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AGRIO is an Android application designed to provide a platform for farmers to sell their products online. The app enables farmers to create profiles, upload information about their products, and manage sales and orders. It also includes a webpage for lending farming equipment for rent, making it a comprehensive solution for farmers.

This research guide describes resources to help you explain health topics related to environmental hazards in clear, easy-to-understand language. The author prepared the research guide as a final project for the course INLS 515: Consumer Health Information.

El objetivo es ofrecer orientaciones para la presentación de los resultados y la redacción del informe de una investigación cualitativa

In today’s interconnected world, public health crises like COVID-19 have a widespread impact, transcending national borders, causing economic upheaval, the loss of trillions of dollars from the gross domestic product (GDP), and significant disruptions to health systems, and forcing millions of individuals into poverty. While countries may differ in their responses to these crises, their shared objective is to mitigate the damage and ultimately bring an end to the outbreak. Public health experts play a crucial role in these efforts, utilizing rhetorical strategies to effectively communicate with the public about the pandemic. Notably, during the COVID-19 pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci in the United States and Dr. Wenhong Zhang in China emerged as revered figures, leading public health experts, and adept communicators in addressing the risks posed by the pandemic in their respective countries. This dissertation investigates the rhetorical practices of Dr. Zhang and Dr. Fauci in their communications about the pandemic to their respective publics. Employing a case study approach, contextualized comparative rhetoric as an inquiry method, and computer-assisted qualitative rhetorical analysis, this dissertation identifies the similarities and differences in the rhetorical strategies adopted by the two doctors. The findings reveal that both doctors utilize similar rhetorical tools, including ethos, kairos, narratives, and metaphors, to effectively communicate about the pandemic to the public. However, they also exhibit differences influenced by contextual factors such as political, social, and cultural contexts. These findings contribute to our understanding of the role of rhetoric in public health experts’ communications about the pandemic in different countries during a global public health crisis.

Science by its very nature is a networked discipline. Experiments and research build off of past experiments and research. Labs are collaborative spaces where many individuals work together with an array of technologies and other infrastructural elements. Much of the work of network building in science is done online as scientists communicate with each other and with the public on platforms like Twitter. But how do science communicators work in these online, digital spaces to build their networks and communicate? What kinds of rhetorical choices do science communicators make when they share research or reach out to connect with others? How do social media, networking, and other technologies influence those choices? What kinds of networks are created in these online, public discussions? In this study, I draw from actor-network theory and assemblage theory methodologies to begin answering these questions. Using snowball sampling, I recruited 12 climate science communicators from three network clusters: Purdue scientists, scientists whose work was highlighted by the nonprofit Black in Environment, and science writers for NASA. Drawing from choices I observed in the Twitter writing of participants, I then spoke with each participant in a discourse-based interview, inviting them to reflect on the choices they made as they wrote online. The resulting conversation indicated the nonhuman (such as technologies) and human influences on their online discourse. Our discussions also revealed how participants used rhetorical strategies around identification and emotion to better appeal to their specific audiences. With identification, they not only asked themselves how an audience might react to their writing, but also engaged in internal dialogue with their imagined audiences and used conversational language. With emotion, participants emphasized the importance of humor and positivity as strategies by which to make online spaces more appealing and welcoming. This study offers four takeaways from the data: (1) science communicators should be aware of and take control of the networks that surround them; (2) public science communication should still be specific and directed at smaller audiences; (3) science communication—especially in online public spheres like Twitter—should not shy away from engaging with emotion; and (4) those of us who teach writing can (and should) teach writing as a networked process.

Introduction: Technical writing is an essential skill set for engineering students. Many studies have been conducted, but very few have used experimental or quasiexperimental design to identify an optimal instructional method in a technical writing class. Situating the case: Team-based learning (TBL) is a well-structured learning method that prior studies have found to enhance students’ academic performance. TBL includes individual and collaborative learning activities from lower to higher cognitive levels. Peer leadership, as evidenced in other studies, uses appointed student leaders to promote equal and active group participation and shows a potential to solve the gender issue found in engineering class collaborations. About the case: In this case, we infused peer leadership in TBL in three technical writing sessions of an engineering lab class. Appointed student leaders were responsible for initiating and sustaining discussions, asking each group member's input, and seeking collective decisions on solutions. The other class used traditional TBL activities. Methods/approach: Nonparametric analyses were conducted to compare students’ technical writing skills and self-efficacy, as well as gender differences in two classes. Results/discussion: Students in the peer-led TBL class showed better technical writing skill retention than their counterparts in the traditional TBL class. The gender difference was identified in the traditional TBL class. However, we did not find any difference in students’ self-efficacy between the peer-led and traditional TBL sections, though both observed a significant improvement at the end. Conclusions: We suggest studies with large sample sizes and equal distribution of female and male students.

