Asserts that technical communication programs are particularly well positioned to adopt usability testing and research in their curricula because of inherent connections between usability and technical communication, such as their mutual emphases on audience analysis, technology, and information design. Describes approaches to implementation of…

States that computer-based instruction (CBI) using multimedia and hypermedia is an approach to teaching that is becoming increasingly popular in academic and nonacademic settings. Reviews findings to help technical communication teachers and practitioners explain the value of audience analysis, goals analysis, and control analysis; accomplish…

Examines the roles of convention, conflict, and conversation in the formation of audience constructs. Finds that writers' textual choices to address or invoke audiences are based more on institutional conventions than on either disciplinary conventions or on situational conditions and constraints. (SR)

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,…

Examines how writing features influence recruiters' assessments of resumes. Finds that if resumes of technically well-qualified applicants contain grammatical errors, recruiters rate their resumes lower than resumes listing less experience, but containing more accurate writing. (MM)

Explains how revising patient-education materials provided for undergraduate technical communication students a review and reinforcement of principles they had studied all semester, such as accessible organization of information, audience analysis, use of formatting and graphics to enhance communication, and clear sentence structure and diction.…