Federal Scientific and Technical Information and the U.S. Competitive Edge  

The importance of scientific and technical information stems from its critical role in all phases of the innovation process. These include education, basic research, applied research and development, product development and manufacturing, and the application of science and technology to meet the needs in the commercial, not-forprofit, and governmental markets.

U.S. Congress Office of Technology Assessment (1990). Articles>Technology>Policies and Procedures>Government

Fixed Quotes and Broken Promises

How to tie down the details of a project and protect yourself from unexpected changes that can drag a 'peach project' into the 'pits of despair and financial ruin.'

Juillet, Christopher. Boston Broadside (1990). Articles>Project Management>Planning

Issues in the Design of Computer Support for Co-Authoring and Commenting  

This paper reports on a project to develop a “work in preparation” editor, or PREP editor, to study co-authoring and commenting relationships. As part of the project, we have identified three issues in designing computer support for co-authoring and commenting: (1) support for social interaction among co-authors and commenters; (2) support for cognitive aspects of co-authoring and external commenting; and (3) support for practicality in both types of interaction. For each of these issues, the paper describes the approach the PREP editor takes to address them.

Neuwirth, Christine M., David S. Kaufer, Ravinder Chandhok and James H. Morris. ACM SIGGROUP (1990). Design>Software>Collaboration

John Carroll's The Nurnberg Funnel and Minimalist Documentation    

A review of the use of minimalist theory in the creation of documentation sets.

Farkas, David K. and Thomas R. Williams. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (1990). Design>Documentation

Knowledge Management: Refining Roles in Scientific Communication

Libraries historically have been identified with the functions of storage and retrieval. In recent years, they have expanded their role to include information transfer and the creation of the networked, digital library for information access and dissemination. More recently, the William H. Welch Medical Library (WML) of the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has been exploring strategies to integrate the library more fully into the scholarly and scientific communication process. The result is a new role we call knowledge management.

Lucier, Richard E. University of California San Francisco (1990). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication

Leadership Through Empowerment

Assigning responsibility without sharing authority is like making someone a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but leaving out the bread. They know what they're supposed to chew, but have absolutely no way to handle, no way to manage the project.

Juillet, Christopher. Boston Broadside (1990). Articles>Management>Collaboration

Marketing Yourself

Marketing yourself is an attitude, not an activity. It is learning to think of yourself and your skills as a product that someone can use.

West, Elizabeth. Editorial Freelancers Association (1990). Careers>Freelance>Marketing

NASA Guide to Grammar, Punctuation, and Capitalization: A Handbook for Technical Writers and Editors  

This publication is directed toward professional writers, editors, and proofreaders. Those whose profession lies in other areas (for example, research or management), but who have occasion to write or review others' writing will also find this information useful. By carefully studying the examples and revisions to these examples, you can discern most of the techniques in my editing 'bag of tricks'; I hope that you editors will find these of particular interest.

McCaskill, Mary K. NASA (1990). Reference>Style Guides>Writing

The New Typographic Frontier

At the 1989 Developers’ Conference, Apple revealed an entirely new typographic universe to 1500 eager supporters. The combination of a new font technology, a greatly enhanced line layout manager, and an entirely new printer driver architecture promises to make the Macintosh the premier machine for print-oriented graphics, and open new opportunities for Macintosh developers. The three features are closely related and need to be discussed together to understand the full impact.

Alviani, Frank. MacTech (1990). Design>Typography>Online>Macintosh

Political-Ethical Implications of Defining Technical Communication as a Practice  

Let me present one possible version of the history of teaching writing in the last century and a half. When the tradition of classical rhetoric was restricted to composition in the nineteenth century, teachers of writing found themselves teaching service courses, usually defined as skills courses. Furthermore, having lost touch with the classical tradition, they began to teach writing particularly suited to current needs and, by extension, to teach thought forms that imitate modern consciousness —- a form of consciousness largely molded by forms of production, or technology. As Richard Ohmann says, much modern composition instruction reflects this technological consciousness: it casts the writing process in terms of problem solving, stresses objectivity and thereby denies a writer's social responsibilities, distances the interaction between writer and reader, deals with abstract issues, and denies politics (206). As a result, teachers of writing indoctrinate students, turning them into the sorts of people who will fill the slots available in our technological society.

Sullivan, Dale L. JAC (1990). Articles>Rhetoric>History

The Science of Scientific Writing

Science is often hard to read. Most people assume that its difficulties are born out of necessity, out of the extreme complexity of scientific concepts, data and analysis. We argue here that complexity of thought need not lead to impenetrability of expression; we demonstrate a number of rhetorical principles that can produce clarity in communication without oversimplifying scientific issues. The results are substantive, not merely cosmetic: Improving the quality of writing actually improves the quality of thought. The fundamental purpose of scientific discourse is not the mere presentation of information and thought, but rather its actual communication. It does not matter how pleased an author might be to have converted all the right data into sentences and paragraphs; it matters only whether a large majority of the reading audience accurately perceives what the author had in mind. Therefore, in order to understand how best to improve writing, we would do well to understand better how readers go about reading. Such an understanding has recently become available through work done in the fields of rhetoric, linguistics and cognitive psychology. It has helped to produce a methodology based on the concept of reader expectations.

Gopen, George D. and Judith A. Swan. Cambridge Language Consultants (1990). Articles>Scientific Communication

Some Effects of the Macintosh on Technical Writing Assignments  

This paper reports on a study examining writing on the Apple Macintosh and on paper by upper-level students who are novice writers but computer-literate. To gain a better understanding of writing behaviors using the Macintosh versus using pen and paper, we sought to answer two questions: 1) Do these writers revise differently, in terms of the number and types of revisions, when using the Macintosh? 2) Do they produce higher-quality texts on the Macintosh? In addition, we sought to determine whether this population would produce longer texts on the computer than they did with paper and pencil techniques, as previous studies showed with other populations.

Friedlander, Alexander and Mike Markel. Computers and Composition (1990). Articles>Software>Operating Systems>Macintosh

Structure and Creativity in the Learning Process

Structure is a fundamental construct of mathematics. The field of discrete mathematics, in fact, is the foundation of data structures, upon which computer science is built.

Sherry, Lorraine C. Boston Broadside (1990). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

Typographical Design, Modernist Aesthetics, and Professional Communication    

The technology of in-house publishing is radically shifting the responsibility for document design from the graphic specialist to the individual writer. To apply the new technology, professional communicators need to understand the principles underpinning typographical design and their origin in the functionalist aesthetics of modernism, particularly as articulated by the Bauhaus. While some of the key concepts of modernism--strict economy, universal objectivity, intuitive perception, and the unity of form and purpose--are well-suited to business and technical documents, these concepts are bound to an historical and intellectual milieu. By understanding the influence of modernism on typographical design, professional communicators equipped with the new technology can adapt design principles to the rhetorical context of specific documents.

Kostelnick, Charles. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (1990). Design>Typography>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Writing at the User Interstices

The most coveted writing assignment in the computer industry is the overview of an integrated software package. It calls for careful pacing, creative metaphor, and lavish graphics, all integrated with the highest skill. Here stands the pinnacle of a career, to be 'writing at the user interface.'

Oram, Andrew. Boston Broadside (1990). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>User Interface

Review: Writing in the Business Professions

Writing in the Business Professions should interest teachers of advanced composition. I encourage them to peruse the volume for themselves since I can’t analyze its contents at length here. I do, however, feel that I need to warn potential readers about several things that perplexed me when I read the book especially since this book may help determine the future of business communication instruction in the 1990s.

Hagge, John. JAC (1990). Articles>Reviews>Business Communication