If science is conducted within a scientific culture, then the classical concept of epideictic rhetoric should be applicable to internal scientific discourse. A theory of epideictic rhetoric as the “rhetoric of orthodoxies” is presented, along with its five rhetorical functions: education, legitimation, demonstration, celebration, and criticism. Suggestions as to how these concepts might be applied to internal scientific discourse are given, with special attention given to studies of science already completed by philosophers, sociologists, and rhetoricians.

Studies in the history of technical writing have only recently begun to study the development of technical writing. Pollard and Redgrave's Short-Title Catalogue, 1475-1640 contains a number of English Renaissance technical books that reveal that Renaissance printers and authors were aware of the need for readability and visual access in technical reference and information books. An examination of these books shows evolving use of many contemporary page design techniques: partition, clearly worded headings, visual aids, enumeration and listing devices, and choice of font for emphasis.

Business communicators today risk legal liability as courts are increasingly holding writers and their employing organizations responsible for reasonable—although often unintended—interpretations of their routine writing. Research and pedagogy have not kept abreast of this change. Rhetorical theory, particularly a social perspective, provides a useful foundation for understanding judicial resolution of claims arising out of writing; however, theory must also account for factors not encompassed within extended audience analysis. Current texts offer general descriptions of the laws most likely to affect business writers; in addition, writing pedagogy must provide specific strategies for avoiding liability-prone prose.

With the advent of electronic networking, writing pedagogy has moved into the arena of computer-supported collaborative writing, using collaborative writing as an instructional means to promote a more social view of the writing process. Therefore, as business and technical communication researchers and instructors, we need to ask the following questions: What kinds of software have been developed to aid computer-supported collaborative writing in the workplace and in the writing classroom? What benefits and problems have resulted from the design and use of this software? What research issues should be addressed as we approach the next decade of computer-supported collaborative writing? In this article the author explores these questions, highlighting five computer-supported collaborative writing systems from the workplace and five such systems from the writing classroom.

This research report examines the roles of convention, conflict, and conversation in the formation of audience constructs. One group of construction engineers and another group of design architects and engineers, both working in a bureaucratic setting, relied on disciplinary and institutional conventions while constructing, addressing, and invoking audiences. Incongruities among contextual conventions restricting audience analysis resulted in inappropriate textual features and necessitated conversation during corporate training. This conversation focused on redefining problems of audience analysis and accommodation. The problem solving associated with analyzing situational audiences during the composing process was possible only when writers understood the problem-posing conventions of their discourse communities.

Developing a course in desktop publishing is a technological, as much as a pedagogical, undertaking. Although a background in layout, document design, and typography is necessary, teaching these subjects with computers inevitably means teaching a particular combination of hardware and software. Students with little prior experience using computers must receive training in computer basics. Thus considerable familiarity, not only with desktop publishing software but also with personal computers, is necessary to teach a desktop publishing course.

This article describes an audience analysis exercise that offers a striking series of examples of how one business communication textbook has been adapted over the years by its authors to accommodate these authors' changing perceptions of their audience. The exercise also attempts to make students aware of their own involvement in various discourse communities by means of a letter-writing activity and subsequent classroom discussion. Additionally, this article argues for the need to help students become aware of how the values and presuppositions of discourse communities affect communications within those communities.

This article identifies problems in the computer-supported group writing of MBA students who are both novice strategic report writers and novice users of technology that supports group work. These problems consist of lack of attention to readers' needs, attitudes, and expectations; poor conflict management; leadership problems; genre confusion; shaky definition of the strategic problem; poor commitment and attitudes toward use of new technology; poor computer policies and practices; and conflicting hardware and software preferences. The article suggests several reasons for these problems, draws implications for instruction of computer-supported group writing, and suggests topics for further research.

This article analyzes the recognition, development, and use of the power of persuasion in American sales letter from 1905-1920, as well as two other business-writing traditions which developed during this period: the “you” viewpoint and the five C's. Examples will show how these two traditions changed the language used in business letters, allowing these letters to play a dual role by making these letters easier for the consumer to read and understand and by using these letters to pursue the growth in national character of American business. The article concludes with a call for further research, to help prepare writers to produce the letters of the future.

During the 1980s, studies about stress in academia and business indicated that jobrelated stress is a serious problem. The purpose of this exploratory, correlational study was to examine the nature and extent of job-related stress among collegiate business-and professional-writing faculty members in the United States. The stress scale developed by the author was consistent with the framework on stress and burnout suggested by Pines and Aronson. Results indicate that job-related stress is associated with faculty members' rank, type of institution, and sex. Job-related stress tends to increase with greater expectations of publication and service, the total number of courses taught, and the number of writing courses taught. Job-related stress tends to decrease with increased maturity—age, years of teaching, years postdegree, and years teaching business and professional writing. Analysis of two open-ended questions indicates that paper grading is a significant stressor.

