An editor in a medical center requires a combination of knowledge and skills which provides an understanding of biomedical concepts and the aptitude for being a technical communicator. A medical editor edits manuscripts authored by physicians and scientists in biomedical specialties. A training program which combines academic and on-the-job training requirements has been conducted at a military medical center over a two-year period. One Resident has completed the on-the-job phase of the program. She has been a contributing biomedical communicator in the editorial office during this period and received a master's degree from a local university in May 1978. The support of the medical center, the dedication of the Preceptor, the vision of the Mentor, and the educational background, interests, aptitudes, potential, and persistence of the student selected to participate in the residency program have been contributing factors in making the program successful. This plan is a practical and economical approach to rewarding an institution for its investment and to training technical/biomedical communicators.

Within the past few years have appeared a number of journal articles about a rift between technical writing teachers and literature teachers. At this point there seems to be some improvement in containing this rift between these two groups, uneasy partners in many English departments. At the same time, the problem continues as new people enter the teaching profession and older people are forced to change their direction.

Technical writing is a functional type of prose. A technical writer must outline and define the subject matter for his reader. In addition, he should be aware of the reader's intelligence, and he must be able to adapt the written material. Furthermore, a reader must not be over-burdened with wordy sentences, vague words, or technical jargon. The information should be organized and presented clearly. If the article is written to an audience of homeowners, its contents should be easily understood, and the principles presented must be defined. Simple and concise language should always prevail. Sometimes a writer can communicate his concepts with the use of visual aids. These aids may be composed of charts or graphs that can be easily comprehended. However, when a reader is a person with experience or has advance knowledge of the subject matter, a more direct approach to writing can be used. The writer can deal with facts and anticipated questions. An author of technical writing must have a flexible style as well as knowledge of who his audience is. If he presents what the reader desires, he is assured of retaining their interest.

The movement toward improved written technical communications has generated little parallel pressure for improved oral communication. Yet the cost of noncommunicative technical talks is large. Attention by speakers to several simple details will result in significant improvements in technical talks. The most important of these details is to present conclusions as close to the beginning of the talk as possible. This simple action will help change a talk from a mystery story to an understandable scientific presentation.

Several innovative methods were used to help technical writing students to write more purposively, professionally, and effectively: writing a paper on the improvement of style in technical writing; reading science literature and writing critiques; editing a technical report; writing a professional technical report; writing science books for children; and writing for publication.

The teaching and practice of technical writing are sometimes hampered by assumptions and approaches that have little value. The traditional term paper has as few applications in the real world as the essay. An “idea grid” has much more value than the outline, and creativity is not linear, sequential, or measurable. Most technical writing texts are of minimal value because of their common denominator approach.

Teachers are recruited from the technical professions and from advanced composition courses to instruct the new discipline: technical writing. Students in a single class major and work in diverse fields. As a common denominator, organization, research, and writing a major paper are emphasized. Classroom discussion, specialized workshops, and individual conferences are utilized. Quality is the key.

The author of this article directs his remarks primarily to teachers of literature who may be considering the teaching of technical writing. He shows the similarities existing among the forms of creative, expository, and technical writing. He then cites some of the differences: the interactions of writer, subject, and the audience; the use of graphics; and the emphasis of the practical rather than the aesthetic.

The transition from teacher of literature to teacher of technical writing was both a matter of choice and a matter of necessity. By choice I teach in a community college. But the subjects I teach and the manner in which I teach them are largely influenced by the nature of the institution and the students. The institution, committed to the concept of extending educational opportunity to all, attracts a uniquely heterogeneous student body who prefer occupationally oriented programs.

At Texas A&M, the technical writing faculty discovered that the biggest weakness of students' long technical reports was lack of research. To remedy this weakness, a library instruction plan, here described, was developed. Because of the intensive nature of the library instruction, devised to aid approximately twenty-one different majors, a followup procedure was necessary. The library research report, also described, was designed to require students to examine the research tools shown them during library instruction. After this report is complete, students can draw from it information necessary to write their proposals for their long reports. Thus, library instruction, the library research report, and the proposal can be made interrelated studies which have both immediate and long-range instructional value for students.

This annotated bibliography includes all articles published in the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 1971–1977, with each of the 233 articles appearing in one of the following five major categories: (1) The Profession, (2) Education and Pedagogy, (3) Preparation and Presentation of Technical Information, (4) Publication and Personnel Management, (5) Applied Theory in Technical Communication.

