<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Introduction:</b> Efficient and effective business communication depends on appropriate communication adjustments that are at the core of communication accommodation theory. This theory has been used to explore the role of communication accommodation in driving business performance and organizational success. However, there has been no systematic survey of linguistic accommodation in business communication. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research questions:</b> 1. What are general characteristics of studies on the impact of linguistic accommodation in business communication? 2. What are the foci of linguistic accommodation in business communication? 3. What are the contexts, participants (actors and targets), transactional goals, and relational goals of linguistic accommodation in business communication? <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methodology:</b> We conducted an integrative literature review based on journal articles from the database Web of Science Core Collection. After retrieving 32 articles corresponding to our research purpose, we conducted a qualitative content analysis to describe general characteristics of these articles and identify foci of linguistic accommodation, contexts, participants (actors and targets), transactional goals, and relational goals of linguistic accommodation. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results and conclusions:</b> In both external and internal business communication, actors tend to accommodate or nonaccommodate targets by choosing different languages and communication styles on different linguistic levels based on their language proficiency. We found that linguistic accommodation generally has a positive impact on transactional goals (such as service quality perceptions, negotiation effectiveness, and group performance) and relational goals (such as brand trust, consumer engagement, and cooperation intentions). This review may help business professionals adopt appropriate linguistic accommodation strategies to achieve transactional or relational goals, and aid teachers of business communication in developing students’ accommodation competence.

<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Introduction:</b> This case study examines the efficacy of Sushil Oswal's model of Accessible User Experience (AUX) as a diagnostic and planning tool for Technical and Professional Communicators (TPCers) to interrogate approaches to accessibility and disability inclusion in their practices by analyzing Microsoft's Inclusive Design Toolkit (“toolkit”) through the principles of AUX. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">About the case:</b> As a technology giant recognized for its disability inclusion work, Microsoft provides an intriguing test case via its toolkit to consider the practical application of AUX principles to interrogate workplace practices. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Situating the case:</b> In the past five years, three technical and professional communication (TPC) journals published special issues focused on accessibility, noting a lack of sustained attention to accessibility and how to practically apply it in the workplace. Multiple calls have been made for a paradigm shift in the way TPCers consider accessibility in their work. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methods/approach:</b> I conduct a case study using thematic coding to analyze foundational texts in the toolkit to demonstrate how TPCers can use Oswal's model of AUX to diagnose current practices by examining them through an AUX lens and identify opportunities to achieve greater accessibility. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results/discussion:</b> Applying an AUX framework as an analytical tool illuminated strengths within the toolkit's methodology and practices, and identified opportunities to expand its practices for greater accessibility. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Conclusion:</b> AUX holds promise as a tool for TPCers to analyze current approaches to accessibility and plan for even more inclusive practices.

<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Background:</b> A robust body of research supports the use of team charters to purposefully create a team culture with shared norms and expectations. However, student teams often treat this requirement as busywork and fail to invest the effort needed to create team charters that prepare the team to adapt for obstacles that they may encounter. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Situating the case:</b> Teams that do not engage in effective planning for their collaborations are likely to encounter a range of problems including slackers, domineering teammates, curtailed learning opportunities, and general exclusion from the project work—problems that are often exacerbated on diverse teams and that disproportionately affect marginalized populations. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">About the case:</b> We created three online modules that help students uncover their own tacit expectations for teamwork, share and merge these expectations, and then construct a team charter and task schedules with their teammates. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methods:</b> We used a quasiexperimental design comparing team charters from control and experimental groups to understand how our modules affected students’ charters at a university with a highly international population. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results:</b> Analyses revealed that control group charters tended to invoke universal team norms and assign punishments for failing to uphold those norms. By contrast, experimental group charters were more flexible, acknowledged competing priorities, evidenced greater planning, and articulated processes that could accommodate individual goals, values, and constraints. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Conclusions:</b> Charters created after the modules showed more accommodation of difference; however, more research needs to be done to determine whether the more flexible and elaborated charters improve team behaviors.