This article first describes the NCR-USC Document Validation Laboratory, its corporate background, the mutual benefits it offers to National Cash Register (NCR) and the University of South Carolina (USC), and the validation procedure used therein. The article then goes on to discuss three common problems discovered in NCR's manuals and the reasons for these problems. The laboratory's success is then illustrated by presenting and analyzing excerpts from two documents that were validated in the laboratory and subsequently revised by NCR's writers before being revalidated.

Ongoing attempts to define technical writing are inevitably confounded by problems caused by an excessively broad focus, which obscures the basis and usefulness of the definition, or by an excessively narrow focus, which arbitrarily-and sometimes oddly-relegates samples of writing as in or out of the realm of technical writing. Technical writers have been doing their jobs for far too long without a definition to be satisfied with a one- or two-sentence catch-all definition, and such a definition may result in dividing technical writing into two (or more) cultures.

To assume their roles in corporate culture, business- and technical- communication students must understand the spoken and unspoken dis courses of corporate protocol and be aware of the intricacies of these discourses. Students must be knowledgeable about the correct corporate proto col for verbal as well as for nonverbal communication. Teachers can incorpo rate exercises into business- and technical-communication courses to increase students' awareness of and competence in navigating institutional politics. Learning how to interact successfully will enable students as new employees not only to survive institutional politics but to advance in their professions.

Research on advance organizers demonstrates the importance of memoran dum subject lines for reader comprehension and, by implication, reinforces the notion that a relationship exists between writer choice and communica tion context. Yet, existing pedagogy presents memorandum subject lines with no regard for context. This article introduces a taxonomy for subject-line com position that takes context into account by classifying memorandum subject lines as either neutral or directed. Analysis of 483 memorandum subject lines led to the development of this taxonomy. Findings from this analysis, as well as findings from several follow-up exercises which tested the usefulness of the taxonomy, indicate that writers compose memorandum subject lines much as pedagogical materials recommend and that these subject lines are usually neutral. However, when given alternatives, writers actually prefer directed sub ject linesforsomesituations. While the study focuses on subject lines in mana gerial memorandums, the proposed taxonomy and findings on writer choice may be more broadly applied and have important implications for pedagogy and research on managerial writing.

Previous research on the communication failures contributing to the Challenger's explosion tends to ask why it happened that various people in the organizations involved knew about the faulty O-rings but failed to pass on the information to decision makers. This is a faulty question, revealing assump tions many of us unconsciously share even when we consciously reject these as sumptions. This question implies a simplistic notion of knowledge and a conduit model of communication. Insights from the sociology of technology and the new rhetoricians can help us to form better questions about rhetoric in organizations.

This article describes an innovative method of teaching business communica tion. This method, which involves integrating business research methods and communication skills, has been employed and favorably received at the MBA level, especially by managers of technical and scientific personnel and by stu dents who anticipate careers in managing such personnel. This article offers a theoretical justification for such an integration, discusses the premises and benefits of a course based on this integration, and describes this course in de tail. The article also evaluates the strengths and weaknesses of the course and suggests when and why this course might be offered to undergraduates.

What is the role of interaction, or, more generally, orality, in multiple-audience analysis and adaptation? How does orality relate to literacy in the evolution of corporate documents? A qualitative study of how seven engineers in two divi sions of a large corporation wrote for multiple audiences revealed that, in the more rhetorically successful cases observed, interaction was the central means of analyzing and adapting discourse to multiple audiences, fulfilling rhetorical and social goals, and building and sustaining a corporate culture; and orality was more potent than literacy in the engineers'composing behavior and the au diences' acceptance of the engineers' ideas and documents.

Our survey of women who graduated in engineering from Kansas State Uni versity indicates that sexist language persists in the workplace, that women react to it in various ways, and that such language can engender sexist atti tudes which often have deleterious effects on the company and its employees. We believe technical-writing teachers have some of the responsibility to sensi tize students to exclusionary language. We show how that language violates professional ethical practices, demonstrate that some technical-writing texts trivialize the issue of sexist language, and suggest methods and resources for teachers to use in the classroom.

Empirical studies of gender-based language differences have provided con flicting, discreet conclusions that have little relevance for business- communications instruction. This paper presents informally collected obser vations of male and female students in undergraduate and graduate business- and technical-communication courses. Calling for future formal studies to verify its findings, this study concludes that people-intensive work experience modifies gender-based language differences in written business communica tions of undergraduate and graduate students. However, instruction in audi ence analysis, tone, content design, and style also modify these gender differences. If formally supported, these observations would help teachers argue for the value of business-communications instruction in helping stu dents develop varied and androgynous communication styles important for job-related communications.

