Since its release in late 2022, ChatGPT and subsequent generative artificial intelligence (GAI) tools have raised a wide variety of questions and concerns for the field of technical communication: How will these tools be incorporated into professional settings? How might we appropriately integrate these tools into our research and teaching? In…

This research explores a presumed link between today's use of digital media and an ever-increasing lack of rhetorical awareness in students. Specifically, the study pilots a method for measuring rhetorical awareness through students' e-mail transactions with faculty in technical writing service courses, questioning whether rhetorical awareness has…

This article describes an interdisciplinary partnership that resulted in the introduction of a writing coach into an MBA class on critical and analytical thinking. By examining the response to this role by the writing coaches themselves and by the students enrolled in three sections of this new course, this exploratory study endeavors to answer…

A common aphorism in the halls of education is that the writing skills of Americans decline over time. Compared to the "golden age of letters," so the argument goes, each subsequent generation of writers is worse than the last. Although contemporary readers and educators commiserate over encounters with bad writing, a fair comparison of 18th…

Supplements existing rhetorical scholarship by returning to the notion of invention as general preparation of the communicator. Explores the need for invention in technical communication and summarizes Kenneth Burke's theories of dialectic and rhetoric. Presents strategies for invention, and offers advice for incorporating them into teaching…

Explains and exemplifies terminal modifiers in the context of technical writing. Examines representative technical reports and finds that increased attention to terminal modifiers (especially the absolute, the summarizing appositive, and the nonparticipial adjective phrase) would significantly increase options for effective expression. (SR)

Describes three principles of direct mail sales letters intended to entice readers to read them: the personalized look; an indirect arrangement of support; and readability ease. (SR)

Explores some of the stylistic complexities of definitions and requirements in a Canadian provincial act. Generates and justifies 15 recommendations for creating a plainer legal language in acts. (SR)

Describes a format for writing clinical investigator's brochures for the Food and Drug Administration summarizing information about a drug that is about to enter clinical trials. (SR)

The aim of this article is to show that a better awareness of the relationship between written and spoken communication can help the writer to improve his/her effectiveness. The focus will be on written texts that precede (formal and informal) discussions. The analysis will start with a description of the differences between orality and literacy.…

Reviews speech act theory to explain the function of writing transitions in terms of the illocutionary and perlocutionary effect of explicit performatives. Identifies explicit performatives in samples of professional writing in technical and academic areas. Suggest ways to revise textbooks to include the findings from speech act theory. (SR)

Claims some technical professionals assigned to write reports or manuals interpret writing as a means of displaying data rather than as communication. Discusses specific weaknesses commonly found in such documents. Suggests that texts should convey precisely what is intended in a form readers will find acceptable. (NH)

Tests the assumption that technical writers and editors assume readers are generally helped when nominalizations and the weak verbs that accompany them are replaced with the verb form of the nominalization. Indicates that denominalized text is most effective in helping native speakers focus on more important information, but for nonnative…

Investigates the feasibility of using sub-headings similar to those found in structured abstracts to facilitate the writing and reading of scientific papers. Claims the use of sub-headings: (1) forces the writer to make sure no issue is forgotten; and (2) enables the reader to search for and find information more easily. (NH)

Uses a brief fictional narrative to discuss how visual media frequently offer a superior alternative to prose for the communication of some kinds of information, specifically, to describe; represent abstract structures; convey spatial relationships; provide a meaningful context for unfamiliar information; assist readers in their attempts to solve…