In a study of the relationship between the writing habits and productivity of technical writers, 127 science and engineering professors were surveyed concerning the number of technical articles, books, proposals, and reports they had produced over a three-year period and about their writing habits. Specifically, they were asked questions about the scheduling of work sessions, the environment they used for writing, the tools they used for composing and editing, the cognitive strategies they used to cope with attentional demands of writing, and the frame of mind they needed for writing (or the rituals used to achieve that state). Multiple regression analysis revealed that productive technical writers used particular (1) tools, such as a dictaphone; (2) cognitive strategies, such as constructing detailed written outlines; (3) frames of mind, such as vigorous exercise before writing; (4) environments, such as background music; and (5) work scheduling, such as writing for periods of one to two hours. Findings indicated that, by far, the use of a dictaphone was the variable most strongly related to productivity. (Author/FL)