Les techniques de redaction technique oscillent entre la forme de l'essai (ou les faits sont subordonnes aux idees developpees) et celle du rapport (ou les faits predominent). Elles s'apparentent a la fois aux techniques de redaction utilisees en sciences humaines et a celles pronees par le journalisme

The author proposes an encompassing concept of clarity, a ubiquitous, yet undefined, concept in technical writing and editing. Clarity, a function of the target audience is analyzed according to its seven components: brevity, accuracy, completeness order, emphasis, consistency, and objectivity.

Here is one aspect of technical communication that has seldom been explored in such revealing depth. Indeed, Sternberg makes a deep penetration of the ways to prepare a successful dissertation and still keep your sanity.

OUR SPECIAL section, “Writing for Disadvantaged Readers,” is unusual and unusually pertinent for engineers. As Andrew Malcolm notes in his “Introduction,” many of the engineers in this country are not native born speakers of English and many readers of technical writing may have handicaps which impinge on their understanding of material. Surprisingly, the techniques that the writers in our special section advocate are the very techniques that good technical communicators should be using anyway to achieve clear communication. For example, they underscore the value of avoiding passive constructions. In addition, the value of technology to improve the quality of life is illustrated in the articles dealing with closed captioning. Professional communicators who read “Writing for the Disadvantaged Readers” will find a new sense of pride in their craft and an awakened sense of the value of technical communication.

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By studying a selection of business and technical texts, one can determine the functions of and the interactions between passive voice, nominalizations, and expressions of agency. One discovers that the distinction between dynamic and stative uses of verbs is crucial for understanding the various functions of passive sentences and nominalizations in business and technical writing. Then the functions of passive sentences and nominalizations are enumerated and illustrated with sentences from business and technical texts before discussing the various devices for expressing agency in passive and nominalized sentences. Only by understanding the various functions of these sentence types can instructors of business and technical writing offer specific and practical advice.

Although George Orwell's “Politics and the English Language” offers good advice to writers, the technical writer's situation and use of language are more effectively discussed in 1984 and its Appendix, “The Principles of Newspeak.” The technical writer must make use of some Newspeak principles, such as limiting vocabulary and narrowing the definition of words; conversely, the writer must try to keep his expression of a corporate point of view and his limitations on wording from finally serving to limit the range of thought itself. Orwell considers these points much more important than “good prose style.”

Consistency is the orderly treatment of a set of linked elements, and it is a necessary characteristic of polished, highly readable prose. Consistency is either “uniform” or “harmonious,” depending on whether a set of linked elements is indivisible or divisible into subsets. From the perspective of text characteristics, we can speak of semantic, syntactic, stylistic, spatial, and mechanical consistency. To deal successfully with consistency problems, technical communicators should establish patterns that are logical, evident, functional, resource efficient, and stable. Because of its importance, the concept of consistency should be more fully recognized. Indeed, consistency should be a component of any comprehensive rhetoric of technical communication.

Proponents of computerized text-analysis (CTA) systems like Bell Laboratories' Writer's Workbench contend that the computer's analysis of a text's surface features can help students become better writers and editors. Several colleges and universities have already integrated the new technology into their writing programs, and others will consider doing so in the future. Teachers of technical writing, however, ought to investigate carefully the capabilities and limitations of CTA before applying it to the technical writing classroom. Not even the most sophisticated of today's computers can detect the basic grammar and punctuation errors that bedevil student writers. Moreover, the computer's evaluation of a text's readability and style is untrustworthy and lacks a sound theoretical and pedagogical foundation; indeed, the machine's quantitative-based analysis of writing style might do some students more harm than good. Finally, there is no empirical evidence that CTA helps students become better writers.

This bibliography contains seventy-five articles published in the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication from 1981 through 1984 in the categories of The Profession, Education and Pedagogy, Preparation and Presentation of Technical Information, Applied Theory in Technical Communication, and Application of Technology to Technical Communication.

