52 IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. PC 28, NO.1, MARCH 1985

on new technology and its impact on technical writers or "com­municators of technical information."

In the introduction, Field mentions three trends: (1) increasinglycomplex subject matter, (2) increasingly complex tools, and (3)an increasingly sophisticated technical audience. After a quicksynopsis of historical trends in communication, he surveys thenew tools available today for the communicator and their possibleuses in the future.

The tools he discusses are divided into three broad categories:generation, transmission, and storage and retrieval. Generationincludes word processing, character and voice recognition sys­tems, and intelligent copiers. Transmission includes communica­tion satellites, electronic mail, and remote access. The most re­cent development for storage and retrieval systems is thevideodisc. The last tool he mentions is the "office in a brief-case, " which overlaps the three categories.

For those familiar with his topics, some of his points may seemelementary. However, he provides a helpful framework for un­derstanding the relationship of the technical communicator totechnology. He relates each description to the job of communicat­ing technically and he provides guidelines for understanding anddealing with technological advances.

Field concludes with an important point: The quality of informa­tion must come first and is ultimately more important than thetechnology used to produce it. This point alone makes his presen­tation worth reading.

DAVID STRONGIBM CorporationAustin, TX 78758

The New Television Technologies-Lynne S. Gross (Dubuque,Iowa: Wm. C. Brown Company, 1983, 196 pages, $11.95,paperback) .

Lynn S. Gross has frozen into printed form a "snapshot" of thenew television technologies: a chronicle of where we have beenand where we are likely to proceed. Readers unfamiliar with thebroad range of new television technologies will find The NewTelevision Technologies a commendable outline for surveyingthe entire field. Each chapter introduces one or more televisiontechnologies. The chapters are subdivided into a technical de­scription, a history, and a section on issues. The technologiesgiven most attention include cable TV, satellite interconnection,subscription TV, videocassettes, videodiscs, teletext, direct­broadcast satellites, and low-power TV. The book's format con­tributes to a sense of easy reading, while the glossary and theindex make the book easy to use as a reference text.

Gross has captured the essence of each of the included technolo­gies and has, in turn, made a commendable effort to explain dif­ficult-to-understand technology in the simplest of terms. Al­though readers with a technical background may cringe to see theelegance of digital electronics understated as simply a way for"television signals to be edited or transmitted without loss ofquality, " students and others new to the field will find the tech-

nical explanations essential to grasping certain relationshipsshared among the various television technologies.

Overall, the sections on issues and conclusions are reasonablybalanced and representative of current thinking among the leadersof the television industry, although Gross seems to write with acontroversial, pro-regulatory bias, asserting that the marketplacecan never set effective technical standards. This is a position thatmay amuse knowledgeable readers from the computer and othernonregulated, technology-based industries, all of which have de­veloped with little regulation through marketplace de facto stan­dardization.

Any publication that attempts to survey so large a scope of tech­nology is likely to be faulted as much for what is omitted as forwhat is included. Virtually all the content emphasis is placed onorigination, transmission, and mass distribution. No space isallotted to the equally intriguing technology associated with re­ceiving and decoding equipment. Furthermore, no historical per­spective is developed to reveal the trend toward inevitable con­vergence of television technologies into an integrated bit streamof voice, video, and data.

The chapter on cable TV shines as the book's centerpiece. Itwould be difficult to find another published source with 37 pagesof material on cable TV as well written. Beginning with a techni­cal description of the essential components inside a cable TV sys­tem, this chapter moves smoothly through programming, regula­tion, and early cable TV history. It culminates with awell-balanced discussion of issues currently facing the industryand the American public. This chapter alone qualifies the book asan excellent introductory text for all mass communication stu­dents and any others who need to better understand the new tele­vision technologies.

JAMES H. STONE

Educational Television Dept.Auburn UniversityAuburn, AL 36830

Technical Writing: A Guide with Models-Bonnie CarterBrinegar and Craig Barnwell Skates (Glenview, Illinois: Scott,Foresman, 1983, 349 pages, $13.95).

The authors of Technical Writing believe that students best ac­quire technical writing skills through imitation. They state intheir preface that the purpose of their text is "to give studentsaccess to models that truly represent papers in technical disci­plines. " The concept of learning by imitating is certainly notnew, but Brinegar and Skates have selected, organized, and pre­sented their material with creativity and imagination, and theresult is a technical writing text that is innovative and interesting,as well as accessible and adaptable for instructors and studentsalike.

Brinegar and Skates assert that technical reports serve four mainpurposes-to inform, to investigate, to evaluate, and to per­suade-and they divide their text into four corresponding sec­tions, each containing samples of reports from a variety of tech-

IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION, VOL. PC 28, NO. I, MARCH 1985 53

nical fields. In a brief introduction to each report, the authorssuggest both academic and on-the-job writing situations for whichthe sample might serve as a model. Of more importance than theintroductions, however, are the authors' annotations for each re­port. These marginal notes point out strategies that report writershave used to solve problems in organization, style, grammar,mechanics, and graphics. (Annotations on grammar and punctua­tion frequently contain difficult terminology but students can re­fer to appendix B, "Editing," for further explanation and discus­sion.)