This book provides a compilation of scholarly chapters that focus on the various components of technical and professional communication (TPC) that, together, give it a distinct identity, and that must be sustainable. Reflection and upkeep of TPC components maintain the longevity of its identity. By critically analyzing what these fragments signify collectively as an identity, it is possible to develop a perspective that is durable for visualizing the TPC identity. Some of the TPC components included in this work are genres, ethics, procedural knowledge, procedural discourse, sociotechnical contexts, applied rhetoric, and participatory action research. The book’s 10 chapters are divided into three sections, each of which is underpinned by a strong research technique, strong theoretical foundation, and the authors’ real-world experiences. This book may be helpful to academics, industry professionals, and students alike. It provides professionals with a novel viewpoint on several TPC facets across various application fields, such as biomedical writing. This book offers a deep understanding of TPC and focuses on several intriguing subjects, such as intercultural and transnational dimensions, and accessibility and disability. One of the strengths of the book is the abundance of real-world examples and research studies with trustworthy research protocols spread throughout several chapters. This book is undoubtedly a great resource for learning about the subject, its trends, and new problems that may arise in the future.

<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Introduction:</b> This experiential teaching case study calls for technical and professional communicators to apply a combination of ableism studies and disability justice in examining their participation in potentially ableist, normative systems. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Situating the case:</b> Previous technical and professional communication (TPC) scholarship has demonstrated how the field of disability studies (DS) furthers TPC's goals of social justice, but it has not offered methods to trace the systemic ableist assumptions that contribute to disability's marginalization. I thus extend these considerations through attention to disability justice and ableism studies. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">About the case:</b> This teaching case evaluates my attempt to incorporate DS into my Writing for the Professions class by examining the warrants or assumptions reflected in class materials and student discussions to determine how DS's inclusion in the course impacted such warrants. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methods/approach:</b> I used thematic coding to analyze class documents, student work, and semistructured student interviews and traced how reflected warrants contributed to understandings of ability and disability. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results/discussion:</b> I found that analyzed documents predominantly relied on ableist warrants that obscured disability's relationality, positioned disability as deviance, limited efforts towards social change, and disregarded disability's intersectional complexity. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Conclusion:</b> To counter the use of ableist warrants that impede social justice goals, I recommend that TPC instructors foster critical understandings of systemic ableism by applying disability justice principles to their course materials. Through a combination of ableism studies and disability justice, TPC can pursue more socially just documentation practices.

Introduction: Data visualization is a reliable tool for professional communication practitioners to synthesize and present data for a variety of audiences. However, data visualizations have a range of accessibility concerns, including visual acuity, color/contrast difficulties, color blindness, and size/scale issues. Data visualizations should therefore be designed following web standards for complex images to ensure that they are accessible to audiences with diverse needs. Key concepts: Drawing from work in professional communication and disability studies, practitioners recognize that users have varied accessibility needs. “Universal design” as a guiding principle is less helpful than targeted approaches to design that reflect actual user needs. Such targeted approaches should follow web standards for accessible design because they enable interaction with newer accessibility technologies and put more control in the hands of users. Key lessons: Follow these best practices to create visually accessible data visualizations. 1. Design the visual for accessibility by using whitespace, creating contrast, maintaining size/scale, and labeling the visual clearly. 2. Implement the visual using web standards to create semantic connections between the visual and text for both users and accessibility technologies. This goal can be achieved with textual description, overview/data/presentation context, or ARIA semantic links. 3. Test the visual for accessibility through user tests and industry-standard tools. Implications for practice: Web standards provide a blueprint for designing accessible data visualizations for online spaces, but professional communicators should be aware of the coding expertise and necessary infrastructure needed to deploy these visuals. Nevertheless, with increasing use of public-facing data visualizations to convey information on global issues, such as COVID-19, the need for these visuals to be accessible to all audiences becomes paramount.

Introduction: Accessibility training frequently relies upon checklist-based approaches to convey important standards and guidance. Such approaches limit scalability and acknowledgement of the user experience. About the case: A certificate program for faculty and graduate teaching assistants who are instructors of record at one university provided an opportunity to develop a learning module about dyslexia. Situating the case: Dyslexic students frequently require alterations to both teaching approaches and document design; however, studies show that some faculty do not see or feel a need to offer any accommodations for this dis/ability. Research indicates that train-the-trainer approaches to accessibility training offer improved scalability and efficacy when it comes to engaging and acknowledging the needs of dis/abled communities. Amplifying voices from the dis/abled community in training also personalizes the need to make content accessible. Approach: This article covers the module's creation and implementation via the iterative Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation (ADDIE) method. In doing so, it provides a framework for creating similar modules that industry practitioners and faculty can implement within their own organizations. Results/discussion: The COVID-19 pandemic led to fewer participants in the module than anticipated; however, preliminary feedback suggests the approach's efficacy. Conclusion: A train-the-trainer approach that integrates testimonials from the dis/abled community offers a user-focused means of disseminating accessibility guidelines that organizations should consider if looking for rapid scalability for new accessibility initiatives.