The ornate style practiced before the scientific revolution of the seventeenth century too often led to obscurity and verbal games rather than clarity and the pursuit of truth. In reacting against ornateness, however, scientists developed the ideal of a plain style that is itself problematic. The writer's posture is essentially defensive; he is more concerned with what not to do than what to do in his writing. The practice of amplification, useful for audience adaptation, has been abandoned, and rhetorical devices that promote the personal touch are no longer taught. Recent experiments indicate that classroom exercises involving rhetorical devices can help promote economy and clarity, encourage more personal and aggressive writing, strengthen the idea that writing is an art, and arouse writer and reader interest. The study of stylistic devices in use before the scientific revolution can be fruitful for modern scientific and technical writing.

In response to a mail survey of the career opportunities they offer teachers of technical writing, twenty-four programs that prepare students for careers as technical writers and editors indicated that their technical writing faculty enjoy about the same teaching loads, salaries, and chances for promotion and tenure as do equally qualified and experienced teachers of literature at their schools. The programs also indicated that they have a growing number of openings on their faculties for teachers of technical writing. Finally, the programs ranked and rated seventeen qualifications that might be offered by applicants for those positions; the most significant conclusion drawn from the rankings and ratings is that the programs look more favorably upon experience — both in teaching and in working as a technical writer or editor — than they do upon formal study of technical writing or the teaching of it.

This is one of the papers from technical writing students that the Journal publishes from time to time. The use of visual aids to complement technical writing is described, especially in reference to two main categories: static and dynamic images.

In this student paper, the author discusses technical writing with clarity as a major emphasis. It is suggested that the technical writing discipline can achieve more effective communication through the further development of writing skills.

Professional technical communicators need to be “engineers plus.” In the United Kingdom, the plus is added in short courses after full engineering education. Developing the plus requires more than just training in grammar, graphics, and layout; it calls for programs which will develop the personal attributes communicators need in order to cope with the constraints with which they have to work.

This article concerns a survey made by the author to determine the importance of technical writing to prominent engineers. Specific items discussed are the place of technical writing in the engineering curriculum and what should be included in a technical writing course. The results of a lengthy questionnaire are given, with some individual comments.

Teachers new to technical writing must understand that “Technical Writing” is not one course. Rather it is a whole variety of courses distinguished from one another primarily by differences in objectives and only secondarily by differences in subject matter. To identify needed technical writing courses and to define coherent sets of courses, teachers of technical writing and program administrators need “a mapping procedure” to help them consider alternatives systematically in terms of objectives. This paper proposes such a mapping procedure.

A summer program at the Naval Underwater Systems Center offers from two to four temporary positions each year, where graduate students in technical writing are introduced to a wide variety of assignments in technical communications. The program, now in its sixth year, provides practical professional training for technical writers and editors.

A number of points for improving writing and speaking necessary for the world's work are discussed. One of these is the expansion of technical writing courses for managers, administrators, and company officials. Another point is concerned with the fact that most technical writing texts focus too much upon engineers and too little upon scientists. A third point deals with the necessity for paying more attention to graduate and professional programs. Other suggestions range through traditional English graduate programs, ways to reward effective technical writing teaching, emphasis on professionalism, and allocation of funding for the improvement of technical writing teaching. The author closes with a call for definite action.

There is essentially no teacher training for technical writing overseas. Western Europe follows United Kingdom practices because English is the primary scientific and technical language and the U.K.'s ISTC has assumed leadership on the continent. In the U.K., teachers are primarily concerned with preparing students for the external examinations given by the City and Guilds for certification of technical writers; elaborate teacher-training programs are unnecessary for this. Canada has not yet expanded course offerings sufficiently to create a demand for teachers of technical writing. Australia has this year decided to implement the U.K. procedure. While all nations train their scientists, en passant, to communicate in their own disciplines, none trains teachers of technical writing specifically.

In this article, the discussion centers around a changing and expanding definition of technical writing. An early definition was restrictive. Later, as courses for a number of disciplines were designed, technical writing became more diversified. A distinction is made between technical reporting and technical writing in other forms. The relation of graphics to technical writing is explored. The author gives a number of examples of the expanding subject matter and forms of technical writing.

