Despite considerable research on teaching and learning in higher education, the relationship between university teachers' and students' understandings of the same teaching-learning events has not been a focus. This exploratory qualitative study used individual interviews to investigate the role of conceptions of teaching, learning and knowledge in…

Investigates questions of what the New London Group calls "multiliteracies." Looks carefully at various texts associated with the television show "Felicity" and considers what they have to say about contemporary popular literacies. Considers how "Felicity" acts as a kind of core sample, extracted from the broader soil…

Describes how data displays can be classified into four types: conventional, perceptual, informational, and aesthetic. Argues that conflicts among the standards can be resolved by allowing the rhetorical situation to guide the design process. Explores a case in information design to show how the rhetorical situation shapes data displays, telling…

Presents a 30-month case study of how one business writer made decisions concerning audience. Suggests that audience theory does not adequately describe the cognitive and social decisions writers make in real-world professional contexts, with intrinsic internal factors such as writer's creditability, financial rewards, and promotions affecting…

Presents generalizations about the editing process in a governmental agency. Suggests that editing is a complex, meaning-making process. Notes that the three vary greatly in their readiness to use their personal authority in interpreting the audience's needs. Suggests that editors gain authority by assuming the role of language specialists and by…

Notes that while many technical communication instructors declare the benefits of client projects, too often instructors do not prepare students to interact with clients. Reviews a qualitative case study that demonstrates the difficulty students can have interacting with clients. Relates how students may not always be prepared to listen or respond…

Offers a case study describing how the rhetorical expertise of a young woman (at the lowest professional level in a male-dominated bureaucratic organization) gave her the power to revise the processes by which her organization did its work, to rewrite the job descriptions of the managers within the organization, and to create a unique role for…

Examines computer documentation writers' tactics for conceiving of their audiences. Describes and evaluates technical communicators' tactics for understanding audiences, constrained and supported by their organizations based on two ethnographic case studies and insights from activity theory. Discusses the advantages and limitations of each tactic,…

Revision, based on a grasp of intertextuality (the relation of texts to one another and the writer's locus relative to her own text and the text of others) and the social nature of all discourse, is a larger process that can be observed in any single piece of writing. This larger conception of revision is a natural outgrowth of…

Describes aspects of Linda Flower's work used by the author in devising writing technical assistance for teams writing technical reports in the United States General Accounting Office. Discusses three brief case studies describing the relationship between the work program structure (a major barrier to audience-based writing) and the writing…

In writing, as in conversation, there are implicit boundaries which separate various modes of communication, and these boundaries cause exclusion, discomfort, and misunderstanding. The existence of these boundaries results in a number of issues, such as the categorization of texts, the differences between writing for English classes and writing in…

This case study examined one advanced undergraduate student's efforts to write on similar topics for three different audiences--an advanced composition class, a history of Western philosophy class, and a district meeting of Pi Alpha Theta. Initially the student was juggling the demands of writing research papers for her two courses, and the third…

A number of colleges and universities with widely varying sizes and missions have used direct mail techniques to improve fund raising. Methods include use of fund-raising themes, checklists of reasons for donating, gift clubs, and challenge grants. Attention to direct communication, image, and repetition of the message are success factors. (MSE)

Provides analysis of the various kinds of audiences for whom technical materials are written. Describes the functions of the "watchdog" audience, who oversees the written transaction between the author and primary audience. Provides data from an ethnographic case study of engineering authors in a technical setting. (HB)

Given the affective dimension of writing in the workplace, assignments based on casebook scenarios have definite advantages in a technical or professional writing course. An English professor surveyed faculty in the Schools of Business and Education at Rider College prior to revising a course in technical writing. A majority of faculty, when asked…