This study investigated the effectiveness of using An ESP program based on Cognitive Academic Language Learning Approach (CALLA) in developing academic reading and technical writing among Microbiology and Biochemistry first year students at the Faculty of Science, Obourr Campus, Benha University. The study followed a pre-post experimental one group design. The participants were 37 students. The researcher used a needs analysis questionnaire to determine their academic needs. Moreover, the results of the questionnaire indicted their needs to academic reading and technical writing skills. The researcher designed academic reading test and technical writing test. Students were pre-tested, to identify their entry level of academic reading and technical writing skills .Then; they were trained through the ESP CALLA- based program on how to develop their academic reading and technical writing skills. The post-test was applied to the participants to assess the progress in their level of performance in academic reading and technical writing skills. Findings of the study revealed that there was statistically a significant difference at 0.01 in the pre- and post-assessment of academic reading and technical writing skills in favour of the post-assessment. Therefore, the ESP program that based on CALLA was effective in enhancing academic reading and technical writing skills.

application/pdf, 論文(Article), The use of conjunctions is essential in technical writing. This research focuses on conjunctions in information-related academic papers and student reports and describes the characteristics such as the tendency and differences in the use. In the student reports, the conjunctions of "Mata," "Shikashi," "Soshite." were often used. On the other hand, the conductions of academic papers were "Oyobi," "Tatoeba," in addition to the three conjunctions of the student reports.

This study explores the technical difficulties and the causes of writing difficulties school students face in writing in Dzongkha. Using social constructivism, 16 participants (ten students and six teachers) were involved. In addition to document analysis, the participants were also interviewed to find the problems of writing in Dzongkha. The findings suggest that application of Dzongkha in its written form was one of the most difficult tasks among the four language skills. The writing difficulties faced by the students were the usage of correct spelling, grammar, vocabulary, word structure, sentence structure, paragraph structure, expression and handwriting. Among these, spelling was one of the most difficult parts while writing in Dzongkha. The causes of writing difficulties in Dzongkha were the poor foundation of Dzongkha writing and reading skills, low prestige of Dzongkha language/subject, time constraint, pronunciation related problems, limited resource/facility and professional support for the Dzongkha teachers, less career scope for Dzongkha background students and poor reading habit. It was also due to lack of additional Dzongkha medium based subject, inadequate modern ways of teaching learning strategies, and also because of minimal parents’ support, less personal interest and perseverance to learn and write in Dzongkha. The solutions to the writing problems were to give adequate time for Dzongkha subject, maintain reading and writing portfolios to enhance genres writing, teaching the clear meaning and concept of different words and terminologies having same pronunciation, and adequate teacher written response needs to be emphasized and implemented. Based on the findings of the study, recommendations to different stakeholders are also provided.

Although by far the most widely performed text in English, the Prayer Book has long been neglected by literary scholars because of its functional nature and ignored by technical writing scholars because of its religious nature. The present study contributes to the redress of this neglect. In his preface to the 1540 Great Bible, Cranmer warned against the risk of abusing the divine word that vernacular translation increased. The 1547 Sacrament Act required communion to be administered in both kinds in obedience to scripture and accompanied by exhortations on the benefits and risks of communion. The Book of Common Prayer, first promulgated in 1549, provided a means of facilitating and regulating these earlier, related initiatives towards the reformation of the Church and Kingdom of England (understood as a single body). The Book of Common Prayer replaced diffuse and complicated medieval Latin liturgies with a single, highly usable English Use for public worship, conceptualized primarily as an oral-aural exchange, with visual and ceremonial components re-designed to promote the “due use” of the word, in public reading, sermons, and sacramental administration for public edification. I argue that the involvement-oriented oral features of the book enhanced its usability. Repetitiveness, formulae, rhythm, agonistic framing, and a minimum of user choice contributed to the ease with which users learned to animate the new liturgies, and its attractiveness – in terms of capturing attention, delighting, and compelling – promoted memorability. This survey of successes, challenges, and failures in the implementation of the Prayer Book in the century after its promulgation amounts to an account of the birth of the Church of England through the critical role played by the most widely used piece of English technical writing in that birth. "This work was supported by the Prayer Book Society, John Cosin Scholarship for Postgraduate Research relating to the Book of Common Prayer. This work was supported by the School of English, University of St. Andrews, George Buchanan Postgraduate Research (PhD) Scholarship."--Funding

