Showing papers in "Technical Communication Quarterly in 1998"
TL;DR: The authors argue that risk is socially constructed, and that risk assessment is a way to frame ethical audience involvement and argue for the technical communicator as one possessing the research and writing skills necessary for the complex processes of constructing risk.
Abstract: In this article, we build on arguments in risk communication that the predominant linear risk communication models are problematic for their failure to consider audience and additional contextual issues. The “failure”; of these risk communication models has led, some scholars argue, to a number of ethical and communicative problems. We seek to extend the critique, arguing that “risk”; is socially constructed. The claim for the social construction of risk has significant implications for both risk communication and the roles of technical communicators in risk situations. We frame these implications as a “critical rhetoric”; of risk communication that (1) dissolves the separation of risk assessment from risk communication to locate epistemology within communicative processes; (2) foregrounds power in risk communication as a way to frame ethical audience involvement; (3) argues for the technical communicator as one possessing the research and writing skills necessary for the complex processes of constructing...
189 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors compare ideas of culture in social constructionist and cultural study research designs, addressing how each type of design impacts issues that can be analyzed in research studies.
Abstract: When the idea of culture is expanded to include institutional relationships extending beyond the walls of one organization, technical writing researchers can address relationships between our power/knowledge system and multiculturalism, postmodernism, gender, conflict, and ethics within professional communication. This article contrasts ideas of culture in social constructionist and cultural study research designs, addressing how each type of design impacts issues that can be analyzed in research studies. Implications for objectivity and validity in speculative cultural study research are also explored. Finally, since articulation of a coherent theoretical foundation is crucial to limiting a cultural study, this article suggests how technical writing can be constituted as an object of study according to five (of many possible) poststructural concepts: the object of inquiry as discursive, the object as practice within a cultural context, the object as practice within a historical context, the object as ord...
79 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors examine the critical perspective as an alternative to our current descriptive, explanatory research focus, which reinterprets the relationship between researcher and participants as one of collaboration, where participants define research questions that matter to them and where social action is the desired goal.
Abstract: This article examines the critical perspective as an alternative to our current descriptive, explanatory research focus. The critical perspective aims at empowerment and emancipation. It reinterprets the relationship between researcher and participants as one of collaboration, where participants define research questions that matter to them and where social action is the desired goal. Examples of critical research include feminist, radical educational, and participatory action research. Adopting the critical perspective would require that scholars in professional communication rethink their choices of research questions and sites, their views of the ownership of research results, and the types of funding they seek for research initiatives.
48 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the authors worked with a Canadian engineering company, its Russian contractors, and a Russian translator to analyze the sources of difficulties in their reports and identify problems in both the conception of the report as a document and the translation of particular text.
Abstract: The periodic engineering report can become a source of conflict and frustration when North American engineers collaborate with colleagues abroad. To overcome such difficulties, technical companies may hire writing consultants, who then take on the additional role of cultural interpreters, helping the partners bridge differences in both the practice of engineering and the language and culture of each country. As such a writing consultant, I worked with a Canadian engineering company, its Russian contractors, and a Russian translator to analyze the sources of difficulties in their reports. The language of the reports was English, but differences in tone as well as reader expectations about organization, format, and appropriate content caused misunderstandings among the collaborators. Contrastive rhetorical analysis helped to identify problems in both the conception of the report as a document and the translation of particular text.
44 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that technical communication must assume the burden of understanding the ideologies, contexts, values, and histories of those disciplines from which we borrow before we begin using their methods and research findings.
Abstract: There is much for technical communicators to learn from the burgeoning field of technology studies. Technical communicators, however, have an obligation to exercise patience as they enter this arena of study. Using interdisciplinary theory, this article argues that technical communication must assume the “burden of comprehension”;: the responsibility of understanding the ideologies, contexts, values, and histories of those disciplines from which we borrow before we begin using their methods and research findings. Three disciplines of technology study—history, sociology, and philosophy—are examined to investigate how these disciplines approach technology. The article concludes with speculation on how technical communicators, by virtue of their entrance into this interdisciplinary arena, might refashion both their practical roles and the scope of their ethical responsibilities.
40 citations
TL;DR: This article found that an introduction, even a short one, makes audiences more willing to listen to a speech, think more highly of the speaker, and understand a speech better than when no introduction is given.