The technology of in-house publishing is radically shifting the responsibility for document design from the graphic specialist to the individual writer. To apply the new technology, professional communicators need to understand the principles underpinning typographical design and their origin in the functionalist aesthetics of modernism, particularly as articulated by the Bauhaus. While some of the key concepts of modernism—strict economy, uni versal objectivity, intuitive perception, and the unity ofform and purpose—are well-suited to business and technical documents, these concepts are bound to an historical and intellectual milieu. By understanding the influence ofmod ernism on typographical design, professional communicators equipped with the new technology can adapt design principles to the rhetorical context ofspe cific documents.

Patent specifications have heuristic benefits as structural models for teaching technical description. Once taught how to read patents, students can use the specification's four main sections for writing assignments, structurally adapt ing a single topic-an invention-to different rhetorical contexts: (1) Back ground of the Invention describes the context into which the invention fits; (2) Summary of the Invention explains what makes the invention special; (3) Brief Description of the Drawings focuses on pictorial description; (4) Best Mode of Carrying Out the Invention explains how to make the invention work. Parts 1 and 2 correspond to Aristotelian definition, while part 3 can work as physical description and part 4 as functional description or even performance instructions.

While demand for business- and technical-writing courses at colleges and uni versities has increased, genuinely qualified teachers are not always available. This article describes an extended program for training graduate assistants to teach business and technical writing. The three-semester program includes a semester of apprenticeship teaching, followed by two semesters in which the graduate assistants teach their own classes. During the graduate assistants' first two semesters, they attend preparatory seminars on the teaching of pro fessional writing. The program emphasizes providing guidance and support for new teachers throughout their assistantship period, while encouraging the graduate assistants to develop their own teaching styles.

This article describes a course design that resulted from an academic and in dustrial collaboration. Unlike most simulation courses, the one described here was developed and taught by university professors and business professionals. One aim of designing the course was to find a way of teaching students that would better prepare them for writing in the workplace. A second aim was for the design-team members, through the experience of planning and teaching, to learn more about writing in the workplace and the teaching of writing. This article gives background on the development of the collaboration and on the decision to design and teach a simulation course, then describes the course and its results.

Gender-studies scholars describe the ways relationships within the family in fluence the gender identity of males and females, while composition special ists study the social nature of writing. In the areas of self-disclosure, control, trust, perceptions ofgroup and ofconflict, congruence, and reward, these gen der roles affect the abilities of men and women to collaborate successfully and determine their responses to interpersonal conflict. Through classroom activi ties and journal keeping, students can learn the limits ofgender roles and have access to a full range of collaborative strategies.

An assessment system for collaborative-writing projects helps create a positive learning experience for all group members by rewarding each individual for his or her participation. Unlike assessment systems that evaluate only the group product, the system proposed here balances product and process, the lat ter embracing individual skills at interacting and contributions to the collaborative composing. The results of a systematic study of students' atti tudes toward their classroom experiences seem to corroborate our perspective as practitioners: With this assessment system, group members felt that they participated fully and practiced effective interactional behaviors, that they be came involved in the collaborative-writing process, and that the reward system was fairer than a single group grade.

This essay analyzes business communication in order to generate an ap proach to ethics based in the rhetorical process of corporate life. Through a study of the role of language in creating and disseminating values, the essay first extends the Aristotelian paradigm for ethical communication to the rhet oric of business. Two case studies then show how this model works in practice, while a third case poses questions of ethics and communication for the read er's consideration.

While writing teachers view the résumé as a sophisticated rhetorical chal lenge, students tend to see it as a "technical specification"of their employment qualifications. This study investigated the reader's perspective by examining how writing features influence recruiters' assessments of résumés. Eighteen recruiters rated 72 résumés describing fictitious mechanical-engineering stu dents. Four résumé features were systematically varied: relevance of previous work experience, elaboration ofindependent coursework, stylistic quality, and mechanical correctness. The major result suggests that technical work experi ence is important but not sufficient: If the résumés of technically well- qualified applicants contained grammatical errors, recruiters rated these résumés lower than résumés listing less experience but containing more accu rate writing.1

This article presents the results of a year-long study of the business- and technical-communication market in Boston, Massachusetts. The study iden tifies the abundance of professional titles, duties, attitudes, responsibilities, aptitudes, and skills in business and technical communication included in six large categories ofpractice: technical communication, publishing, public rela tions, marketing, development, and training. Based on the Boston communication-market research and on occupational data from the U.S. De partment of Labor, this study suggests that, in the decade ahead, communica tion practitioners can expect healthy growth in the profession.

A growing concern about ethical behavior in business suggests that profes sional communicators, often major players in the business community, ought to be aware of the ethical dimensions of their writing. Teachers can prepare fu ture professional communicators to consider the ethical dimension of their writing activities by using Lawrence Kohlberg's hierarchy of moral develop ment. When Kohlberg's hierarchy is applied to fictional business settings, stu dents have the opportunity to investigate the relationship between action morality and agent morality. This type of investigation is an essential part of teaching professional communication because the written language used in business transmits values.