Curriculum-embedded undergraduate research experiences (CUREs) have the unique advantage that all students enrolled in a course engage in authentic scientific research. While CUREs guided by faculty research interests are common, this article describes CUREs embedded in the senior chemistry curriculum that were driven entirely by students’ research interests. Activities are described in detail that brought student-driven CUREs (SD-CUREs) from their inception of defining research questions to the fruition of presenting results at multiple venues to diverse audiences, over the course of the academic year. These activities included building students’ proficiency in analytical instrumentation, enhancing their library research and technical writing skills, and providing support as students developed research questions and laboratory protocols starting from the primary literature. Students gained experience in grant writing by submitting proposals to the “Capstone Projects Grant” funded by The Evergreen State College Foundation. Support provided by the science staff, the librarian/writing instructor, as well as financial support from the college were instrumental in the success of the SD-CUREs. While there were some inherent challenges, SD-CUREs resulted in the evolution of a research community of engaged student leaders who demonstrated ownership of their research projects and were supportive and conducive to the success of all students. A survey of students indicated very positive impressions of the CUREs. Assessment tools used for the SD-CUREs, success of students beyond the CUREs, and the impact of COVID-19 on the CUREs are discussed in the article.

More than 20 years ago, Elizabeth O. Smith published her points of reference that documented the research trajectory of technical communication from 1988 to 1997. Her results indicated a focus on rhetorical analyses, a decrease in collaborative research, and a disproportionate representation of male authors. This study builds on these points with a quantitative content analysis of 1,271 articles that were published in five leading technical communication journals and Intercom, the trade magazine for the Society for Technical Communication, from 1996 to 2017. The results show that both the research journals and Intercom have pivoted to process-driven rather than product-driven content. The results also suggest that the primary topics of communication strategy and collaboration might be the most likely places to foster future industry–academic ties and that the greatest division between the two populations is the primary topic of rhetoric. This study offers an updated baseline for future investigations by offering an evaluation of disparate content foci between the publication types.

The effectiveness of preparing English language learners for workplace technical writing in various fields (e.g. engineering, business), has been widely contested by both social learning theories and research investigating university–workplace transition of novice employees. In this paper, we present a needs analysis conducted in the workplace that addressed socio-contextual elements with the understanding that the complexity of workplace writing needs for English L2 learners is always changing. In doing so, we provide new evidence for the argument that socio-contextual elements need to be embraced to improve preparedness. Taking a social perspective of writing, this qualitative study explores the situated nature of workplace writing experienced by vocational college graduates. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 vocational college graduates and four line managers at five private sector companies in Oman over a period of eight months. Additionally, 29 of the graduates’ workplace texts were analysed. Data reveal that socio-contextual elements strongly influence writing practices surrounding the text. By highlighting this key contextual element, we suggest that to better equip learners for workplace writing, ESP course designers need to address the text-context relationship and contextualised nature of written genres.

As technical genres continue to grow and morph in promising new directions, we attempt an analysis of what are typically viewed as mundane genres. We use the term gray genres, which we find useful for interrogating texts that tend to fall in categories that tend toward a blandness that is invariably difficult to quantify. We use hedonism, along with a historical accounting for this value from its classical rhetorical lineage and run it up to contemporary applications. We posit that playful stylistic choices---while typically discouraged in more technical spaces---actually improves the rhetorical canon of delivery for informative documents. We close with case studies that offer close readings of a few attempts at employing hedonistic tactics within typical gray genres.

