such aids might be used and misused. Below I review these considerations in light of readability formulas.

This TRANSACTIONS is directed to practicing engineers and scientists, technical project and program managers, and writers, editors, and teachers who have a significant interest in the communication of technical information. It is a refereed publication with quarterly distribution in excess of 3500 copies per issue and is indexed and abstracted worldwide.

THERE are two principles for making useful visual aids, particularly those large transparencies known as foils. There are hundreds of rules and guidelines for implementing and refining different kinds of visual aids and for making them attractive, but there are only two principles: comprehensibility and legibility.

This TRANSACTIONS is directed to practicing engineers and scientists, technical project and program managers, and writers, editors, and teachers who have a significant interest in the communication of technical information. It is a refereed publication with quarterly distribution in excess of 3500 copies per issue and is indexed and abstracted worldwide.

MAKING INFORMATION USABLE is an art rather than a science. Although this art depends heavily on traditional writing skills, successful technical writers know that technology and the marketplace are rapidly changing their profession. Not only are devices, machines, and systems getting more complex and sophisticated, and offering the user more function, but they are also being made available to more people. Manufacturers, therefore, to prevent the rising cost of labor-intensive customer education from wiping out all gains in hardware cost reduction, are relying more and more on do-it-yourself instructional materials packaged and delivered with their products. In fact, the delivery of useful and usable information is now critical to the success of many product offerings.

These recommendations combine time-tested advice to writers with the Editor's preferences. Used with our Information for Authors (published in each issue of the Transactions) and the reference material in the June 1977 issue (PC-20/1), this miniguide to technical writing should help any author whisk his paper through the editorial process-provided, of course, that its technical content survives the refereeing process.

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

Heading the lineup this month are three papers on responsibility — the responsibility of engineers and scientists to communicate voluntarily, appropriately, and accurately with the public. Sir Bernard Callinan expects engineers to demonstrate their ability to communicate before being admitted to the “fraternity” and thereafter to demonstrate their concern with the effects of technology on the public. Robert Cowen deplores the fluffy and sometimes inaccurate “news” that technologists unknowingly or uncaringly allow to flow from their organizations. John Hanley calls for a planned counterattack on “instant experts” who are all too ready and willing to reply when the public has questions.

This Transactions is directed to practicing engineers and scientists, technical project and program managers, and writers, editors, and teachers who have a significant interest in the communication of technical information. It is a refereed publication with quarterly distribution in excess of 3500 copies per issue and is indexed and abstracted worldwide.

This Transactions is directed to practicing engineers and scientists, technical project and program managers, and writers, editors, and teachers who have a significant interest in the communication of technical information. It is a refereed publication with quarterly distribution in excess of 3500 copies per issue and is indexed and abstracted worldwide.

Last fall, as part of an ongoing evaluation of IEEE publications, a small-sample survey was made of U.S. subscribers to the various Transactions and Journals. Preliminary analysis suggests a small toot of our own horn. In terms of raw data, unadjusted for differences in content, size, and frequency among the publications, one question brought an outstanding response about this Transactions: Two-thirds of the readers read one-third or more of the papers! The overall range of response in this category was nine to 67 percent, with a median at 23 percent.

THE spectrum of public speaking ranges from dialog to formal, staged presentations. Although we may engage easily in casual conversation, almost any discourse that is scheduled or that involves more than a few people seems to give most of us cause for concern. Why?

Devices, machines, and systems are becoming more complex and sophisticated while at the same time they are being made available to more people. Unfortunately, the operation of these products — whatever their nature — is seldom self-evident. At best we turn to instructions simply to confirm our expectations and learn what is new. At worst we must depend on them to compensate for a lack of human engineering in the product. Most of the time, however, we need instructions to use all the functions and capabilities that have been provided to us at an acceptable cost. Information has to be part of the customer's package. In issue number one next year we will be looking at techniques for making printed information usable.

