This article looks at the commentary's role in scientific disputation by analyzing the rhetoric in two scientific papers. First, it considers each author's explanation as to why disagreement exists among scientists. Second, it investigates one author's accusation that "cultural norms" have foreclosed research avenues in evolutionary studies. Third, it examines each author's appeal to values. These values cohere with their explanations as to why disagreements exist and their particular recommendations for administrating the Endangered Species Act.

This article analyzes two reports on energy policy by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The reports, though based on scientific inquiry, present rhetorical arguments that aim to influence future action. The reports are strategic tools for advocacy and action and are planned with an idea of their use in the field. Science and the reports serve the interests of social responsibility.

Most operator's manuals are examples of failed rhetoric: discourse that fails to inform, to persuade, or even to be read. By moving from a tacit reliance on a modernist model of communication that emphasizes the transfer of information to a postmodem model that emphasizes the communication of understanding, and by applying two principles of negotiating understanding—encouraging users to denaturalize their common sense and encouraging users to take their share of responsibility for the safe and effective use of technologies—technical writers can construct manuals that are more likely to succeed rhetorically and legally.

Business and technical communication textbooks take two approaches to intercultural communication: an information-acquisition approach, which provides students with information about practices in other cultures and tips for using this information in communication transactions; and a case-study approach, which encourages students to engage in dialog about problems encountered in intercultural communication. Both models enable students to confront cultural difference, but neither approach provides the means for successfully negotiating this difference. A praxis model provides an alternative strategy which enables students to negotiate cultural borders in actual workplace settings. But this model also exposes students to conflict which inevitably accompanies intercultural communication.

Electronic databases provide access to resources in business, communication, education, applied science and technology, and the social sciences. This article identifies the databases that monitor the journals most frequently cited by technical and professional communication researchers.

Abstract This article analyzes the location of "value" in technical communication contexts, arguing that current models of technical communication embrace an outdated, self-deprecating, industrial approach subordinating information to concrete technological products. By rethinking technical communication in terms of Reich's "symbolic-analytic work," technical communicators and educators can move into a post-industrial model of work that prioritizes information and communication, with benefits to both technical communicators and users.

Abstract Pseodotransactionality—writing that Is patently designed by a student to meet teacher expectations rather than to perform the "real" function the teacher has suggested—is a problem that has frequently troubled writing teachers, especially professional writing teachers. This article attempts to analyze the problem from a sociohistorical perspective by using two Russian theoretical exports: (1) M. M. Bakhtin's concept of genre and (2) Vygotsklan activity theory. The article concludes by suggesting how a sociohistorical perspective mlght help to counteract pseudotransactionality In the professional writing classroom.

This study uses a case-study approach to describe and analyze the effects of emphasizing design principles in a technical communication course. A look at student assignments—including a job description, a set of instructions, and a feasibility study—and at student self-evaluative comments about their job descriptions suggests that focusing on design principles can help students improve the organization and design of their documents and achieve a more sophisticated understanding of the role of design in communicating technical information.

As we increasingly recognize the social nature of technical communication, our responsibilities as teachers need to be redefined. Three levels of responsibility are suggested: at the theoretical level, we should study technical communication as a historically emergent social practice; at the pedagogical level, we need to incorporate social and historical perspectives into technical communication courses and curricula; at the level of social action, we should participate in defining and creating new sites of practice for technical communicators. Several suggestions are offered for helping students locate or develop alternative sites of technical communication practice.

As environmental communicators partcipating in public meetings and interviews, engineers and scientists must sometimes walk a thin line between representing the best interests of their organizations and responding to the public's need to know. Unfortunately, published guidance designed to aid technical communicators in such situations is not clearly based on theory or actual behavior. This study analyzes actual responses to hostile questions by drawing upon speech act theory to demonstrate that spokespersons use five strategies for composing indirect answers to questions perceived as hostile.

Five academic veterinary scientists were interviewed to learn about their professional writing experiences and relate them to technical writing pedagogy. The interviews probed the genres in which they write, their composing methods, their professional attitudes toward writing, and the sources of training in writing. The data suggest that while writing is an integral part of their research, teaching, and professional advancement and is used in conducting business, the academic scientific curriculum does not specifically address this important element in their careers.

In this article, we argue that one important criterion for evaluating qualitative studies of technical and scientific communication is whether we find our accounts meaningful and capable of redirecting our scholarly and professional practices. As a means of improving our understanding of the situations and practices we study, we address how to engage in our research in ways that not only are self-reflexive and dialogic, but that also solicit and use our participants' perspectives and authority—even when they may differ from our own.

When working with graphics and illustrations, technical communicators face ethical questions at almost every step. The visual rhetorics available offer help with evaluating visual components but little guidance on ethical issues. This article presents examples of ethical conflicts, describes some of the prominent visual rhetorics, and discusses ethical issues that need to be addressed. Some steps for improving ethical awareness related to graphics and illustrations are suggested.

This article extends the discussion of visual hetoric to the writing spaces and iconic representations of computer interfaces. An examination of the interfaces of a word-processing and a page layout program for desktop publishing reveals the visual nature of the interface. This visual writing space, different from the blank piece of paper, can encourage and foster a writer's consideration of options for integrating visual and verbal elements into a text.

Key aspects of memoria, the ancient Art of Memory, especially its focus on vivid representational images set against distinct backgrounds, can be helpful in creating memorable, universal, and easily retrievable computer icons.

A growing body of literature defines a rhetoric of visible text based on page layout, typography, and the various design features afforded by page composition tools buitt into word processors and page design programs. Little has been written, however, about what a wriier needs to know about design and in what order. This article describes and demonstrates a scope and sequence of learning that encourages writers to develop their skills as text designers. It introduces relevant liierature that is helpful for such learning and it does so in an evolving format that displays visually what the essay discusses verbally.

Supra-textual design encompasses the global visual language of a document and operates in three modes: textual, spatial, and graphic. The rhetoric of supra-textual design includes structural functions that provide global organization and cohesion and stylistic functions that affect credibility, tone, emphasis, interest, and usability. Supra-textual rhetoric extends to other documents through conventional codes and through sets and series. Because writers may not control the end product of supra-textual design, intention may also be a rhetorical factor.

Technical communication is being integrated into the pre‐college curriculum at an accelerating pace. However, few curriculum materials have been developed for the pre‐college level. This annotated bibliography is a partial attempt to address this lack. The entries have been divided into two categories: Pre‐College Level Material and Adaptable Post‐Secondary Material.

Professional Writing in Context: Lessons from Teaching and Consulting in Worlds of Work. John Frederick Reynolds, Carolyn B. Matalene, Joyce Neff Magnotto, Donald C. Sampson, Jr., and Lynn Veach Sadler. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1995. 186 pages. Writing High‐Tech Copy That Sells. Janice M. King. New York: Wiley, 1995. 275 pages.

In a world of interlinked economies and communication networks, the translation of pragmatic documents is prevalent, important, and increasingly costly. This article treats concepts and practices of pragmatic translation, summarizes interviews with translators and professors of translation conducted in Morocco in the spring of 1994, and makes recommendations regarding language study for technical communicators and the teaching of translation in professional and technical communication programs in the United States.

Advancing technology, demands for cost control, and world‐wide expansion in distance education programs challenge technical communication teachers to find ways of delivering quality technical writing courses by distance. One distance platform, described here, is working successfully at Texas A&M University. Examining, applying, and testing existing distance theory in developing distance versions of technical writing courses is an emerging research field in technical communication.