For the purpose of continually improving an English teacher training program, an attempt was made to research the expected competencies of reading instructors in relation to technical report writers. Interviews were conducted with those involved in the teaching of technical report writing. The interviews reflected very little familiarity with reading instruction at the college level. The results were coupled with current research findings on training and duties of college reading instructors. This suggested a possible strategy for improving services to technical report writing students.

External examiners drawn from industry and from other universities have been used in a course in technical writing. The evolution of this scheme is described and other teachers of technical writing are urged to adopt it.

Information, commands, and requirements not only must be understood—they must be credible too. That is, they must be such that they change the knowledge or understanding of the readers, or else they demand appropriate action. These introductory notes explain under what circumstance statements need to be made more credible and they explain how to add credibility at the clause, sentence, paragraph, and section levels. Principles of syllogistic reasoning, analogies, and experimental reasoning are also discussed. Brief mention is made of the related instruction for students and professional engineers.

This paper points out that producing good technical documents requires two types of editing. It discusses the differences between literary and technical editing, and defines the facets of editing that are of primary concern to the literary editor and to the technical editor. It emphasizes the need for both types of editing at different stages of manuscript development, regardless of whether each type is done by different people or by the same person at different times. In short, the literary editor is primarily concerned with things involving the language and mechanics of writing and producing a document, while the technical editor is primarily concerned with the document's technical content and how well it is presented to the intended audience.

The business or technical writing teacher can mitigate against his pragmatic students' recalcitrance toward language studies by pointing out the utility of knowing how to write well. However, rather than turning to hackneyed arguments or to literary evidence, he can motivate students more effectively by turning to compelling testimonials from leaders in business and industry, to appropriate personal experiences, and to stimulating classroom strategies that emphasize the importance of language ability in career, social, and civic aspirations. The lively use of such readily available resources can improve student attitude toward the course and should thus improve student performance.

This article has been adapted by the author from a paper presented to the first technical communications seminar held at The New South Wales Institute of Technology in June 1974. Discussed are some elements and techniques of editing from the author's experiences as an editor in Australia and which may be applicable to other countries. Format, typography, printing, the duties of the editor, the instruction manual, and liaison are some of the topics discussed.

The traditional instruction of technical report writing leans heavily on the conventions of English grammar and on principles advocated by grammarians, journalists, and literature scholars. The effect has been so strong—particularly in North America—that the word “technical” in technical writer, technical writing, and technical reports has literally become almost meaningless. This article discusses a few important differences between technical and nontechnical writing. It also explains some shortcomings of the traditional instruction and suggests methods of improvement.

The simple conjunctions of the English language are defined in terms of truth tables to show the relationship between logic and linguistic coupling words. Some principles and problems of deduction in technical writing are discussed in terms: of linguistic couplers, of the technical level necessary for understanding the premises, and of the criteria for judging arguments in different fields of reasoning. This is an introductory paper; it discusses several related principles of technical reasoning, and it provides detailed references and a brief annotated bibliography for those who wish to read further.

The use of cassette tape recorders in evaluating technical reports is spreading in college technical writing classes and may have application outside the classroom as well. The technique, which enables instructors to make more effective critiques of student papers, meets with favorable student response and need not be expensive. This report describes the use of cassette grading at the University of Idaho and makes suggestions for those who wish to try the method themselves.

W. Earl Britton's proposal to substitute technical writing for freshman English is not convincing. The proposal rests on questionable beliefs about the two courses. Freshman English is not neglecting to emphasize the development of communications skills, and technical writing cannot be broadened enough to replace freshman English without becoming a course in freshman English. Both courses have important roles to play in the university. Freshman English should continue to concern itself with general communications skills, and technical writing should continue to involve the application of these skills to special kinds of communication.

In the fall of 1972, the Department of Humanities of the College of Engineering at the University of Michigan adopted a lecture-recitation format for its required course in scientific and technical communication. The recitations were conducted by graduate student teaching assistants of which I was one. Though I found my educational background, which was in electrical engineering, to be an advantage rather than a disadvantage in many ways, there were certain aspects of the department, the course, and the teaching techniques of my colleagues that I did not originally anticipate. This article presents some of these.

