Pretentious, wordy writing occurs because written English is different from spoken English and because writers have developed bad habits. Four specific varieties of verbal pollution are (1) the smothered verb, (2) the freight-train adjectival phrase, (3) the indiscriminate use of jargon, and (4) the habitual hedge. Once their causes and symptoms are understood, these faults are easy to detect and eliminate.

This article describes the kind of work done by the proposal writer in the aerospace industry and then offers suggestions on how educational institutions can better prepare their students for this work.

A technical editor does three things in editing technical illustrations: (1) he makes changes in the rough art sketched out by the originator; (2) he makes changes in the finished art prepared by the illustrator; and (3) he makes changes in the production art that is prepared for printing. The editor and illustrator are mutually dependent on each other in the task of producing clear graphical supplements to the text, and they should therefore cooperate closely with each other.