It is argued that, with today's growing emphasis on audience analysis in technical communication, there needs to be a sharper focus on the informational needs of various audiences; much empirical study is needed to provide a fuller definition and understanding of the nature of these informational needs and how they directly affect the writing done. Effective upward management communication is directly dependent on the quality of communication moving downward in the organization to the staff, and on how staff is made to understand the decision-making role and informational needs of the management reader. Of all the people involved in technical communications, the manager of the writers may be best equipped to determine the informational needs of readers, especially those of upper management. A brief review of two empirical studies conducted by the author demonstrates the value of such studies and encourages others to undertake similar studies.

It is argued that the management world is becoming more aware of the value of documenting controls for the administration and operation of organizations. That awareness unfortunately does not include the fact that many of these management-system writings-writing that are meant to get things done-are ineffective as well as inefficient. Writing mechanics tailored to the discipline of systems writing developed at the Grumman Corporation are described. They stem from the view that systems writing must be tailed to the system reader's communication needs, where the thoughts and words used in the systems document are not only properly selected and arranged, but are written in the easiest-to-read manner.

The author gives guidance to technical writers, engineers, proposals specialists, and managers who compete for government contracts. Ten writing and illustrating strategies that can help create winning proposals are presented.

Amidst the proliferation of books for the technical writer it is a pleasure to see an old tried and true favorite, Basic Technical Writing, re-enter the field in its Fifth Edition. The new version is handsomely produced and printed in beautiful typographical style.

It is felt that as computers are installed in organizations, people need three kinds of information. They need to know: (1) which systems are available; (2) how to begin to use them; and (3) how to apply them to their specific work. A method for analyzing the needs of new computer users is discussed. Specific vehicles for communication computing information are described, including newsletters, online and offline documentation, training courses, and demonstrations.

Though historical scholarship in technical writing has been sparse, what is available on Francis Bacon has tended to focus on Bacon's influence in directing scientific discourse toward the use of plain prose. This article shows that in many ways, Bacon's theory of rhetoric for specialized, knowledge-seeking fields directly conflicts with that of those who support plain prose for these fields. In addition, the rhetorical method Bacon utilized in presenting the theory has subverted the effect of much of his theory. Consequently, it is not surprising that Bacon's actual theory differs both from what was transferred to the Royal Society and from posterity's interpretation of it.

The work in editing which is outlined here ensures that graduate students become aware of editing processes through experience and research, through practice and theory. By developing and using levels of edit and editorial dialogue in editing workshops and by researching and examining their own and other people's techniques, the students develop their own theories of editing processes. And through their group editing and their individual editing experiences and research, the graduate students learn basic editorial values and editing techniques that they can use to help others communicate well. Included is an appendix of selected resources on editing processes consisting of approximately 150 items.

Analogical models are common in scientific and technical literature but scientific/technical communicators may be reluctant to write clarifying comparisons for fear of producing inaccurate or inappropriate similes. Technical writers can use the logical operations that underlie all metaphorical thinking consciously as prewriting strategies: they can learn to construct their comparisons using the logical operations of identification, distinction, re-classification, and division. Applying these logical operations to the generation of useful analogies can give writers confidence that their comparisons possess the qualities of specificity, clarify, richness, scope, and validity.

The authors of Technical Writing believe that students best acquire technical writing skills through imitation. They state in their preface that the purpose of their text is “to give students access to models that truly represent papers in technical disciplines.” The concept of learning by imitating is certainly not new, but Brinegar and Skates have selected, organized, and presented their material with creativity and imagination, and the result is a technical writing text that is innovative and interesting, as well as accessible and adaptable for instructors and students alike.

For those who teach short courses on technical communication for engineers, or for engineers who want a short, self-teaching aid to improving communication on the job, Richard Arthur's new book may be just the thing. This slim paperback is part of the Procom series on professional communication, intended to provide practical advice and information for specific audiences-nurses, trial attorneys, corporate managers, and now engineers.

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The status and standards of technical communication teaching in universities are much lower than in business and industry. The four main reasons—that scientists and engineers don't know that they have a problem; that they know and don't care; that professional technical communication teaching is confused with basic literacy skills teaching; and that technical communication is not regarded as a legitimate academic subject—have a circularity that is difficult to break. Awareness of the problem is the beginning of an answer, and some examples, gleaned from a sabbatical tour of universities, are given.

