Design Guidelines for Written Assignments

This paper discusses design guidelines educators can use to format their assignment instructions. The purpose of formatting is to avoid students' misinterpretation of the assignment and to receive more readable papers. Topics covered are design awareness and formatting tips on using headings, chunking information, and using special features.

Dyrud, Marilyn A. University of Pittsburgh. Articles>Education>Style Guides

Good Legal Writing: of Orwell and Window Panes

George Orwell once wrote that `[g]ood prose is like a window pane.' What I take Orwell to have meant by that remark is that when people read good prose, it makes them feel as if they've `seen' something more clearly.

Samuelson, Pamela. University of Pittsburgh Law Review (1984). Articles>Writing>Legal>Minimalism

Websites Dealing with Technical and Professional Writing

This list is primarily intended for professional writers and prospective professional writers, but it may be of interest to anyone who enjoys putting pen to paper (or finger to keyboard).

Ulin, Don. University of Pittsburgh. Resources>Directories>TC

A Technical Speaking Course in Mathematics

Development and Implementation of a Technical Speaking Course in Mathematics, will give students an opportunity to cultivate technical, discipline-specific, verbal communication skills and experiences needed to be successful in their chosen disciplines. They will develop skills in assessing an audience’s technical sophistication and adapting their own communications to accommodate the audience. Mathematics will become a familiar “vehicle” for development of general and technical communication competencies.

University of Pittsburgh (2004). Articles>Education>TC>Mathematics

Collaborative Authoring and Technical Writing

Writing is a complex, cyclical task. The writing task requires more than formulating text to express ideas, it involves data gathering, managing constraints, formulating intentions, planning, and revising goals. Much of the complexity is due to the management of simultaneous activities and constraints. Management of these processes can lead to 'cognitive overload', which in turn can negatively affect the quality of the text produced. With technical writing, these same issues of task complexity are applicable.

Spring, Michael. University of Pittsburgh (1997). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Collaboration