Graduate interns in technical writing and editing can be a valuable source of professional support for a publications department, especially if their managers keep certain management principles in mind. Fresh from year-long internships at New Mexico State University's Physical Science Laboratory, two interns briefly describe their experience and offer publications managers eight suggestions for the effective management of technical writing and editing interns. They also include an annotated bibliography of recent literature about internships in technical writing.

The Automated Systems Approach to Proposal Production (ASAPP) quickly produces high quality, competitive proposals while reducing proposal-team stress. ASAPP has three components: electronic boilerplate, a dedicated proposal team, and a five-phase process for proposal development. The electronic boilerplate is reusable text on management structure, related experience, general capabilities, personnel abilities, and company policy. The team members fill six roles: proposal manger, text coordinator, writer(s), contract officer, text processing leader, and graphics leader. Their authority and responsibilities provide efficiency and coordination for the proposal effort. In phase I the team constructs an outline, makes writing assignments, establishes deadlines, and pulls together boilerplate information. In phase II the team drafts the technical approach so an official bid/no-bid decision can be made. If the company decides to bid, the boilerplate and the technical draft are coordinated and developed in phase Ill. Phase IV focuses on editing the successive drafts as they are produced, and phase V involves reviewing the last draft and producing the proposal in final form.