Technical Communication Competence (TCC)is the competence involved in communicating mental images to others in such a manner as to result in their constructing comparable mental images, a process similar to the primary task demanded of teachers at all levels. In a study designed to discover the extent to which a positive relationship existed between TCC and perceived teacher success, 32 college students in a basic speech communication class were videotaped while describing a drawing of a series of connected geometric shapes. The videotapes were later shown to students in other sections of the communication course, who were instructed to draw the described image as exactly as possible. These responses were scored by two specially trained coders, who then assigned TCC scores to the 32 students who had been videotaped. Next, four evaluators, all candidates for advanced degrees in education, viewed the videotapes. They were told that they were seeing undergraduate education majors preparing for student teaching and were asked to rate each subject's potential for success, both as a teacher at a given level and as a teacher of a given subject area. The results of this evaluation were then compared to the TCC ratings assigned earlier. A significant relationship was found between the two ratings, suggesting that this measurement technique might be useful in the area of instructional communication. (FL)