Although teachers of technical writing have long considered themselves as the vanguard, they too have shown considerable resistance to change, despite recent theoretical advances in composition theory. This author proposes that the technical writing community review its traditional views and attitudes toward the teaching of writing to incorporate insight derived from cross-disciplinary research.

Technical writing is one kind of creative writing. Using knowledge of facts, audience, and situation, the technical writer recreates reality in a technical report. Concepts of reality and creativity currently operative in philosophy, the physical sciences, cognitive and developmental psychology, history of science, rhetoric, and linguistics provide a theoretical basis for this creative approach to technical writing and confirm that imagining and reasoning are related rather than mutually exclusive thought processes.

Employers must frequently choose between hiring a professional writer or a technician to communicate high technology to the lay public. The professional writer may well be the better choice. Writers can develop their technical writing skills to meet this challenge by practicing Technical Communication Competency, by standardizing technical objectives, by learning to write readable and interesting technical documents, and by requesting diagrams that clearly show functions and relationships. At the same time, writers must keep up with the rapid changes in technology if they want to continue providing a valuable link between the lay public and this technology.

The lack of a scientific background of many of our technical writing students and the continual amalgamation of the sciences make a technical terminology course an important adjunct to the technical writing curriculum. This course consists of three distinct phases: a compilation of terms already known by the students, an expansion of that list into a comprehensive list of the major technical terms in approximately fifteen scientific fields, and an indepth study by each student into a particular field. This course would help to create scholars who were conversant in most major fields of study. This would make the students more flexible in their job searches. What is more important, it would help them understand the forces that shape our civilization and thereby broaden their control over those forces.

Advanced composition is now taught in colleges throughout the country to students in a variety of majors. But, unlike freshman English where one finds similar curricula and texts, this course has not had a traditional structure. In some schools, it may even indicate technical writing or advanced grammar study. In a 1979 survey, Michael Hogan discovered that at most colleges the course extended fundamentals learned in freshman English, with work on style and organization for argument, exposition, and other essay forms. Because few specialized texts were then available, teachers relied on books intended for freshmen, such as Hall's Writing Well and The Norton Reader, and thus repeated familiar advice on the modes of exposition, paragraphing and usage, with little attention given to research on composition.1

In the preface to Style and readability in technical writing, the authors assert: “No other book takes this approach [to technical writing].” That approach, which has produced quantifiable success in writing intelligibly and effectively in other fields, is sentence-combining. To indicate the technical nature of sentence-combining, the authors refer to it as “tinkering,” a process of manipulating word clusters until the writer has put together unified sentences that are “economical, clear, and readable.”

A description is given of the EPICS program at the Colorado School of Mines, which teaches problem solving and communication as one. The design of the program's curriculum is discussed, as is the author's experience with the program.

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.

Conceptual and empirical research were combined to develop information concerning the kinds of papers appropriate for lower-division technical writing in various kinds of institutions: the community college, the technical institute, the four-year college or small university, and the multi-purpose university. Relationships were studied between types of papers rated highly appropriate by teachers of technical writing and types of institutions as well as instructional aims. Also studied were those teachers' suggestions for specialized kinds of papers. The author discusses the implications of this research for determining instructional aims of lower-division technical writing courses in four-year institutions.

This article presents guidelines for improving coordination among authors, communicators and managers through 1) communication of technical information via the written word and visual aids, and 2) solutions to economic problems in technical communication for the benefit of research and development management.

Typical model curricula in engineering disciplines assume that training in communication will occur early in the student's academic career in the course taken to meet the general liberal arts requirements of the university. This paper argues that this assumption defines communication as a preliminary skill to be learned as a prelude to technical study. An alternative view perceives increasing sophistication in the technical disciplines as requiring a simultaneous increase in sophistication in communication. The Program in Scientific and Technical Communication at the University of Washington is designed according to the latter view. The courses address the needs of engineers as these needs emerge and change across the academic and professional life of the engineer.

