Modern tools for sending the written word across distances have given communicators new ways to reach audiences within organizations and across organizational boundaries. The ways in which communicators must now rethink the sources of information available for their messages, the way they create messages, and the networks through which they distribute their messages are discussed. The steps that the US Department of Agriculture Forest Service went through when it created a unit to distribute information on public opinion to its managers in more than 900 field offices nationwide are outlined.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

A study of the time needed for each step in the editing and publishing of research reports at one laboratory revealed 16 steps that could benefit from efforts to speed up the publication process. Strategies for improving publishing times were reviewed after 3 to 5 years. Strategies applied by the editorial staff members to their own in-house operations were usually successful, whereas strategies applied to the operations of outside publishers were not. It is suggested the tailoring of management strategies to address specific slow procedures is the key to timely publication. Tighter deadlines and the monitoring of manuscripts through each step of the publication process led to significant reductions in the time required for publication.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

It is pointed out that it takes so much time and effort to organize material manually and revise it until it is clear that many writers give up before producing a clearly written speech. Writing in a modified outline form on a word processor helps solve this problem. The outline form, coupled with the simplicity and speed of making changes on a word processor, makes it easy to respond to the visual feedback of one's writing as one writes, almost forcing a well-organized, simple, and clear expression of ideas. For many writers, the speed and ease of the word processor is the only thing that makes repeated revision possible. One can experiment repeatedly with the visual display of the text and continue revising until the display-and the text-reflect the best organization of the material and the natural cadences of spoken language.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>