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Subject:Re: _Technical Communication_ and Its Audience From:"Wayne J. Douglass" <wayned -at- VERITY -dot- COM> Date:Tue, 25 Feb 1997 09:28:55 -0800
At 09:28 AM 2/25/97 -0500, George Hayhoe wrote:
>
>What we're trying to create is a journal that recognizes and responds to
>this need--not _Technical Communication_ Lite, but a journal that combines
>"academic" rigor with a practical approach to solving communication
>problems.
>
I am not, nor have I ever been, a member of STC, but my wife is a member so
I occasionally glance at the journal. I say "glance," because I have
probably never found an article I could read in it. Coming from an academic
background myself (albeit a long time ago), I am all too familiar with the
artificial, circumlocutary, jargon ridden prose one has to adopt to be taken
seriously in those journals. Alas, there is still too much of that in
_Technical Communication_ for my taste, and I say the hell with it.
Ironically, the worst offenders are usually journals that take
"communication" as their subject matter.
>
>The journal's new design (it debuts in the 3rd Quarter issue that will mail
>in August) should make a clear visual statement about who our audience is.
>I think you'll be surprised and pleased at what a difference it makes.
>
This can only be an improvement. From the cornball logo to the illustrated
parts breakdown graphics, I have always found the design of the journal has
to be mired in the 50s. Cute if you like retro, but otherwise another
impediment to readability.
--Wayne Douglass
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