A rhetorical editing method can help the editor redesign technical reports, when necessary, to meet the needs of the intended audience. If the editor sees that the author has not selected and arranged the ideas to accord with the audience and purpose of the report, he or she must reselect the necessary and sufficient ideas and rearrange them. Rhetorical editing thus calls on the editor to edit at the scale of the entire report—not just at the scale of individual words and sentences. Although seemingly a bold departure from conventional editing, rhetorical editing merely applies the principles of rhetoric widely used in technical writing and composition.

The article argues the relevance and utility of communication theory and models in the research, design and development of computer-mediated information systems. Toward this end, the underlying communication model of early management information systems (MIS), termed the information-transfer (IT) model, is derived. In particular, MIS are examined from seven aspects: epistemological and ideological bases, context, agents, problems addressed, nature and role of communication. The widely acknowledged failures of early MIS are traced to shortcomings of the underlying IT model. A model reflecting recent developments in communication theory is also presented, and state-of-the-art information systems are described and critiqued with reference to both communication models. The critique suggests directions for information-system development based on sounder communication theory.

Specialized publication of scientific and technical journals during the 1970's showed marked growth in Europe and North America, was measurably stable in Africa and the Middle East, but was rising somewhat in the Asian-Pacific and Latin American-Caribbean regions. The number of journals in the basic sciences, the medical sciences, and technology-related industries continues to climb, worldwide, but the universal data-base on scientific periodicals remains fragmentary and needs completion. Primary-source scientific journals are relatively few in number, in most languages, and current economic considerations suggest that this number will not rise significantly. Journals of popularization, on the other hand, continue to grow in number and variety. Audiovisual and electronic information technologies are making inroads into the domain long dominated by typography, but replacement of printed journals by electronic journals can be expected to remain problematic for reasons related to technology, budget, and distribution. Current specialization in primary- and secondary-source journals may gradually give way to consolidation of journals now serving highly focused, comparatively small audiences.

Only recently has anything been written about internships in technical writing; however, teachers interested in setting up internship programs can learn from papers written on the experience of teachers of journalism and from cooperative education programs. Internship programs vary widely–some offer academic credit, some do not. Students work from four to forty hours per week for credit of one to fifteen hours; some internships pay students; some provide them with samples of their work; some use contracts, some do not; some are located on campus, some off campus; some are part of cooperative education programs; different programs require different prerequisites; and students do a number of different types of jobs. Sourcebooks can provide information about how to locate employers, how to administer programs, how to evaluate programs, and what other people's solutions to common problems have been.

This article is a sample of science and technology stories about the peaceful uses of nuclear energy, drawn principally from popular magazines which reported nuclear news in the 1940s and 1950s. It shows that many of the accounts were widely optimistic and sensational in their claims about the potential uses of nuclear power, and suggests the reasons for the sensationalism and overconfidence in science and technology. The concluding section discusses the general implications for the present and future popularization of science and technology journalism and communication.

Technical communication is not one discipline but three, each addressing its own distinctive set of problems and applying its own particular criteria when deciding which of the alternative solutions it has generated addresses its problems most effectively. Of the three, only the professional discipline is conducting its research satisfactorily; the teaching and theoretical disciplines are not. All three could improve their research activities by posing themselves a wider variety of significant problems, generating a richer array of alternative solutions, and conducting more carefully the activities that enable them to select the alternatives most worthy of continued attention and use.

Liberal arts colleges that elect to introduce technical writing courses or programs into their curriculum face the dilemma of vocationalism vs. liberal education. This paper examines the philosophical differences between the two as well as their practical compatibility or incompatibility, and then argues for the union of technical writing and the liberal arts school while admitting certain reservations. The technical writing course at a liberal arts school should use a wider range of books and periodicals than should a technical school, should stress rhetorical theory and strategy, and should confront the moral issues resulting from technology.

Frequent attention is drawn to the decline in the standards of written English. High school examinations are changing to meet a new situation. Attempts are being made to find a unified approach to all aspects of English study. Literary studies figure prominently in the education of teachers of English. New critical approaches bring linguistic and literary studies together. Form and content are seen as combined in structure. Basic critical approaches can be applied to a wide range of texts. This is significant for the teaching and learning of communication skills in English.

Use of the word multimedia is discussed in terms of cultural history, English grammar, classical rhetoric, communication technology, and recent articles by audiovisualists. Against this background, adjectival usage is seen as traditional, and nominative usage is shown to be justified by precedent and specialist practice, although not yet widely conven- tional. The following definitions are offered for general acceptance: multimedia (adjective)—involving several media; referring to any mixture of communication media, including mediated lectures, TV, film, drama, collages, and slide/tape programs multimedia (noun)—multiple-projection presentations reinforced by sound, and methods or equipment used to make such presentations; a method of communication which uses multi-image techniques combining static and moving projections with live or reproduced sound.

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.

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.

As the reader of this journal know, the effective communication of technological research and development is causing world-wide concern. Should scientists and engineers be selective in reporting technology? Can standards be set up for selectivity? What is the responsibility of the technical press? These and other problems are discussed by the authors of this illuminating report originating from Wroclaw Technical University, Poland.

Data from two widely different fields (the study of classical antiquity and the science of palynology) indicate that international political developments had a great influence on the issued numbers of scholarly publications and the distribution of these publications over various languages. When the national languages took over the position formerly occupied by Latin, the German language seemed to rank as the most prominent in international intercommunication. However, the two world wars in particular have undermined this position, and English has taken its place. Some data are presented which indicate this historical pathway.

There are well established patterns for the development of technical society papers, editorial publicity material, business paper advertising, and displays at engineering expositions—as used to support and stimulate industrial selling. But there is precious little pattern—and certainly no industry-wide pattern—to the development of that most common and essential of all sales aids, the company's sales literature. This paper, therefore, will undertake to offer an analytical approach to the development of sales literature—for the technical firm selling technical products to technical buyers—which the uninitiated can follow and the veteran can compare with the approaches his company uses and considers to be “established practice.”

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.

Considerable thought is being given today to the continuing education of media, library, and information specialists for an integrated and communicative profession. The traditional patterns of internship and inservice training are being supplemented by simulation of community contexts within which professionals can begin to apply the principles of lifelong and lifewide learning. One such simulation is briefly described as a model for inducing interpersonal and persuasive behavior in a “real life” environment.

This paper describes an industrial training program designed to bring continuing engineering educational programs to several thousand engineers distributed in plants over a wide geographical area on a flexible time schedule, using a practicing engineer's time effectively and efficiently while utilizing good teaching and learning techniques. Using video tape as the teaching media and supplementing this with textbooks, especially developed studying guide materials, visual aids designed for TV presentations, and an associate instructor at the plant location to act in a resource capacity, a successful engineering personnel educational program has been developed economically that can be used at any plant location. Other industries could utilize the techniques described to bring quality engineering-updating programs to the majority of their engineers, as could universities, to take graduate-level programs to locations distant from the campus at a time convenient to the engineers involved.

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.

With the increasing technological advances in our society, we are developing a substantial gap between the demand for, and the supply of, technically trained people. If the present training philosophy persists, this gap will continue to widen as our increased knowledge allows us to advance even more rapidly. What can be done to alleviate this situation? The answer is certainly not a simple one… or is it? One of the solutions to the problem may well be simplification, in training and in documentation. The following discussion relates primarily to training and documentation (communication) in the technical fields. An extension of these basic principles, however, can be applied to many other educational areas.

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.