This Transactions is directed to practicing engineers and scientists, technical project and program managers, and writers, editors, and teachers who have a significant interest in the communication of technical information. It is a refereed publication with quarterly distribution in excess of 3000 copies per issue and is indexed and abstracted worldwide.

was edited by Miriam Balaban, who served as both general chairman and program chairman for th^ Conference.Containing transcriptions of all Conference speeches and formal discussions, the book presents a brief his tory jof scientific editing-and scientific editors' associations; a wide ly.et fairly detailed view of the problems, practices, and at titudes of scientific editors today; and glimpses of the ideas of scientific editors about their roles in years to come.Moreover, this view of the past, present, and future of scientific editor ship includes much consideration-of editors' interaction with authors, referees, and publishers.Mrs. Balaban's preface points out that Faraday, in 1821, identified "three necessary stages of useful -research": to begin, to end, and to publish.The first conference on scien tific publication, however, was not held until 127 years later in 1948, when the Royal Society Information Conference in London dealt with publication, format, editorial policy, ab stracting, indexing, classification of subjects, and training of "information officers."In 1958, the National Academy of Sciences held an Interna tional Conference on Scientific Information in Washington! it dealt with the storage and retrieval of documents.At that time, the "cycle of information" was said to be in the hands of the maker, the storer/supplier, and the user.Soon, however, six rather than three parties, links, estates, or stations, as they are alternatively called, came to be generally distinguished: author, editor, publisher, librarian, documentalist (or archivist, or information scientist), and user.And since 1958, also, associations of editors have been formed in various scientific disciplines and geographic regions.Around that year, CBF, the Council of Biology Fditors, was founded in the United States, and in 1964 appeared its European counterpart, ELSE.Eight years later, in 1972, under the auspices of UNESCO, editors and their proliferating associations formed the world information system, UNISIST.Participating in this consortium now are North and South American, European, and Far Eastern societies of earthscience editors; international organizations of the editoVs of chemical, biochemical, physics, mathematics, psychology, and philosophy journals; and,such regional and national groups as those of Nordic, Japanese, French, and German editors, the National and European Science Foundations, and several pri vate companies.A significant aspect of the movement forjeditorial unity was the formation in 1968 of STM, the International Group of Scientific, Technical, and Medical Publishers.At present, STM is composed of about 120 commercial and institutional pub lishing houses in 20 countries.It issues a newsletter and holds semiannual seminars.Since 1972, these editorial and publishing organizations have cooperated and collaborated increasingly, seeking common grounds in matters of style, standards, practices, and philos ophy; trying to loosen clogs in the flow of information and to reduce the cost and waste which result from confusion, redun dant effort, and fragmentation (p.ix).A short-lived but important group in this movement was the informal Association for Scientific Journals which grew from the work of James Lufkin of the Professional Communication

There is much needed but little heeded advice in the following paper (“Presenting Papers” by J. F. White, page 179) which I want to endorse and emphasize by paraphrasing here.

One of the more effective techniques for developing presentations of ideas, particularly for management, is to try to anticipate all possible questions and objections to the idea and then build into the presentation the answers or solutions to those questions or problems. Often an idea “sells” better if others are allowed or encouraged to become contributors and reasonable revisions or modifications are warmly accepted. Visuals are usually beneficial to any presentation, and an extemporaneous — but not unrehearsed — presentation is dynamic and flexible. Further advice on preparation and delivery is included.

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

After clarifying some commonly held misunderstandings about patent protection in other countries for US inventions, the typical process of obtaining non-US counterpart patents is discussed. The development of the Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) and the European Patent Convention (EPC) in response to what were felt to be problems in obtaining foreign patent protection is presented, and procedures under the PCT and EPC are analyzed. Certain of the possible advantages and drawbacks of patent applications under these treaties are also discussed.