Introduction: In the US, hundreds of thousands of individuals with visual disabilities work in occupations that typically entail editing text. Editing technologies for blind or visually impaired people have been analyzed by researchers for usability, accessibility, and feasibility. However, a tutorial is needed to provide blind or visually impaired workers with information on how to use these technologies. Key concepts: Technologies that blind or visually impaired individuals can use for editing text present challenges. Such challenges include the lack of usability in word processors' text-editing features, navigational and sense-making issues with screen readers, limited text displayed by refreshable braille displays, and extensive commands needed to operate braille notetakers. Key lessons: The study's blind coauthor (who prefers this terminology) draws on her academic and professional experience to provide procedural information for blind or visually impaired practitioners and students who need to open email attachments, navigate files, select text, navigate the Review tab of Microsoft Word, add comments, and use Nav Quick Keys. Implications for practice: This tutorial indicates that word processors, screen readers, refreshable braille displays, and braille notetakers provide ways for blind or visually impaired practitioners and students to edit text. The tutorial also provides insight into one blind editor's editing process and provides instructions for duplicating this process. This information can increase the awareness of sighted practitioners and teachers who seek to make workplaces more accessible for blind or visually impaired colleagues.

Introduction: Building on scholarship and practices in the fields of technical and professional communication (TPC), disability studies (DS), and legal studies (LS), this article calls for a fusion of these fields to help technical and professional communicators (TPCers) negotiate legal understandings of access that recognize it as a complex, social phenomenon. About the case: To demonstrate such fusion's value in interrogating corporate discourse around disability inclusion and access, we examine the public-facing documents in JP Morgan Chase & Company's (JP Morgan) diversity and inclusion initiatives. Situating the case: Prior cases have traced the impacts of ADA law in transforming corporate culture around disability inclusion and access. These cases suggest that although the ADA has made significant progress toward inclusion and access for disabled employees, it has been limited through the influence of normative corporate culture. We thus extend these findings through DS. Methods/approach: We use thematic coding to analyze a sampling of JP Morgan's disability and inclusion documents to better understand their contributions to disability discourse. Results/discussion: We identify tensions across four discursive expressions, which we recognize both as opportunity spaces for TPCer intervention and as justification for integrating TPC, DS, and LS. We then offer guidelines for more equitable documentation practices. Conclusions: Through the fusion of TPC, DS, and LS, TPCers may engage more nuanced understandings of disability and access that support the dynamic and relational nature of each.

<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Background:</b> This research explores how controversial engineering decisions become the subject of widespread social media debates, using the prominent case of activism opposed to the Dakota Access pipeline (DAPL). The #NoDAPL Twitter hashtag became the primary vehicle for activism, with Twitter users shaping the debate through how they framed the controversy. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Literature review:</b> Framing refers to how information is packaged and presented. Because framing shapes the interpretation of information, it plays a crucial role in scientific controversies. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research questions:</b> 1. Which framing strategies are present in the most influential (determined by the number of retweets and “likes”) posts using #NoDAPL on Twitter? 2. How do the framing strategies used in the most influential #NoDAPL tweets change in relation to major political events? 3. Do the framing strategies used in the most influential #NoDAPL tweets amplify the echo-chamber effect and polarization on Twitter? <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Methodology:</b> The team collected daily data on the #NoDAPL hashtag and selected tweets with #NoDAPL that had more than 1500 likes or retweets, and categorized them by the frames that they exhibited. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results and discussion:</b> The most-used frames were conflict/strategy and morality/ethics, with no noticeable middle path frame, leading to the echo-chamber effect and online polarization. The scientific/technical uncertainty frame was used only sporadically, in contrast with project proponents who tried to emphasize the pipeline's safety. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Implications:</b> Engineers seeking to understand and participate in public debates about issues central to their profession should recognize and engage the frames being used by the public to understand information. The project proponents’ defense of the pipeline fell on deaf ears, likely because they focused on safety rather than broader questions of morality. While engineers should share technical information related to a project under fire, they cannot ignore the concerns expressed by their critics.