Experience at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University indicates that students in engineering and science need a course in technical writing. A one-quarter course there begins with a review of general editing principles, based on Strunk and White's `Elements of Style', and an introduction to specific principles of organizing and editing technical material. Students then write a series of assignments using specific formats, such as technical descriptions, memos, instructions, letters, proposals, and formal reports or articles.

Bachelor's, master's, and doctorate programs related to technical communications in US colleges and universities are tabulated by state from 1983-4 academic data. The programs are grouped into six categories: communication, communication theory, English (technical writing emphasis), technical communication, technical journalism, and technical writing.

Five class exercises are suggested for inclusion in the syllabus of any course in technical writing or technical communication. The exercises are designed to develop strategic decisions in writing and publishing. They cast the student in the role of decision maker instead of a tyro, whose sole class work is drill in basic principles.

The authors investigate the reasons for the existing university-industry written communication gap and suggest ways for bridging it. Most university programs do not adequately help students with technical communications. Consequently, the new engineer, when hired, will have the burden of overcoming the gap of technical writing apart from other important engineering tasks. Industry and university should cooperate in helping new engineers with this important facet of their careers. A first action could be to supplement the college-level curriculum with courses on technical writing, documentation, editing, and the use of new communication systems based on real industry requirements. These courses, which could be continued in industry in the form of seminars, help from senior peers, and the publication department, along with personal efforts, would enable young engineers to comprehend the basic principles that help in writing effective reports and proposals in the real engineering world.

It seem paradoxical that industry indicates that engineers need communication skills, and universities appear to agree, but that universities allocate little time in the curriculum to train engineers in written communications. This paper identifies that paradox and stresses that in response to limitations of time, the technical communications teacher must design an introductory course which reflects current research in communications and teaching methodology. The course must serve the engineering student efficiently and effectively. One such design for the beginning course is presented. Centering the introductory course on the feasibility report and shorter accompanying reports serves the engineer by permitting the design of a report which serves the reader. Such design demonstrates the writing process and dramatises the relationship between the student-writer and the reader-client.

Although computers are important tools to help learners improve their writing skills, the instructor must still establish the instructional goals of a course. This study presents an instrument, the `technical writing attitude measurement', that measures students' attitudes towards their technical writing skills and provides data and objectives which help the instructor develop instructional materials and assignments to improve student skills. The `technical writing attitude measurement', a Likert-type, self-report questionnaire, is based on instructional goals that may be divided into three categories: rhetorical principles, planning strategies, and drafting skills. The instrument was used to measure changes in student attitude toward technical writing skills. These changes were influenced by two main methods of instruction, the case method and the rhetorical approach to teaching technical writing.

C. H. Knoblauch and Lil Brannon, Rhetorical Traditions and the Teaching of Writing. Boynton/Cook Publishers, 1984. 171 pages. Composition and Literature: Bridging the Gap. Ed. Winifred Bryan Horner. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983. New Essays in Technical and Scientific Communication: Research, Theory, Practice. Ed. Paul V. Anderson, R. John Brockmann, and Carolyn R. Miller. Baywood's Technical Communications Series: Volume 2. Farmingdale, NY: Bay wood Publishing Co., 1983. 254 pages. Persuasive Messages, Ruth Anne Clark. New York: Harper & Row 1984. vi + 250 pages.

Technical writing explains and, in contrast to other kinds of writing, insists on the visual. Explanation and visualization are mutually dependent, because explanation combines “description,” the observable facts, and “diagram,” the graphic paradigm of the relations that obtain among these facts. The technical writer's principal task, then, is to make explicit, by using appropriate spatial, temporal, and logical signals, one of three diagrams—schematic, flowchart, tree—that define the basic modes of explanation—object, process, and logical hierarchy. Where the novelist submerges the diagram in metaphoric layers, the technical writer strips them away and surfaces the diagram.

Technical communicators—both writers and editors—should know their inherent abilities, and how these abilities interface with related occupations. Publications supervisors and managers can also benefit from this knowledge by applying it to improve their units' functional efficiency. By using the Job and Talent Matrix—occupation blocks fitted into a lattice of aptitudes—we can define the general attributes of technical writers/editors, and establish their interrelationships with people from associated professions such as engineers.

