In preparing students for business writing, a technical writing class should foster (1) a sensitivity to audience and an understanding of the business or technical organizational audience, (2) analytical problem solving that precedes any but the simplest writing task, (3) understanding of the patterns of organization that make information clear to the intended audience, and (4) a mastery of the editing skills needed to keep their writing correct and concise. A four-day assignment, which uses an article describing the events surrounding a failed brake design produced for an Air Force project, tests students' ability to write an analysis from a narrative form and involves exploring different ways of describing things in order to come upon insights about relationships and key issues. The article takes the reader through the unraveling of the problem, but the students are given the article only to the point of the failed test. Students must then write a report to the president of the company and explain how the failure occurred and how to prevent such problems in the future. The assignment provides an opportunity for the technical writing teacher to help students acquire the skills of audience awareness, the ability to do problem analysis as a precursor to writing discussion sections, the recognition of report format with an executive summary up front and the discussion after it, and the freedom to choose from a number of possibilities. (EL)