Most technically orientated students are never exposed to lessons in effective technical writing skills. Yet, knowing how to express oneself properly is a necessity in today's technical world. The technical writer must use correct grammar and exact language in his descriptions of precise, technical subjects. He must learn how to adapt his personal style to the impact he wants to make. In addition, he must also learn how to communicate to various levels of audiences, for not all of his readers will possess the same knowledge about a subject. Also, he must learn to use graphic aids in the presentation of an article.

Technical writers and editors can organize and teach an effective course in technical writing if they are briefed on the criteria and receive the support of management.

The roles and importance of sentence-coupling conjunctions in general technical writing are analyzed. Based on a previous paper (which explained the meanings of these coupling words), this paper examines ways of improving logical argument, of providing continuity of thought between sentences, and of improving readability. Useful redundancy and punctuation are also briefly discussed in relation to coupling words. Comparative tables of incidental couplers, determiners, and redundant couplers are provided as practical aids to the technical writer and editor.

Three present-day developments are very likely to have a major influence upon technical writing in the nineteen eighties. These are: interactive lectures, information storage and retrieval, and the development of an ultra-small electronic camera for movies, television, and still pictures. Carefully tested interactive lectures will provide individual attention for learners at the time it is most needed. Under a perfected system of information storage and retrieval, the technical writer would suggest to the reader the kinds of information to request from a nation-wide information bank. He would also assist in the screening of information so that learners would not be deluged by surplus information. The small electronic camera will enable the technical writer to illustrate his instructions on the user's TV set. Thus, the technical writer of the eighties could well become a writer-producer.

Replacing freshman English with technical writing seems logical because the freshman course stresses essays by uninformed students directed to well informed teachers, who encourage the inductive pattern and pay more attention to the writer than to the communication. Moreover, essays are rarely encountered after college. Technical writing, despite its misleading name, is applicable to all fields because it emphasizes efficiency, precision, and communicative effectiveness. The information flows from the knowledgeable to the uninformed, is normally arranged deductively, and focuses upon the reader. Intellectually and rhetorically demanding, it belongs in all professional training.

Technical papers should be constructed as coherent wholes, using those organizational, stylistic, and informational devices necessary to communicate their intended message to the intended audience. Since messages and audience vary tremendously, so also must techniques of technical writing. The technical writer will find that techniques normally associated with the writing of fiction, including creation of hypothetical situations, composite characters, invented dialogue, and dramatic story lines, aid greatly in achieving improved technical communication.

This paper discusses some of the main reasons for the weakness of much technical writing. It suggests that in teaching college-level students in science and engineering curricula the writing teacher should focus mainly on those weak areas, many of which are neglected in high school English courses or in traditional freshman English. If scientific and technical writers can be taught to make a rigorous intellectual analysis of their writing and can be steered away from simplistic and simple-minded formulas they will come to have enough respect for writing as an intellectual discipline that they can be motivated to bring about actual improvement in their written work.

Professors emeritii from both engineering and the humanities can usefully serve as External Examiners to determine the student's final grade in a scientific and technical communication course.

Research in communication is continually underway in universities and colleges. This paper presents one project carried out in the stylistics of technical writing. A number of technical articles were examined; they ranged from report writing to professional and trade publications. The conclusions, while not definite, do shed some light on the difference between technical and nontechnical writing.

Effective technical writing is of major importance in today's scientific and technical society. Unfortunately, many of today's students are turned off by those forms of technical writing found in the classroom. A key factor contributing to this attitude may be the inability of today's authors to stimulate reader interest. The article touches upon the way in which the student approaches technical literature, and the way in which today's author may attract his reader's attention to the subject presented. Various devices utilized in today's technical literature are also discussed in conjunction with the stimulation of reader interest.

Students are selected by a diagnostic essay. They begin simply, by completing job application forms, personal resumes, and letters of application, tasks which require concise expression of facts, which reveal much about the students' backgrounds, and which they must use to get a job. Then they move to the daily writing problems an engineer faces. In every class they also practice exercises that correct the many errors caused by the change from their native language into English.