Both the instructor and student of technical writing benefit from an individual conference held in the instructor's office. Scheduled at the beginning of the academic semester, these structured conferences allow for the exchange of information which may not surface in the traditional classroom setting.

The mathematical equation is truly an element of the engineer's vocabulary. As such, it is a vital tool in technical communication. To make it an effective tool and to achieve maximum reader comprehension, engineers and editors must observe certain rules. These rules divide logically into the major categories of writing, editing, and layout. All three categories are treated and examples are discussed. The rules are aimed at facilitating the typing task, ensuring accuracy of the mathematical treatment, making the mathematics meaningful and unambiguous, and fitting the equations into the report style. The writer is responsible for the use and accuracy of the mathematics, and the editor is responsible for the clarity and presentation of the mathematics, including accuracy checks, arrangement, and typography. Examples stress how correct use of certain rules by both the writer and the editor can change inaccurate, ambiguous mathematics into accurate, clear mathematics that is understandable and meaningful.

In the March 1983 issue of the TRANSACTIONS, I reviewed four books intended to instruct writers on how to develop computer documentation. No sooner did the review appear than I discovered another book in this genre by Richard Zaneski. Mr. Zaneski's book does not cause me to reconsider the earlier pair of books that I described as best buys (Documentation Development Methodology by Sandra Pakin and Associates and The DP Professional's Guide to Writing Effective Technical Communication by J. Van Duyn). In fact, I don't recommend that you buy this book. I do, however, suggest that you borrow a copy and take notes on the 30 to 40 pages that are worthwhile.

Four parallels between technical communication and user-friendly systems are discussed. They are: (1) its overall structures should be apparent to the user; (2) it should be congenial without being chatty or too personal; (3) its nomenclature and syntax must be consistent throughout all functions; and (4) its logic must not trap users in loops but should lead them straight to their goals.

At the University of Akron, mechanical engineering students learn technical communication skills in their senior laboratory course. Experiments are designed to allow role-playing by both student and instructor, so that work is conducted and findings are presented within hypothetical contexts of realistic interactions between industrial firms and their clients. Through role-playing, students learn to analyze an audience and to state objectives clearly. Role-playing reinforces the realistic training students receive in cooperative education programs by allowing them to experience the pressures of professional communication responsibilities. It also narrows the gap between classroom and industry by focusing students' attention on the results and organizational implications of their work as well as on theory and method.

In 1980-1981, a new requirement of a junior course in went into force at the College Park campus of the University of Maryland. The course was created by the University to ensure that future UM graduates would be more literate and more articulate than recent graduates. The staff of the new course chose to meet the University's goal by giving the course a strong technical writing or professional writing emphasis. The course is taught (with English Department supervision) by professors from every division of the University, and by professionals in many fields (from law to veterinary medicine) from the Washington, D.C. area. Students write papers using subject matter from their intended professions, and they are graded on their ability to make that subject matter clear to students (semi-professionals) in other disciplines. This new junior course has led those of us who teach the freshman course to seriously reconsider what we are teaching. Since our course has shifted from independent to sequential status, we naturally feel some anxiety about possible new restrictions, but we also see the change as an opportunity to think through, more systematically, some crucial issues-what to teach, where to begin and end, and what theories should be guiding our discussion and analysis. We have decided that setting limits on content in the freshman course on the grounds that what we teach might be repeated in the later course would be counter-productive. Students, especially at the college level, should be tested, prodded, and stretched to their limits. Moreover, we-and the students-ought to be able to see a second course not as repetition, but as welcome practice. William Irmscher has reminded us (in Teaching Expository Writing) that better is largely a matter of better-educated intuition, and that better-educated intuition comes from repeated practice in reading and writing. We all know studies like the Dartmouth study reported by Albert Kitzhaber in Themes, Theories, and Therapy (p. 109), which show that

Technical writing need not be dry either by design or default. Without neglecting precision and conciseness, language and phrasing can be used to assist rather than impede understanding. Putting style in technical writing can be aided by awareness of these devices: alliteration, anaphora, antemetaboly, antithesis, climax, colon, epistrophe, metonymy, and simile. Examples of each are included.