Abstract: An introduction, even a short one, makes audiences more willing to listen to a speech, think more highly of the speaker, and understand a speech better than when no introduction is given. Two experiments at Delft University of Technology support this conclusion. Subjects viewed videotapes of professional presentations on the topic of Sick Building Syndrome. In one experiment, subjects rated the effectiveness of three introductory or “exordial”; techniques in gaining audience attention: an anecdote, an ethical appeal, and a “your problem”; approach. Results indicate that audiences do respond to exordial techniques, and in a predictable manner. In the second experiment, two speeches with anecdotal openers were tested against one without any introduction. The anecdotes led to significantly higher ratings of the presentation's comprehensibility and interest, as well as the speaker's credibility. The presence of an anecdote also resulted in higher retention scores. Oddly enough, the relevance of the anecdote d...
27 citations
TL;DR: The first books and the first technical books published by English women during the 1475-1700 period can be useful in teaching students about the emergence of technical style or "plain style" as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The first books and the first technical books published by English women during the 1475–1700 period can be useful in teaching students about the emergence of technical style or “plain style.”; If we examine the style of these women writers, long ignored by canonical studies, we can see that plain English existed before Bacon and received its impetus not from science, but from the utilitarian attitude that pervaded the 1475–1700 period. These women writers provide a microcosm for studying the rise of modern English prose and what we now call technical (or plain) style. They also provide an efficient way to expose students to early published works by women and their contribution to the history of technical writing. Examining style from such a perspective helps students see that technical communication was a prevalent kind of writing before Bacon and the Royal Society. Thus, technical communication—and the style of technical communication—studied from this unique historical perspective deepens students’ awa...
21 citations
TL;DR: This paper examined the cultural expectations for women in imperialism influenced Steel's response to the genre and concluded that the report genre may have been fluid within imperialism, crossing boundaries between professional and government writing pertaining today, suggesting that we need to study these genres of writing from the perspective of economic and political expansion as genres of imperialism.
Abstract: Despite being raised in a culture that denied her access to formal education and employment, Flora Annie Steel became an Inspector of Female Schools in the Punjab, India, in 1884. Her inspection reports for the occupying British government of India are the focus of this study, which examines texts within the context of British imperialism and late‐nineteenth century report conventions. The study concludes 1) that cultural expectations for women in imperialism influenced Steel's response to the genre and 2) that the report genre may have been fluid within imperialism, crossing boundaries between professional and government writing pertaining today. The study suggests that, historically, we need to study these genres of writing from the perspective of economic and political expansion as genres of imperialism.
20 citations
TL;DR: When compared with the commenting styles of technical writing teachers, the engineering professor's comments were found to be highly directive, and thus at odds with the preference for facilitative comments that prevails in composition studies.
Abstract: A case study of an experienced professor's comments on a design report in a first‐year engineering class was conducted over the period of an academic year. When compared with the commenting styles of technical writing teachers, the engineering professor's comments were found to be highly directive, and thus at odds with the preference for facilitative comments that prevails in composition studies. However, differences in genre conventions explain much of the discrepancy.
19 citations
TL;DR: The authors traces the shifts in attitudes toward empirical research on writing, including research on technical/professional writing, have shifted from encouragement to resistance, and traces these shifts in light of changes in writing research, psychology, and the rhetoric of science.
Abstract: Since the 1960s, attitudes toward empirical research on writing, including research on technical/professional writing, have shifted from encouragement to resistance. This essay traces these shifts in light of changes in writing research, psychology, and the rhetoric of science. In composition studies, an initial mild uneasiness about “scientism”; intensified with the rise of process models, suggesting a Romanticist defense of the mystique of creativity. More recent post‐modernist denunciations of scientific methods as immoral have other Romanticist overtones. In technical communication, a long‐standing interest in workplace writing practices allowed a smoother integration of empirical analysis with descriptive studies of writing contexts. However, as in composition, recent critiques in technical communication suggest that empirical methods should not be employed. These critiques too tightly circumscribe the values that may be considered humanist and cut off important avenues of inquiry and critique that h...
17 citations
TL;DR: This essay details the experience of designing, implementing, and evaluating an online course in audience analysis at the graduate level and describes how the educational culture of the Land Grant Mission flowed into the authors' efforts to create a quality learning experience.
Abstract: This essay details the experience of designing, implementing, and evaluating an online course in audience analysis at the graduate level. Through a discussion of the culture of this online course, I describe how the educational culture of the Land Grant Mission flowed into our efforts to create a quality learning experience, and how the Web modules and asynchronous (listserv) and synchronous (MOO) conversations influenced communication and learning.
TL;DR: A technical communication course for software engineering majors to take concurrently with their capstone project course in software design, suggesting that the synergy of this interdisciplinary approach effectively sensitized students to user‐centered design, instilled in them a commitment to it, and helped them develop usable products.
