In our efforts to more effectively communicate, the Freudian slip is one phenomenon that frequently reminds us that we are imperfect communicators. We don't always mean what we say or say what we mean. This paper is a sequel to “An Analysis of the Freudian Slip and Errors in Speech Communication,” which appeared in the October, 1972, issue of this journal. The purpose of this paper is to illustrate the occurrence of the Freudian slip in reading and writing.

Technical papers should be constructed as coherent wholes, using those organizational, stylistic, and informational devices necessary to communicate their intended message to the intended audience. Since messages and audience vary tremendously, so also must techniques of technical writing. The technical writer will find that techniques normally associated with the writing of fiction, including creation of hypothetical situations, composite characters, invented dialogue, and dramatic story lines, aid greatly in achieving improved technical communication.

The Freudian slip is a common, yet little understood, phenomenon of speech communication. Though we can usually identify a slip easily, most of us are unfamiliar with how, why, and where the slip occurs. In all of his writings Freud never addressed himself to the Freduian slip per se. It is the Freudian account of id drive, however, that allows us to establish a working definition of the Freudian slip and investigate the differences between the slip and errors in speech. The central purpose of this article is to attempt to formulate a theory of the Freudian slip and speech errors in the context of the information theory model.