Educators' experiments in cassette critiquing of college student papers have met with considerable success. After discussing the potential advantages, the Department of English at the U.S. Air Force Academy, Colorado, conducted a pilot program of cassette critiquing during the 1971 Fall Semester in the English 430, Technical Writing, course. Two course-wide surveys were made during the program to determine 376 students' reactions to cassette critiques as compared with conventional critiquing (written comments, handbook cryptographics in the margins, student-instructor conferences, and in-class discussions) methods.

The use of subjective testing as the only method for testing writing ability is questioned in this paper. Even a collaboration between engineers and specialists in English gives highly debatable results. The author of this paper, a well known British educator, has been experimenting with a type of objective testing. He invites readers to take one of his tests and to discuss the results with him.

This paper makes a strong case for a comprehensive listing of technical writing publications. An introduction to the main thesis establishes the importance of technical writing both academically and professionally. A strong bibliography would provide a mine of information for both teachers and technical writers. The author would welcome a response on the subject, including references to information for citation.

The rhetorical and syntactic interfaces between technical communicators and readers are being affected by cost-related pressures. The resulting modification of the technical communicator's role will benefit or harm engineering and technical communication according to the developing understanding of the technical communicator. In business and in education the changing professional rationale should consider both the nature of the work and the professional personality of the technical communicator. This is because the success of an engineering enterprise depends on the cooperation and interaction of administrators, engineers, and technical communicators, and because those who are being channeled into technical writing and illustrating are being increasingly selected by educators. As the bridge between the engineer and the user, the professional personality of the technical communicator fulfills two requirements, the technical and the artistic; technical communicators typically remain suspended between technology and art.

Editing and publishing specialized periodicals in a language other than English poses some problems in the world of scientific and technical communication. This article reviews how a major French scientific monthly has addressed itself to the problem, and how it deals with a lack of specialized manpower in the field.

In his paper, “Motivating Engineering Students to Publish,” Dr. Herman A. Estrin describes the experiences that he has had in teaching engineering students to write, and particularly to write publishable material. This professional approach to writing has paid off, as Mr. Millard's article demonstrates.

Esso Production Research Company has found that video tape is an effective means of conducting technical training and transferring technology. Use of video tape reduces the cost of conducting technical schools. Engineers and scientists using video tape information seem to retain it about as well as they do when they get it by other means (live schools, technical reports). Limited results indicate that video-taped technical reports convey information about as well as do written technical reports. Some users prefer audio-tape cassettes and recorders for automatic audio synchronization with 35 mm slides. The general conclusion is that video tape is one more communications medium, but a good one, at the disposal of people concerned with technical training or technology transfer.

Existing literature in the technical publications field indicates large deficiencies in many areas. Technical writing, per se, is only a small portion of the technical publications field. This chapter, Research and Liaison Activities for Technical Publications, is an attempt to fill part of that gap. Research for raw source data inputs for the preparation of a technical manual involves special knowledge and techniques in dealing with other groups and departments. Since technical writing also requires support services such as art, editing, typing, proofreading, and production, liaison activities with such groups require knowledge of their special needs.

In a technical writing course, students analyze the classics of engineering literature, prepare annotated bibliographies of articles concerning engineering writing, write an in-depth technical report on a civil engineering topic, and analyze the various articles in science and engineering magazines. To acquaint the students with the different magazines to which they may submit manuscripts, they also analyze a professional magazine. In this way, they are prepared for publication. After having reviewed science books for children, the students prepare their own manuscripts of science literature and submit them to consultants at the Writers' Conference held annually at Newark College of Engineering during April.

In a technically oriented society, scientists and engineers must have up-to-date information available at all times. Because technology is in a constant state of flux, documentation support is often obsolete by the time it is printed. Since the burden of supplying current information rests with technical communicators, it is up to us to explore effective methods of disseminating data before they become obsolete. This article offers one plausible method.

The organizational position of the technical communication function can help or hinder its effectiveness. Positing a centralized unit comprising certain skills, this article explores various placements of the unit, and recommends one as superior.

Technical writing is a discipline with clear limitations in both language and ideology. These limits pose a special problem for the teacher, since he must keep his audience interested in a subject which does not permit a normal range of self-expression on either scientific or humanistic topics. A consequence of this classroom dilemma is that technical writing instructors tend to dwell at length upon the value of simple generalizations and also capitalize heavily upon the comic effects of bad writing. The vices of “easy generalities” and “easy comedy” must first be understood in order to be avoided.