Abstract: We designed and piloted a technical communication course for software engineering majors to take concurrently with their capstone project course in software design. In the pilot, one third of the capstone design course students jointly enrolled in the writing class. One goal of the collaborative courses was to use writing to improve the usability of students’ software. We studied the effects of writing on students’ user‐centered beliefs and design practices and on the usability of their product, using surveys, document analyses, expert reviews, and user test results. When possible, we compared the usability processes and products of teams who did and did not take the writing class. Our findings suggest that the synergy of this interdisciplinary approach effectively sensitized students to user‐centered design, instilled in them a commitment to it, and helped them develop usable products.
TL;DR: The authors explored how some contemporary language usage presents challenges for technical editing and demonstrated how a critical analysis of metaphors in everyday technical documents would help students question these language choices and draw attention to the consequences of using them.
Abstract: In this article we explore how some contemporary language usage presents challenges for technical editing. Drawing on scholarship in the rhetoric of science and in critical linguistics, we argue that language does affect our perception of reality. Consequently, the language used in some technical documents needs to be reconsidered or even challenged by technical editors. Present textbooks on technical editing do not directly confront this issue, though some scholars have begun to challenge the use of terms such as “studgun.”; We conclude by demonstrating how a critical analysis of metaphors in everyday technical documents would help students question these language choices and draw attention to the consequences of using them.
TL;DR: This article considered three interweaving themes that characterized the construction of the Euro Disney park and analyzed the historical context for and the implications of the park's construction, using the literature of French cultural studies and cross-cultural studies for support.
Abstract: Drawing upon publications in the French press, this article considers three interweaving themes that characterized the construction of the Euro Disney park. It then offers an analysis of the historical context for and the implications of the park's construction, using the literature of French cultural studies and cross‐cultural studies for support. It concludes with a discussion of the possible consequences to the company of Disney's negative image in the French press.
TL;DR: This essay shows how and why technical writers employ stylistic elements to achieve transport and develops a Longinian concept and methodology for technical communication by comparing his ideas to current scholarship and then applying them to two technical texts.
Abstract: The rhetorician Longinus advises writers to “transport”; their readers by aligning the readers’ perspective with the writer's. The methods for transport are five “fountains”;: high thought, emotional appeals, figures of speech, notable language, and arrangement. This essay develops a Longinian concept and methodology for technical communication by comparing his ideas to current scholarship and then applying them to two technical texts. It shows how and why technical writers employ stylistic elements to achieve transport.
TL;DR: This study interviewed Information Coordinators to learn how Internet technologies are being introduced, disseminated, and adopted in their institutions and applied Everett Rogers's theory of the diffusion of innovations to help interpret their responses.
Abstract: The American International Health Alliance, a national not‐for‐profit healthcare organization initiated in 1992, uses Internet technologies to aid in the exchange of medical information between healthcare providers in the U.S. and their colleagues in Eastern Europe and the New Independent States of the former Soviet Union. A major role in the exchange is played by Information Coordinators—physicians, nurses, or administrators in the partnership institutions in the region. Through a questionnaire distributed during a training session in the U.S. and e‐mail exchanges, we interviewed these Information Coordinators to learn how Internet technologies are being introduced, disseminated, and adopted in their institutions. We then applied Everett Rogers's theory of the diffusion of innovations to help interpret their responses. Although now only in its preliminary stages, this study shows that technical communicators must be aware of the cultural influences—economic, political, ethnic, and institutional—that acco...
TL;DR: In this article, the authors present an approach for writing technical documents for the global pharmaceutical industry using technical communication in the Scientific and Technical Professions (SCIPP) journal. Technical Communication Quarterly: Vol. 7, International Communication in the scientific and technical Professions, pp. 319-327.
Abstract: (1998). Writing technical documents for the global pharmaceutical industry. Technical Communication Quarterly: Vol. 7, International Communication in the Scientific and Technical Professions, pp. 319-327.
TL;DR: This article applied theories of both advertising and semiotics to analyze the first minute of a video produced for a Finnish company that manufactures log buildings and wrapped its image around a concept of leisure.
Abstract: A common genre of corporate promotional materials in Finland is a video that introduces a company to various audiences, including customers, shareholders, and visitors to the company's offices. The video uses visuals, sounds, and text to establish the company's identity and credibility as well as informing the audience about company products. The video appeals to deep‐seated cultural values to promote its message. This study applied theories of both advertising and semiotics to analyze the first minute of a video produced for a Finnish company that manufactures log buildings and wraps its image around a concept of leisure.