To communicate technical material effectively to a particular audience, a writer must not only analyze his readers' background and professional needs, but also incorporate that analysis into his text. This article introduces the concept of the mock reader as a means of giving body to an amorphic audience and relates that concept to the decisions a writer must make. Three situations are presented—writing to the operator, the expert, and the manager—to show how the mock reader can enhance the immediacy and coherence of a text.

The traditional view of rhetoric and science as sharply distinct has helped reduce the technical writing course to mere vocational training. Current thinking in rhetorical theory and philosophy of science supports the contrasting view that science is rhetorical. Salient aspects of the rhetoric of science are illustrated by Crick and Watson's discovery of the structure of DNA, as recorded in Watson's The Double Helix [1]. Analysis of the rhetoric of science suggests that the study of technical writing could be central to liberal education for a technological society.

Language in a technical writing course can be taught from the standpoint of its function in the student's papers. Three functions can be differentiated: generative—making later discussion necessary; substantive—giving supporting material from researched sources; and conclusive—making the author's conclusions clear and apparent.

Looking back to a time when he was a student in technical writing courses, the author discusses the importance to the practicing engineer of style and correctness in communication. He cites the characteristics of an effective style. This is followed by the problems of grammar and the ways to attain reader interest.

There are two opposing views towards technical writing courses and towards teachers of technical writing: one favorable, the other disdainful. Those who disdain technical writing seem to believe that it: 1) imposes restrictive and arbitrary forms upon creative individuals, 2) involves only the accumulation of factual evidence, 3) deals with things, rather than with people, and 4) is, like other practical arts, a second-class activity. The first three beliefs are mistaken, and it can be argued that the dissemination of technical and scientific information is just as humanistic as artistic writing.

The special nature of technical writing is seen in the emphasis on efficient information transmission. Rather than relying on the classic concept of information as the probability of items in a series, the article discusses information value with respect to reader background and to the distribution of “new” information (not known to the reader, or not focused) and “old” (known, presupposed, mentioned) information. It is argued that this perspective is best suited for the presentation of grammar in the teaching of technical writing, with special regard for the focusing techniques of written as opposed to spoken English; examples are provided.

A student's honest complaint challenges the relevance of teaching technical writing. He assumes that academic and business criteria have little to do with each other. However, an examination of academic statistics and the expectations of business undercuts his assumption.

Modern technical writing often suffers from its tendency toward jargon. Technical writing courses should include units on grammar as it relates to stylistics in technical writing. Transformational-generative grammar offers an effective and useful approach to train technical writers to communicate more effectively and to avoid the problems inherent in an impersonal style. One way of organizing a discussion of transformational-generative grammar is to consider its application to sentences and clauses, phrases, and individual words.

This paper posits that the technical communicator probably spends more time engaged in oral communication activity than he does in written; thus, to be an effective technical communicator one needs an appreciation and an understanding of both modes. Differences between oral and written communication, and methods of difference reduction, are discussed for the dimensions of: 1) permanency, 2) style, 3) interactional control, 4) mediation, and 5) effects. The conclusion is drawn that to be effective the technical communicator must develop the ability to produce messages which evoke common understanding among those participating in the communication event.

Excerpts from Thomas Sprat's History of the Royal Society, published in 1667, are used to explore the parallels existing between the rise of modern scientific and technical writing and the rise of seventeenth century science. The author of this paper shows how the English teachers of today, like the scholastic critics of the past, are too often isolated from the realities of communication. He quotes Thomas Sprat to emphasize that communication techniques should not be studied at a distance. The practice of scientific and technical writing must be brought closer to the university. Doing consulting work is one possibility; another is conducting communication research for business and industry. Additional specialized courses should be introduced for students specializing in the professions. English majors planning to work full time in communication should have internships provided. Sprat recognized that a bridge must exist between science and the humanities. This applies as well to the present condition.

This paper describes how members of the technical writing class at Rice University handled a major writing assignment that stimulated student interest and integrated many of the skills taught in the course. Phases of the assignment dealt with preparing of a memo describing the problem or question, the writing of an investigative report, organizing feasibility studies, and choosing the right audiences. Some of the feasibility studies attacked problems concerning the university. Others concerned community problems and summer job experiences. Included in the assignment were videotaped oral presentations.