Colleges of advanced technology in Great Britain became technological universities following the recommendation of the Robbins Report of the Committee on Higher Education in 1963. This paper discusses developments in communication studies in the context of general education for students entering commerce and industry. Central to the discussion is a description of the integration of courses in spoken and written communication at the University of Wales Institute of Science and Technology. Specialists in technical communication in industry were consulted with the result that an existing degree course was adapted to meet the industrial challenge.

This approach to the control of writing costs is a systematized method to leaven and identify important cost factors to the management level. It periodically provides in-depth visibility into pertinent scope and productivity variations which have a significant impact on the success of writing programs. Elemental cost factors in consistent terms enhance the visibility as production quantities give measurements unusual objectivity in a relatively subjective environment. Because of the subjectiveness, data values at the program level must be management-tempered. Here they are used principally to flag problem areas where their meaning is paramount. Long term cumulative values (over many writing programs) become more meaningful as true absolute values. Because of this quality, they are used to set work standards, define writer productivity, and determine other departmental factors.

A great amount of a technical writer's time is spent in researching his subject. In many instances, that voluminous research can disrupt production and interrupt the personnel schedules of the client company. Creative Universal, Inc., provides a unique service for its staff of writers and producers. Through the use of portable television equipment, a permanent record of the technical task or process under analysis can be made. This Electronic Photography Research Technique ( EPRT) has application to several dimensions of the total communication process. Advantages accrued from the use of EPRT include: (1) significant savings in interviewing time, (2) substantial reduction of interference with the client's production schedules, (3) improved accuracy in data acquisition, and (4) extension of the researcher's perceptual field. The process brings to bear the unique contributions of the electronic age upon the world of technical writing.

A good many teachers of technical writing are guilty of blindly following tradition and convention in teaching students to rely on the outline as an organizing device, in categorically condemning the passive voice, in magnifying the importance of form and format, and in insisting on a set of inflexible rules for grammar and style that ignore widespread usage. Implicit in the attack on shibboleths is a plea for honest pragmatism in determining effectiveness in technical writing.

A number of “shortcuts” to make technical writing easier or more effective are described. These have to do with such tasks as documentation, filling in omissions by asking questions, taking notes, organizing material, and writing introductions. Outlines are uniquely classified as review, planning, master, and writing outlines. The latter is particularly useful because it is dynamic. Its use eliminates much note taking, aids the organization of source material, and helps guide the writing. An annotated bibliography has been included.

This paper discusses an interdisciplinary program at Kalamazoo Valley Community College in which the student is trained in several communications media: data processing, engineering graphics, technical reporting (oral and written), as well as various options. Additional work in computer graphics and technical illustration is included.

The distribution of 13 million Australians over a land mass the size of the United States poses unique problems for the communication of technical information. Both industry and education in non-urban areas are being imaginatively served by telecommunication and non-linear techniques, but the needs of secondary and tertiary industries for technical writing capabilities have not been met. Vigorous efforts by federal and state governments, by academic and industrial training facilities, and by professional societies are being made to correct this recognized inadequacy.

Education in the field of technical communication has not kept pace with the growth of the profession. This is partially a result of an expected time lapse in the educational process for an emerging profession and partially due to mistaken attitudes. An examination of the qualifications of a professional technical communicator—i.e. a grasp of basic sciences, an understanding of communication theory and practice, and a sensitivity to people—provides the basis for a formal curriculum in technical communications.

Lack of unity and logic, wordiness and repetition, and lack of coherence are the most prominent weaknesses in technical writing. Adherence to the six C's—conciseness, completeness, concreteness, correctness, coherence and carefulness—will improve report writing. A list of periodicals and books useful in the field is given.

Six ideas for improving technical writing are presented, with illustrative material. Briefly they are: (1) arrangement, attention to logical sequence of ideas; (2) perspicuity, the removal of temptations to interpretation; (3) placement, where the words go for maximum intelligibility; (4) fortuity, the avoidance of pitfalls in writing, particularly accidental humor; (5) economy, the control of repetition and avoidance of the obvious; and (6) transition, the effect of proper connections among ideas how to get from here to there.