Research problem: Gamification is a concept that originates from the digital media domain. It includes a process of enhancing a service using game design elements in nongame contexts. Although much research exists on gamification, very few studies focus on the application of gamification in the enterprise. Research questions: (1) How do managers currently use and experience gamification as a communication medium? (2) Why is it that few instances of gamification exist in enterprise management? (3) Is gamification's own branding somehow cannibalizing itself in enterprise applications? Literature review: We reviewed gamification literature in the workplace and looked at the applicability of game design elements within the enterprise culture. Enterprise gamification is still considered uncharted territory, and more research on gamification in the enterprise is needed. But existing research studies support our claims that there is high potential for enterprise gamification that needs to be explored. Methodology: Observations were made during fieldwork with an exploratory interview research approach. These observations were put to test via an online psychological single-blind controlled quantitative experiment conducted with 198 survey respondents to investigate the effect of branding on gamification and its perception in the enterprise context. Results and conclusions: The results show that using the “gamification” brand clearly drives lower rates of perceived acceptance of the concept, whereas using an “unbranded” version of the same gamification concepts results in comparatively higher rates of perceived acceptance and a general willingness to adopt within the enterprise context. The results also confirm that “interest” and “branding” are interrelated, and that gamification faces higher rates of resistance, lower rates of adoption, and lower success rates in the enterprise compared to other fields. Thus, enterprise gamification may not be correctly branded, and our research recommends the use of a set of procedural, prepackaged best practices, in the form of an implementation framework, to guarantee optimal design and implementation.

Background: Teams are a basic way of organizing work in many professional and personal settings. However, misunderstandings among team members can lead to poor performance, hurt feelings, and lack of motivation to attack subsequent tasks. A common source of such misunderstandings is miscommunication caused by differences in how people interpret everyday words and phrases. Team members might interpret these differences as a natural occurrence of group work, if they notice them at all. Research questions: We seek to answer two research questions regarding miscommunication within teams: (1) Can a communication exercise create awareness among team members of the danger of miscommunication? (2) What benefits do team members gain from the exercise? Situating the case: We describe a classroom exercise that relies on an integrative model for improving communication within teams. We also present evidence of the exercise's effectiveness in raising awareness and fostering accommodation and social learning among team members. Our approach is similar to that used in other cases. How this case was studied: We used 13 teams from three classes during the course of a regular semester. A communication exercise we have used for many years was conducted as part of team formation activities early in the semester. Team discussions regarding exercise results formed the basis for team members to analyze their communication during the semester. About the case: A significant variance of understanding among people as to the meaning of several of the focal terms can lead to suboptimal outcomes for any given work the team is tasked to achieve. In this case, we describe a study designed to improve communication among team members and, thus, lessen the likelihood of such a negative outcome. Results: Team members reported better awareness of communication issues and improved team functioning as a result of having completed the exercise. Conclusion: We find that a shared understanding of terminology is an important part of training leaders and managers to help teams reduce common miscommunication problems in the workplace.

Problem: E-learning has become a standard in many organizations to train its workforce and build an information network that encourages collaborative knowledge sharing. As a result of technological and global factors, the complexity of delivering successful e-learning courses and products is an increasing challenge for subject matter experts and instructional designers. Online training courses have become blended learning environments, comprised of synchronous and asynchronous modes of delivery, multiple media forms, and global and localized audiences to meet the demands and flexibility it affords. Successful blended e-learning is more than simply mixing online and live instructional modes; it can also include a combination of multiple media types, technologies, and communication modes. E-learners have become multimodal learners, with the ability to adapt to multiple media forms, environment types, and tools. Key concepts: Understanding the complex interaction of technology use, collaborative knowledge sharing, and media can facilitate more effective communication exchanges between instructor, content, and learner. Some concepts that help describe the complexities of blended e-learning include technological appropriation, technological accommodation, media richness, media synchronicity and naturalness, blended e-learning, and collaborative knowledge sharing. Key lessons: Research trends suggest learners appropriate technology and media forms, and evaluate usefulness based on a range of factors, including richness, experience, perception, and recommendation. Blended learning environments add complexity by mixing spatial (distributed and colocated) and temporal (asynchronous and synchronous) components with increased levels of collaborative knowledge sharing. From these research trends, the following best practices for developing e-learning are recommended: (1) consider media richness factors and user preferences in media and tool selection; (2) encourage personalization to foster trust; (3) facilitate collaborative knowledge sharing both inside and outside the training setting; (4) balance roles as knowledge facilitator, coach, and information manager; and (5) invest additional time in both course and instructor preparation. Implications: Blended e-learning presents a number of challenges for subject matter experts and designers of instructional content. Subject matter experts must consult with instructional designers and consider the different media platforms, environments, and formats that optimize the best pairing of content with delivery mode and media type. Content experts and designers must collaborate on methods of effectively adapting course content to account for perceived richness, user experience, and task complexity. Instructors must also invest additional time in planning and accounting for user preferences and communication practices in online training.

