ABSTRACT
Not all publications organizations are alike. Yet, the principal differences are not those of expanding work volumes commonly cited as our rationalizations to upper management to justify our continued vitality. Neither are they the dazzling array of quaint acronyms and initialisms people trade with colleagues to attest to their burgeoning armory of hardware and software. Historically, the traditional organization has a distant working relationship with both the senior management that authorizes its budget and the customer base that sustains it: senior management staffs these publications offices not from a keen expectation of high payback but from a nebulous, visceral appreciation that an undefinable discrepancy exists between accepted communication norms and the writing capability of the technical staff. Moving into the world outside the publications shop often entails the equivalent of temporary reassignments in which publications personnel become part of the group they are supporting, but with a very significant caveat.