This paper aims to present a tool for helping the mindset organization of graduate students and early career researchers in the process of scientific papers writing. The canvas roadmap is proposed and summarizes the fundamental steps and main features of an academic paper in the business management field.,The adopted methodological procedures followed action research and focus groups precepts. Validation was applied in longitudinal and transversal procedures, with two early career researchers and with three groups of graduate students from different institutions. The validation procedures allowed the identification of 15 main features that were structured in a canvas format.,The conception of the canvas roadmap, influenced by the business model canvas, is a tool for easing researchers’ mindset when preparing a manuscript. Each of 15 features are explored according to main identified components along the paper writing process. Advices for early researchers are addressed, and key characteristics are presented. Further readings in academic writing literature are suggested as along with practical tips for developing the manuscript.,Specifically, the canvas roadmap proposal intends to guide Iberoamerican/Latin American scholars to achieve their goals of publishing in top tier journals, relevant to their academic careers, and to improve research outcomes through a structured guidance for crafting scientific papers.,As main contribution and novelty, this paper intends to provide a canvas roadmap by identifying the main sections a scientific paper in the Business Management field must follow, and how to address specific features when writing these sections. This tool was conceived due the Business Management field needs a faster-to-address and easy-to-use tool and that summarizes main features of academic papers.,Este articulo tiene como objetivo presentar una herramienta para ayudar a la organizacion de la mentalidad de los estudiantes de postgrados y los investigadores de carrera temprana en el proceso de redaccion de articulos cientificos. El mapa canvas es propuesto y resume los pasos fundamentales y las principales caracteristicas de un articulo academico en el campo de la Gestion Empresarial.,Los procedimientos metodologicos adoptados siguieron los preceptos de la investigacion-accion y los grupos focales. La validacion se aplico en procedimientos longitudinales y transversales, con dos investigadores en carrera inicial y con tres grupos de estudiantes de postgrados de diferentes instituciones. Los procedimientos de validacion permitieron identificar quince caracteristicas principales que se estructuraron en formato canvas.,La concepcion del mapa canvas, influenciada por el modelo canvas para los modelos de negocios, es una herramienta para facilitar la mentalidad de los investigadores al preparar un manuscrito. Cada una de las quince caracteristicas se explora de acuerdo con los principales componentes identificados a lo largo del proceso de escritura de los manuscritos. Se abordan consejos para los investigadores tempranos y se presentan las caracteristicas clave. Se sugieren lecturas adicionales de literatura academica, asi como consejos practicos para desarrollar el manuscrito.,Como principal aporte y novedad, este articulo pretende proporcionar un mapa canvas identificando las principales secciones que debe seguir un articulo cientifico en el campo de la Gestion Empresarial y como abordar las caracteristicas especificas al escribir estas secciones. Esta herramienta fue concebida debido al campo de la Gestion Empresarial necesitar una herramienta mas rapida de abordar y facil de usar y que resume las principales caracteristicas de los articulos academicos.,Especificamente, la propuesta del mapa canvas pretende orientar a los academicos iberoamericanos/latinoamericanos para lograr sus objetivos de publicacion en revistas de primer nivel, relevantes para sus carreras academicas, y mejorar los resultados de la investigacion a traves de una guia estructurada para la elaboracion de articulos cientificos.,Este artigo tem como objetivo apresentar uma ferramenta que ajude a organizar a mentalidade de alunos de pos-graduacao e pesquisadores em inicio de carreira no processo de redacao de artigos cientificos. O mapa canvas e proposto e sintetiza as etapas fundamentais e as principais caracteristicas de um artigo academico da area de Administracao e Negocios.,Os procedimentos metodologicos adotados seguiram os preceitos da pesquisa-acao e dos grupos focais. A validacao foi aplicada em procedimentos longitudinais e transversais, com dois pesquisadores em inicio de carreira e com tres turmas de alunos de pos-graduacao de instituicoes diferentes. Os procedimentos de validacao permitiram identificar quinze caracteristicas principais que foram estruturadas em formato canvas.,A concepcao do mapa canvas, influenciada pelo modelo de negocios canvas, e uma ferramenta para facilitar a mentalidade dos pesquisadores na preparacao de um artigo. Cada uma das quinze caracteristicas e explorada de acordo com os principais componentes identificados ao longo do processo de redacao dos artigos. Abordam-se dicas para pesquisadores iniciantes e apresentam-se caracteristicas principais. Sugere-se leitura adicional da literatura academica, bem como dicas praticas para o desenvolvimento do artigo.,Como principal contribuicao e novidade, este artigo visa fornecer um mapa canvas identificando as principais secoes que um artigo cientifico deve seguir na area de Administracao e Negocios e como abordar as caracteristicas especificas na redacao destas secoes. Essa ferramenta foi concebida devido a area de Administracao e Negocios necessitar de uma ferramenta de abordagem mais rapida e facil de usar e que sintetiza as principais caracteristicas dos artigos academicos.,Especificamente, a proposta do mapa canvas visa orientar os academicos ibero-americanos/latino-americanos a atingirem seus objetivos de publicacao em periodicos de alto nivel, relevantes para suas carreiras academicas, e a melhorar os resultados da pesquisa por meio de um guia estruturado para a preparacao de artigos cientificos.