Technical Writing not only provides students with excellentmodels but it also encourages novice writers to begin immedi­ately producing their own technical writing. Many technical writ­ing texts currently on the market follow an organizational patternthat addresses theory first and application later. Brinegar andSkates, however, take a different approach, condensing their ownprose (the introductory chapter is only seven pages long) andplacing the usual discussions of theory, format, style, and libraryresearch in annotations and appendices. Students thus have littleopportunity to lose interest in the text or the course.

Because Technical Writing devotes so little attention to exces­sive introductory material, it is an excellent text for courses lim­ited to a single quarter instead of a full semester. Instructorsplanning semester-length courses could also base an effective syl­labus on Technical Writing or they could use it as a supplementto other (perhaps business-oriented) texts. Certainly TechnicalWriting, unlike many texts in this field, is instructor-oriented inthat it offers exercises at the end of each group of reports thatare not merely adequate but which require students to apply theprinciples demonstrated in that section.

Of course, Technical Writing is not a perfect text. Rhetoricianswill no doubt find its lack of emphasis on the writing process, forexample, to be a serious drawback. But, other than its "product"rather than "process" orientation, Technical Writing is for themost part a comprehensive text, including not only informationon technical reports of varying purposes, styles, and lengths, butalso providing models for abstracts, reviews of literature, andquestionnaires-aspects of technical writing that are sometimesreferred to only briefly or omitted entirely from other texts.

Producing an innovative technical writing text that instructs andinterests is an increasingly difficult challenge and Brinegar andSkates are to be commended for successfully achieving this goal.Technical Writing: A Guide with Models presents a creativemethod for approaching technical writing instruction; it should bereceived enthusiastically by instructors and students.

CYNTHIA H. ROGERSDepartment of EnglishUniversity of South CarolinaColumbia, SC 29208

Write to the Point: Effective Communication in theWorkplace-Michael B. Goodman (Englewood Cliffs, NJ:Prentice-Hall, Inc., 1984, 464 pages, $13.95, paperback).

Write to the Point is a clever title for a text that presents seri­ous, useful advice to writers in both technical and business fields.

Its advice for generating and arranging ideas, its description ofcomputers in the office, its lists on how to write, and its detaileddescriptions of proposals can benefit either the technical or thebusiness writer. However, because this text lacks examples andexplanations in key places, it reminds rather than teaches a pro­fessional what good writing is.

Some of its helpful advice includes using storyboards as televi­sion and movie producers do. Laying out information to seewhere more work is needed helps a writer, especially one writingproposals, to organize the material much more dynamically andeasily than without such a device.

If a writer is experiencing writer's block, Goodman suggests an­other technique that may take extra time but should prove useful.The writer could compose as ridiculous a version as possible.For a cover letter, for instance, a writer could say, "We areequally certain that you will feel our pricing is much too low andour schedule overly ambitious." Then, the writer could reversethis absurb version to find, as Goodman says, a tone and a"proper context" for the writing.

This book also has a timely chapter on "Writing in the Auto­mated Office." Goodman candidly explains how a computer re­quires new skills (writer as typesetter) and even makes the writersuffer "wordage" (since drafts are produced more easily andfaster than ever before). But the chapter's tone is so reassuringabout the computer that even a writer accustomed to using a half­chewed pencil and wadding up four or five drafts will feel morecomfortable at the prospect of writing on a word processor.

The text's other useful features include numerous checklists onwhen to phone, to write, or to meet in person (chapter 5); how toevaluate a letter, memo, or report (chapter 5); how to edit (chap­ter 10); and how to choose graphics (chapter 11). Portions ofchapter 6 on letters are helpful, especially where Goodman citesthe National Archives and Records Service's advice on letters:Four qualities (4 S's) that should be in letters are shortness, sim­plicity, strength, and sincerity. Chapter 9 on proposals is the bestchapter in the book because of its numerous examples and de­tailed instructions, especially on fulfilling a Request for Proposal.

But this chapter's discussion of proposals, as well written and asthorough as it is, serves only to illustrate how the other chaptersneed more work. All too often this text lacks examples. AlthoughGoodman tries to explain how invention, audience, and arrange­ment are intertwined, the text never demonstrates this rela­tionship with one clear, comprehensive illustration. No examplesare given for jargon (chapter 7); for definitions in context, paren­theses, glossaries, and footnotes (chapter 7); for process writing(chapter 7); for four ways to arrange information (chronological,sequential, step-by-step, dramatic; chapter 7); and for fallacies(chapter 10). Little explanation is provided for developing para­graphs (chapter 4), nor does chapter 13 explain the good and badpoints of its sample resumes. Even the appendix on grammar isnot useful because it stresses only punctuation and gives no ex­amples.

This book's preface says that the text could be used by an indi­vidual working alone to improve his writing, by college studentstaking a course in technical and business writing, or by the per­sonnel development staff "within a business, institution, oragency" to conduct a workshop or seminar. Although all thesepotential users would have to look elsewhere for illustrations of