The technical communication practices of Russian and US aerospace engineers and scientists

Two studies were conducted in order to investigate the technical communication practices of Russian and US aerospace engineers and scientists. Both studies had the same five objectives: to solicit the opinions of aerospace engineers and scientists regarding the importance of technical communication to their professions; to determine the use and production of technical communication by aerospace engineers and scientists; to seek their views about the appropriate content of the undergraduate course in technical communication; to determine aerospace engineers´ and scientists´ use of libraries, technical information centers, and online databases; and to determine the use and importance of computer and information technology to them. Responses to a self-administered questionnaire that was distributed to Russian aerospace engineers and scientists at the Central Aero-Hydrodynamic Institute (TsAGI) and to their US counterparts at the NASA Ames Research Center and the NASA Langley Research Center are presented