Technical writing is a crucial skill for engineering students’ effective written communication, which shapes and affects their professional careers. This study designs team-based learning (TBL) instructional modules that are integrated into an existing engineering laboratory curriculum and evaluates their feasibility and effectiveness in improving engineering students’ technical writing skills. The data were collected from structured survey questions distributed to student participants and from the instructor’s independent evaluation of students’ lab reports. The effect of assigning a team leader on students’ writing performances was also evaluated. Our results indicated that students who have received TBL modules perceive a greater improvement in their technical writing skills than those who did not. A strong correlation was found between students’ perception and the instructor’s evaluation of the students’ technical writing skills. Assigning a team leader in TBL instructional modules has not played a significant role in improving engineering students’ technical writing skills. The same happens with gender. Overall, utilization of TBL instructional modules can advance engineering students’ technical writing skills.

The recognition of social work as a writing-intensive profession is the first step needed to bridge the divide between academic and practice writing. The demonstration of persuasive writing skills ...

Teaching evaluation is an important issue in the learning process in higher education. In addition to the teaching evaluation on campus, feedback from alumni is also very important to instruction improvement. Undergraduates and graduates in universities are the main labor force in Taiwan; therefore, many higher education institutions pay attention to the feedback of competency. However, the written questionnaire has limitations and lacks sufficient evidence to improve curriculum planning and instruction activities. In the present study, a systematic survey in the ‘University Career and Competency Assessment Network' was applied to analyze the results. Data were collected from 1,080 participants. The results can be summarized as follows: (1) ‘Learn-Practice Fit' was positive to the ‘Satisfaction' at workplaces. (2) ‘Responsibility and discipline' were significantly positive concerning ‘Communication and Expression,' ‘Interpersonal Interaction', and ‘Teamwork.' (3) ‘Service' and ‘Information technology writing' need to be improved in the training of Information Management students.

Laboratory report assignments for non-major and introductory classes can be challenging because the students are unfamiliar with the type of technical writing required and the subject matter. These issues for the student make the grading for the instructor difficult and time consuming. Determining the level of detail to require, the format, and how to distribute the grading between good writing and physics knowledge is a difficult balancing act. Many courses use laboratory reports to assess if a student can communicate scientific concepts effectively so ignoring the writing issues is not an option, but many students have no experience reading technical documents, let alone writing them. Furthermore, the students need to understand the scientific concepts to effectively communicate them. In this article, a method for providing a scaffolded approach to lab reports is given. This approach aims to provide the student with some much needed examples of technical writing while they are new to the laboratory environment and the course material. A sample lab report template was provided with key information and conclusions removed. As the course continued, the students were required to do an increasing amount of independent writing while the provided content was slowly decreased. By the end of the course the students submitted full independently written lab reports.

This article presents a reexamination of intercultural components in prominent, recent technical professional communication textbooks. This examination reveals the need for the technical professional communication field to establish a dynamic definition of culture as well as presents a possible definition, presents areas where textbooks have addressed previous scholars’ concerns as well as areas that could still use improvement and may require instructors to add supplemental instruction, and presents considerations for instructors when incorporating intercultural component elements into their courses.

This article focuses on how formative feedback can be used to help engineering students write precise and coherent management summaries that appeal to a mixed audience. Management summaries are especially challenging to master as students must strive for a balance between adhering to scientific standards and being intelligible for a wider non-expert readership. Students of Energy and Environmental Technology at the school of engineering (FHNW) in Switzerland write a total of six technical reports about their project work (mostly in German). By analysing two management summaries, the focus is laid on the lecturers’ approach of relying on formative feedback which supports and accompanies the students’ iterative writing processes. It is shown how in early semesters lecturers provide hands-on guidance, such as suggesting discourse markers or pinpointing vague references to sharpen students’ awareness of the need to write as concisely as possible for mixed audiences.

