A text for students who will become technical professionals, featuring assignments and exercises that address social as well as technical issues, an emphasis on collaboration, and some 55 pages of case documents, plus chapter summaries, key terms, and margin definitions. Contains sections on understanding technical communication, acquiring the tools of technical communication, creating effective documents, and developing and maintaining a professional edge. Includes a glossary and writing strategy checklists and worksheets. Lay is professor in the Department of Rhetoric, Scientific and Technical Communication at the University of Minnesota. Annotation c. Book News, Inc. (booknews.com)

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART ONE: UNDERSTANDING TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION
1. Technical Communication in Today’s Workplace
2. The Writer and the Writing Process in the Workplace
3. Audience and Technical Communication
4. The Persuasive Nature of Technical Communication

PART TWO: ACQUIRING THE TOOLS OF TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION
5. Collaboration
6. Secondary Sources of Information: Libraries and Online
7. Primary Sources of Information: Surveys, Interviews, Observations
8. Editing and Style
9. Document Design and Packaging
10. Visual Display and Presentation

PART THREE: CREATING EFFECTIVE DOCUMENTS
11. Creating Definitions and Descriptions
12. Instructions, Specifications, and Procedures
13. Reports and Studies
14. Reports for Decision Making
15. Proposals

PART FOUR: DEVELOPING AND MAINTAINING A PROFESSIONAL EDGE
16. Professional Communication
17. Oral Presentations in the Workplace Case Documents
Appendix
Index
Glossary