Title from PDF title page (viewed Nov. 30, 2007).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Preliminary Material / Denis Alamargot , Patrice Terrier and Jean-Marie Cellier -- Chapter 1: Linguistic Markers of Lexical and Textual Relations in Technical Documents / Anne Condamines and Marie-Paule Péry-Woodley -- Chapter 2: The Design, Understanding and Usage of Pictograms / Charles Tijus , Javier Barcenilla , Brigitte Cambon de Lavalette and Jean-Guy Meunier -- Chapter 3: Readability and Intelligibility of Procedural Texts: The Case of Enumeration in Legal Texts / Céline Beaudet and Pamela Grant -- Chapter 4: Considering Users and the Way They Use Procedural Texts: Some Prerequisites for the Design of Appropriate Documents / Franck Ganier and Javier Barcenilla -- Chapter 5: Highly Effective Writers and the Role of Reading: A Cognitive Approach to Composing in Professional Contexts / Thomas Quinlan and Denis Alamargot -- Chapter 6: Professional Editing: Emphasis on the Quality of a Text and its Communicative Effectiveness / Jocelyne Bisaillon -- Chapter 7: Procedural Texts Written by Children / Eduardo Martí and Merce Garcia-Mila -- Chapter 8 : Developing an Online Writing Tutor to Improve Technical-Writing Skills in Engineering and Science Students / John R. Hayes , Diana M. Bajzek , Judy Brooks , Brenda Reyes , Nicole Hallinen and Erwin R. Steinberg -- Chapter 9: The Implications of Blogs for Professional Writing: Speed, Reach, Engagement, and the Art of the Self in the Participatory Web / Doreen Starke-Meyerring -- Chapter 10: The Production of Work Instructions in an Industrial Workplace: The Impact of a Functional Writer’s Work Context on the Outcome of His Activity / Véronique Barret , Isabelle Clerc and Sylvie Montreuil -- Chapter 11: Situation Models and Their Role in Comprehension: The Need to Study Their Internal Structure / Isabelle Tapiero and José Otero -- Chapter 12: The Effects of Interaction with the Device and Text Structure on the Mental Representations Derived from the Procedure / Patrice Terrier , Virginia Diehl and Julie Lemarié -- Chapter 13: Comprehension Processes in Translation / Pedro Macizo and Maria Teresa Bajo -- Chapter 14: How Reading Strategies Affect the Comprehension of Texts in Hypertext Systems / R. Ignacio Madrid and José Cañas -- Chapter 15: Task-Guidance Systems and Procedure Context: Enabling Procedures to Enhance Worker Performance / Jennifer Ockerman -- Chapter 16: Animated Documentation: A Way of Comprehending Complex Procedural Tasks? / Richard K. Lowe -- Chapter 17: The Impact of Cognitively Based Design of Expository Multimedia / N. Hari Narayanan -- References / Denis Alamargot , Patrice Terrier and Jean-Marie Cellier -- Author Index / Denis Alamargot , Patrice Terrier and Jean-Marie Cellier -- Subject Index / Denis Alamargot , Patrice Terrier and Jean-Marie Cellier.

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Written Documents in the Workplace is divided into three parts, the first of which provides a linguistic definition of professional documents, describing their different types and genres. This definition necessarily takes into account both the formal characteristics of these types of document (e.g. nature of linguistic units involved) and their functional goals (the way these linguistic units are used to fulfill the text's communicative aim). The second part focuses on the mental mechanisms involved in written production in the workplace. One of the aims of a professional writer is to compose a text which can be understood. Text composition involves specific processes and strategies that can be enhanced. This last aspect leads us to devote the third and final section to the comprehension of written documents in the workplace. Awareness of the strategies implemented by different readers (with more or less domain expertise) in order to understand technical and professional documents can enhance the latter's readability.