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>

For pt.I see ibid., vol.32, no.2, p.83-93 (1991). The authors explore the two-year Danish CIM/GEMS project in computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) at the Technical University of Denmark to show how writing is an act of technology and knowledge representation, a vehicle of their transfer to a user community, and, if successful, an accommodation of technology to its users. They address creators and users of system documentation who need documentation for CIM implementation. The authors argue that documentation is often better for representing and explaining a CIM system than the actual system itself, and they recommend that documentation production be viewed not as a separate, end-of-project activity but as an integrated part of technical development. Planned and regular documentation production can in fact be a stimulus and aid to technical development, possibly even shortening the project life cycle.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The application of work force diversity and business ethics to advance employee growth and satisfaction while improving production and profits for corporations is described. An ethics/diversity synergy model that involves accommodation of change and assimilation into the organizational environment is discussed. A comprehensive, targeted corporate communication program combining consistency, continuity, and content that serves as a vehicle for the ethics/diversity synergy model is described. Activities and communication channels that enhance the ethics/diversity synergy model are examined.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The author hypothesized that flashing target prepositions and verb inflections would result in greater recall of passages presented on a video screen. Thirty-four prelingually deaf freshmen were shown two passages on a video screen in a crossed-cell experiment. Eighteen students saw target prepositions and verb inflections flashed in capitals in a lesson on Newton but not in a lesson on Roemer. Sixteen students saw target prepositions and verb inflections flashed in capitals in the lesson on Roemer but not in the lesson on Newton. No statistically significant difference was shown between the groups of students nor between the two lessons. Students obtained scores of 97% on the targets when they were flashed in capitals and only 83% when not flashed (p<;0.0005).

The reading needs of those who have not yet achieved proficiency-language learners, such as adults with normal hearing learning English as a second language and deaf adults-differ from the needs of fluent readers. The author explains how writers can use specific strategies to alleviate the difficulties these readers experience.

Electrical engineers usually write for two classes of readers: other engineers and the general public. Within both of these groups there are disadvantaged readers. Often, fellow engineers are natives of countries where they learned a language other than English as their first language, and who in some cases have not mastered English. A recent issue of The Institute discussed the large number of non-U.S. nationals who are obtaining electrical engineering degrees in the U.S., and how many of them have chosen to remain in the U.S. after obtaining their degrees — especially graduate degrees. Within the general public, there are also people with reading disadvantages. They include prelingually deaf persons and those with learning disabilities sprinkled in the general population and any engineer who writes for general consumer audiences (e.g. consumer electronics or public statements on power plant safety) should be aware of the problems of disadvantaged readers and attempt to accommodate their needs.

Many classes of disadvantaged readers fail to correctly comprehend agentless passive voice sentences. Students in a physics class at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf were given the Test of Syntactic Abilities to ascertain whether they could comprehend the passive voice structures commonly found in technical texts and reports. The results showed that 50% of these prelingually deaf college freshmen failed to comprehend sentences with agentless passive.

Assessing the vocabulary range of the audience for an engineering document is not an easy task and is even more difficult when the audience includes disadvantages readers. This report supports the hypothesis that the less often a word appears in print, the less likely it is to be known by a reader. A test was given to 277 hearing students ranging in age from 9 through 14 and to 438 hearing-impaired students ranging in age from 10 to 19, including the special case of college freshmen. Results showed that prelingually deaf students trailed far behind their hearing peers; e.g. hearing subjects knew 63% of the words up to the 24000th word, while hearing-impaired subjects knew only 62% of the words up to the 2000th word.

Accuracy, clarity, and efffectiveness are basic qualities of good technical writing. If there is conflict in accommodating all three simultaneously, or when stylistic choices are being considered, writers should not sacrifice accuracy for clarity nor accuracy and clarity for effectiveness. The priority of accommodation is accuracy, clarity, effectiveness: ACE.

The quality of philosophy journals varies widely; hence, a basic problem is quality control. The minimum standards instituted by the Association of Philosophy Journal Editors to protect authors from unjust treatment by editors are presented. The lack of existing standards concerning the use of referees, blind refereeing, and sharing referees' comments with authors is also treated. The efforts of some journals to provide their referees with written statements of the standards that an article must meet to be published are viewed as encouraging. Although the general lack of standards is certainly a problem, the organizational controls required to establish and enforce uniform standards across a discipline might limit creativity and individual freedom to the point of being morally unacceptable.