This is an expanded version of an evaluation originally given at the International Technical Communication Conference, Washington, D.C., 1976. The questionnaire was an attempt to get in touch with as many graduates of Rensselaer's Master's Program in Technical Communication as possible and to find out their reactions to the curriculum. The questions covered such topics as present and past occupations, usefulness of the Rensselaer curriculum, recommended curriculum changes, making use of invited speakers, degree of emphasis on style and format, supplementary courses, contact with professional writers, and adoption of new techniques.

This is one of the papers from technical writing students that the Journal publishes from time to time. Lt. Meyer, formerly a student at New Jersey Institute of Technology, discusses static and dynamic audiovisual aids. Included are flip charts, graphs, pictures, transparencies, slides, cassette tapes, and movies.

Technical writing involves more than simply the “nuts and bolts” of preparing a good report. Good technical writing must be an effective communication, and in order for the writer (source) to obtain the desired response from the reader (receiver), he must have a clear conceptualization of the communication process. He must realize that the source, the message, the channel, and the receiver are important variables that influence the success of technical communication. The technical writer must be aware of the “filter” stages the receiver moves through before ultimately making a response to the message. The technical writer who creates a proper meld of the basics of good technical writing with an understanding of the communication process can produce an effective technical communication.

Addressing the professional communicator, the technical writing teacher and the interested student, this article discusses Benjamin Franklin's major contributions to the development of technical communication. While the article centers on Franklin's technical writing style as a model for today's technical communicator, it also outlines Franklin's philosophy of technical communication and his incisive views of the scientist's role in society.

Richard W. Schmelzer, the author of this article on the first textbook written for technical writing classes, knows his subject from firsthand experience. He was one of the first teachers assigning The Preparation of Reports to future engineers. In this paper he pays tribute to Dr. Ray Palmer Baker, an early authority on modern technical communication and the author of The Preparation of Reports.

Textbooks describing scientific or technical writing as “impartial” or “objective” are too restrictive. As advances in the history of science have familiarized us with the importance of the human element in science, so the human element must also be given its due in writing in the area. Our students will often be engaged in communication that involves adaptation for an audience relatively unfamiliar with the subject being presented, and they must be aware that the personal touch can arouse interest and sharpen awareness and understanding. History can serve as a source of writing models that successfully use the personal touch.

Case problems based upon believable circumstances can improve instruction in technical writing in college courses and industrial seminars. Such case problems give students and trainees realistic tasks, carry them through the various stages of writing a report, and reflect the systems approach to technical writing. This article explains the usefulness of case problems, suggests ways and criteria for their preparation, and offers a brief example of a case problem.

The author of this article has observed the needs of the manual writer from two viewpoints, that of the technical writing teacher and that of the consultant to industry. He offers several suggestions for helping the manual writer through attention to resource materials, planning of courses, organization, and style and mechanics.

The problems with flawed technical documents are frequently problems of a larger nature. When the subject to be described is itself amorphous or internally illogical, technical writing may only dutifully reproduce the inherent confusion. Writers should be alert to identifying these problems and assisting product/procedure designers in eliminating confusion at its source.

Described are techniques which relate to the impact of communications on the reader. An awareness by authors and editors of the techniques available through readability research studies leads to significant savings in time and effort, as well as increased benefits in comprehension and learning of the reader. Examples of use in technical publications show how exchanges between author and reader can be more effective and productive. The techniques have wide application also to publications of all kinds, and provide a valuable resource to achieve optimum results in communication or information products. The discussion is based on the knowledge and experience gained by the writer through academic and practical applications in editing and preparing a wide variety of general and technical communications.

W. Earl Britton's and Merril D. Whitburn's views on freshman English and technical writing are not as much in conflict as the titles of their recent articles may suggest. The two courses are solutions to two different problems, namely the communicative skills required by undergraduates and by graduate engineers. Experience at the University of the Witwatersrand indicates that two courses, one given at the beginning of the undergraduate course and one at the end, would be an ideal solution. Where a crowded curriculum permits only one course, the compromise solution requires elements from both types of courses.

“The aim of technology is not the triumph of matter, it is the triumph of man” (Louis Armand, Essays on Machines, Technology, and the Life of the Mind). Because the typical layman does not understand the scientific and technological accomplishments of our nation, a modern educational program must be created to bridge the gulf of misunderstanding between the scientist and the nonscientist. The underlying success of this creative program is founded on the effectiveness of technical communication.