Thrs TRANSACTIONS is directed to practicing engineers and scientists, technical project and program managers, and writers, editors, and teachers

Editor's Note: “Forum” features a letter to the editor or short essay accompanied by responses solicited by the editor. The subject matter is original rather than being comment on previously published material, which is not timely for quarterly publication. Contributions are welcome.

Although this is the March issue preface, it was composed in early January, a time which triggered two peripheral thoughts., One was simply that the shorter lead times envisioned by electronic publishing are very appealing. This preface had almost two months of lead time, but the rest of the issue's content required twice that. According to a book reviewed in this issue (page 41), electronic publishing not only shortens production time but also speeds dissemination. However, the “catch” in this “paperless information system” is that authors and editors/publishers and readers need to be members of an information network. While this is feasible, it is not yet practical. The emerging possibilities would be a good subject for discussion in our new Forum feature (page 37). Write to me at the address below.

THIS issue begins with three light-hearted and one serious poke at technical publishing and the human foibles that make it somewhat less than perfect. However, in addition to the material that is published and should be lost, there is much to be retrieved and Drott et al. discuss the problems of spreading the word about this kind.

The IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION is a quarterly publication with distribution in excess of 3000 copies per issue. It is directed to practicing engineers and scientists, technical project and program managers, and writers and editors who have a significant interest in or responsibility for the communication of technical information. This TRANSACTIONS is indexed and abstracted worldwide.

Samplings of the technical papers chosen for publication by a fictitious primitive scientific society are used to comment on issues in research and publication policy.

This is an issue about nontextual aspects of communicating technical information. Included are eight articles and two book reviews on subjects ranging from what to put on slides, through graphic comparison of data, to attributes of multimedia.

The IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION is a quarterly publication with distribution in excess of 3000 copies per issue. It is directed to practicing engineers and scientists, technical project and program managers, and writers and editors who have a significant interest in or responsibility for the communication of technical information. This TRANSACTIONS is indexed and abstracted worldwide.

The author's preface states that A Communicative Grammar of English is intended primarily for the “advanced overseas student” who has learned English as a second language, but many professional communicators who speak English as a first language may also find this book useful.

Further indication of our interest in visual aspects of engineering/scientific communication is our introduction of a cover illustration for the TRANSACTIONS. This line drawing was created by Art Appel and Joan Musgrave using an experimental program at the IBM Thomas J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown Heights, New York. After creating a single arrow (or other object, symbol, or design), the artist can change its size, rotate it about any axis, replicate it, and superimpose images with the “hidden” lines being eliminated. If we view this assemblage of arrows not as a graphic design but as an ambiguous indicator of direction, we can immediately understand Wolf Von Eckardt's concern (page 63) with signs that don't guide and words that don't inform.

The author comments on the use of graphic information systems, i.e. signs. The US is still largely oriented toward words rather than pictorial diagrams to convey key information simply and quickly. The Washington, DC Mall and Zoo are given as examples of off-highway locations where more universal symbols are replacing verbiage.

Retrieval of all the works of a given author in one, or several, computer-searchable bibliographic data bases is made difficult, if not impossible, by inconsistent author name data. Varying forms of an author's name appear as different author names in a computer-generated author index. Authors, publishers, and data base generators should adopt policies that support a consistent name form to alleviate this information problem.

LAST year we devoted most of our pages to articles on technical writing and publishing. This year we will tip the balance toward audio and visual aspects of technical communication. In this issue, for example, we include some thoughts on lecturing. Though the four articles reprinted here range in time of origin from the first half of the 19th century to the second half of the 20th, they are remarkably consistent and provide some succinct guides toward the development of effective oral presentations.

With video display terminals for text entry and an illustration scanner for converting photos to digital halftones, the US News and World Report publishing system produces completely made up pages of text and art and transmits them via satellite or telephone lines from the editorial office to three printing plants. Deadlines have been extended two days, copy can be modified up to the last minute, and consumption of paper has been greatly reduced.

Editor's Note — “Our life is frittered away by detail. … Simplify, simplify.”