A Profile of In-House Teachers of Technical Communication.

To develop a profile of inhouse, company teachers of technical communication, a six-page questionnaire was administered to technical writing teachers. Of the 52 respondents, 24 offered both formal inhouse courses and informal training while 22 conducted only formal courses. Titles, course outlines, and other survey comments revealed that many organizations tailored entire courses--rather than individual seminars--to their main businesses. Most respondents said that courses were aimed primarily at scientists, engineers, or managers of such professionals and dealt with a variety of topics, among them efficient writing, grammar problems, style, technical content, editing, strategies for giving feedback to writers, graphics, audience analysis, readability, proposals, and grantsmanship. Three primary teaching methods were used: lecture, in-class writing or other classroom exercises, and group discussion and analysis of writing samples. Sixty-five percent of the respondents said their courses were conducted during working hours--and only during those hours. Almost half said that executive management gave strong support to their programs and an almost equally large segment reported moderate backing. More than a few of the respondents had extensive experience in both teaching and writing. And most inhouse teachers said they continued to increase their proficiency in both formal and informal ways. (HOD)