The debate as to whether heuristics or prescription provides the best approach to teaching technical writing is still largely unresolved. When heuristics are used as process, as problem-solving devices, and when prescription is used as a product-producing device, a useful synthesis of the two approaches occurs. This article presents such a synthesis of heuristics and prescription; it concludes with a short annotated bibliography on heuristics and prescription which can be used by the technical writing teacher and the technical writer.
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References
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MitchellJ., It's a Craft Course: Indoctrinate, Don't Educate, The Technical Writing Teacher, 4:1, pp. 2–6, 1976.
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The Technical Writing Tutorial, The Beginning, the Middle, and the End of Technical Writing: Papers form MLA-1977, California State University Press, Spring 1978.
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What Should We Do With Technical Writing?, Engineering Education, April 1980.
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Technical Writing: Implications for Compositional Skills Development, The Technical Writing Teacher, Spring 1981.
