Academic and Practitioner Perspectives on Essential Works in Technical Communication

As I began to create categories for a list collected from many academics and practitioners, I discovered a dramatic difference in the works valued by the two groups. While some works were valued by both practitioners and academics, I also found a clear dividing line between works recommended by academics and those recommended by practitioners.

Alred, Gerald J. ATTW Bulletin (2005). Resources>Bibliographies>Technical Writing

Review: Communication Reference Books for Engineers and Scientists

Over the past years, many reference books have been published for various science and engineering disciplines. Based on publishers’ descriptions, I selected four for review.

Kaempf, Charlotte. ATTW Bulletin (2005). Articles>Reviews>Scientific Communication>Engineering

Shuttle Columbia: The Perils of Powerpoint

The Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) that was empowered to investigate the causes of the loss of shuttle Columbia found that NASA often used viewgraph and PowerPoint slides to present complex information that was used to render important technical judgments. These technologies, however, had the effect of obscuring key information and hampering effective decision-making.

Dombrowski, Paul M. ATTW Bulletin (2005). Articles>Usability>Engineering>Microsoft PowerPoint

Review: Textbooks for Business and Technical Writing Courses

Those of us involved in teaching the survey course in business and technical writing--one which encompasses a wide range of documents--frequently wonder if we are using the best textbook for our purposes.

Goleman, Patricia. ATTW Bulletin (2005). Articles>Reviews>Textbooks

Web-Based Translators in the Technical Communication Classroom: What Use Are They?

The author discusses the usefulness of web-based translators in the technical communication classroom. He reports on the pedagogical application of web-based translators in a technical communication course. The author concludes that while web-based translators do not offer accurate translations, they do offer possibilities to the instructor who wants the students to learn about the benefits and hazards of using web-based translators to localize technical documents.

Tesdell, Lee S. ATTW Bulletin (2005). Articles>Education>Localization>Machine Translation