This article advocates listening to technical information in much the same way as scientists and engineers currently look at graphics in order to gain an understanding of the relations among variables. It specifies a number of potential benefits of this approach. 1) The ability to hear data may contribute to the greater understanding of the relationships that lie within data. This may lead to alternative theoretical interpretations and explanations. 2) Listening to the data may produce a greater long-term understanding. 3) It will facilitate the understanding of technical information by individuals whose dominant learning modality is acoustic rather than visual. 4) Acoustic data analysis is ideally suited for the analysis of processual data. The article provides a demonstration of the presentation of acoustic information with data on the frequency of television viewing, 1950–1988.

Technical materials often do not produce the response desired by their authors. Reasons for the failure of the document are errors in audience analysis and the rapid obsolence of the materials. This article suggests that communication theory, in general, and cybernetics, in specific, may help ameliorate these problems. The knowledge of communication theory and systems analysis could sensitize writers and editors of technical materials to a variety of factors such as the dynamic nature of the communication process and the fact that the process is interactive rather than unidirectional. It is suggested that the application of these theories could increase the effectiveness of technical communication.