Teaching technical writing without formal training can be daunting. However, there are many resources available that can provide background and materials for teaching. My approach involved reading textbooks and articles not only on approaches to technical writing but also on what students can expect once they complete their education and are hired. Journals both in the field and in similar fields, working as a technical editor or writer, and attending conferences and talking with both other academics and those in the field offer help. This article, therefore, describes my approach from the day I was hired to teach two technical writing courses to my retirement 37 years later.

A significant problem in technical communication is persuading the user that the information is accurate, valid, and useful. All too often, technical communicators treat users as members of their own culture. When authors do consider cultural issues, they often focus on matters such as vocabulary, visuals, and organization. Other strategies, however, can be useful in gaining acceptance of technical information in cross-cultural situations. For example, the communication theory of compliance-gaining offers suggestions for how the technical communicators can adapt the text to enhance user acceptance when communicating to members of their own culture as well as when communicating across cultures. Communicators can use promises, threats, demonstrate positive and negative outcomes, extend friendliness, etc., to develop the text. In this article, I will explain several compliance-gaining strategies authors can use, identify rhetorical strategies they can combine with compliance-gaining strategies, show how these strategies can be effective in a cross-cultural environment by comparing the strategies in two sample cultures, and analyze a brief sample.

Budget and time constraints often force technical communicators to produce manuals that are less than affective. One reason is the time they take to analyze their document's users. Normally, user analysis involves demographic, or organizational, or psychological approaches or combinations. Rarely will they evaluate the culture of the user and determine what that means for developing the document. Typically, localization will edit the document for cultural elements, but that is an expensive and time-consuming process. This article discusses the cultural elements in developing a document and shows, through a comparison of two mythical cultures, how the document will differ when organized for those two cultures.

Committees within international standards organizations write standards. Prior to approval, these standards must pass through several reviews for technical accuracy and stylistic appropriateness. The style considerations are based on documents published by both the umbrella organization (International Organization for Standarization, or ISO) and the various committees and subcommittees within it. Because authors and editors who use these documents frequently do not have English as a first language, the documents must explain unambiguously just how committees should prepare their documents. This study looks at a sample of those instructional documents using Restricted and Elaborated Code and metadiscourse analysis to determine how easily users can read and understand the material. The findings suggest that the documents do not send a clear message to authors and editors and can be stylistically hard to understand. Consequently, the approved standards themselves are hard to read and interpret.

The textbook is the main teaching tool for instructors. Typically, teachers select a text based on how well it supports their views of and approach to the subject. Looking at texts suggests how the subject has been taught over the years and what assumptions are made about students. This informal look at pre-1970 textbooks characterizes the early teaching of technical writing by examining such features as author's background, contents, assumed reader, and focus.

Le CPTSC (Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication) cree dans les annees 1970 a pour objectif de promouvoir les programmes en communication scientifique et technique, de developper les possibilites pour echanger les idees et les informations concernant les programmes, la recherche et les opportunites de carriere en communication scientifique et technique, d'aider au developpement de nouveaux programmes, de promouvoir l'echange d'information entre l'organisme et les parties interessees. L'A. propose un historique de ce conseil

Various style manuals, advice to authors, and textbooks on writing stress that writers should prefer the active voice of the verb and avoid the passive form. The following bibliography brings together references to the passive voice of the verb from linguists, grammarians, and researchers of the use of passive voice verbs; comments from technical writing textbooks; comments from books on language; comments from style manuals; and references from various other sources. The annotations summarize the principal points the article makes about passive voice verbs (abstracts provided by the authors of the articles are marked with an asterisk (*)). Part I covered materials from linguists while Parts II through V list references in technical writing textbooks, style manuals and authors' guides, and various other sources.

Various style manuals, advice to authors, and textbooks on writing stress that writers should prefer the active voice of the verb and avoid the passive form. The following bibliography brings together references to the passive voice of the verb from linguists, grammarians, and researchers of the use of passive voice verbs; comments from technical writing textbooks; comments from books on language; comments from style manuals; and references from various other sources. The annotations summarize the principal points the article makes about passive voice verbs (abstracts provided by the authors of the articles are marked with an asterisk (*)). Part I covers materials from linguists while Part II, to be published in the next issue, lists references in technical writing textbooks, a selection of general books on language, style manuals and author's guides, and various other sources.