Seven people who both write and read various kinds of reports in their professions were asked to read and respond to identical sets of student reports over a four-month period in order to determine whether they responded to personae. Attached to each unevaluated and unidentified student report was a form with 15 different response areas that measured on a one-to-five scale the reader's response to the writer. Readers' responses showed that they differentiated between competence and character. The medians that reflected measurement of the writers' control over subject matter were relatively high and consistent. But the readers gave their most positive responses to writers whose reports projected a voice of active participation in the subject matter, a visible connection of self and subject. For those writers whose voice was, in comparison, objective, the response medians were lower. The one stylistic strategy that stood out clearly was the use of cohesive ties, especially the use of repetition. The data suggest the importance of the high number of oral elements in the reports that received the highest responses. The use of these oral elements calls for a rhetorical approach to technical communication. (HOD)