Teaching and composing with multimedia humanizes online technical writing and communication classes. However, students do not always see the connection between multimedia instructional materials, multimedia assignments, and the course learning outcomes. Purposeful pedagogy-driven course design uses multimedia instructional materials to connect assignments, course materials, and assessments with course outcomes. Technical writing instructors can integrate synchronous and asynchronous multimedia elements to address not only the what and why of online technical writing instruction but also the how of multimedia instructional materials. Example multimedia instructional materials and student projects discussed in the article can increase student retention and promote engaged learning.

This article describes an interdisciplinary, partially online honors course entitled Video Game Theory and Design. The article reviews the literature surrounding video games and technical communication and then outlines the learning objectives for the course. The authors describe individual and team-produced assignments and suggest game design techniques for motivating students. We explain how we assess different projects, including oral game pitches and the complex technical Game Design Documents that are students’ final deliverables. Finally, we discuss how game design techniques provide new perspectives on writing and generate new possibilities for technical communication assignments. We close by proposing three tactics that are useful for teaching technical communication students in hybrid and fully online courses: (a) nonlinear association for creative thinking; (b) team-based assignments for writing and editing using game-based tools; and (c) iterative prototyping and playtesting for multimodal production. Each tactic is contextualized using examples drawn from the field.

In increasingly online higher education environments, instructors must develop positive and community-oriented learning environments, equivalent to, if different from, face-to-face learning experiences. Connectivism and communities of inquiry are complementary theories that facilitate the design and development of online learning and enable online learners to connect with peers. This article discusses two pedagogical interventions that encourage connectivism and foster communities of inquiry in online technical communication programs: (a) a face-to-face orientation workshop at the beginning of an online program and (b) a peer-review activity in a research methods graduate course. The article explains the development, deployment, and evaluation of the activities.

Cet article propose de revisiter et de réinterroger les liens entre les Sociétés royales d’agriculture et une publication – le Journal de l’agriculture – emblématique de l’intérêt de ce temps pour l’agronomie et l’agriculture en général. Le développement des Sociétés est soutenu voire initié par le pouvoir royal dans la seconde moitié du XVIIIe siècle. Le Journal, dont l’existence couvre essentiellement les années de plus forte activité des Sociétés, paraît en connaissant de multiples remaniements éditoriaux. L’étude met au jour les principaux contributeurs et correspondants, membres des Sociétés, participant au corpus constituant ce périodique d’Ancien Régime. This article proposes to revisit and re-examine the links between the Sociétés royales d’agriculture and a publication – the Journal de l’agriculture – emblematic of the interest of that time in agronomy and agriculture in general. The development of Sociétés was supported or even initiated by royal power in the second half of the 18th century. The Journal, whose existence mainly covers the years of the highest activity of the Sociétés, appears undergoing multiple editorial changes. The study brings to light the main contributors and correspondents, members of the Sociétés, participating in the corpus constituting this periodical of France's old regime.

This article reports on a study that examined papers written by graduate students in the Physical Seminary course at Johns Hopkins University (1892–1913) to investigate how students reused various visuals of the interferometer to construct narratives of late-19th-century Ether research. Their representations of the interferometer focused on the mechanics of the devices by constructing a series of textual-visual relationships, requiring that the reader scan back and forth between the written text and the accompanying visual. These multimodal texts demonstrate how the students used writing activities to create a narrative of equipment development, which highlighted the centrality of trained vision in enculturating graduate students into disciplinary writing practices in the late 19th century. Through an analysis of the specific interactions and the network of visuals the students used to reconstruct a history of Ether investigation, scholars of writing and rhetoric can see how important inclusion of equipment and its detailed discussion was to graduate writing and disciplinary enculturation in the sciences.

There are many perceived benefits to undergraduate student research; however, students may not have a full understanding of the research process prior to engaging in a project. In this paper, we an...

Introducing undergraduates to the peer-review process helps them understand how scientific evidence is evaluated and communicated. In a large biology course, technical writing was taught through mo...

This article explores the catechism in the Book of Common Prayer, shedding light on the emergence of instructional writing from oral instruction. The 1549 text evinces qualities of preliterate oral communication identified by Ong. By contrast, the 1604 addendum reveals a trend toward modern plain style, which is even more pronounced in the 1647 Westminster Shorter Catechism. The evidence indicates the oral features were useful to the text’s technical aims. What Ramist plain style gains in precision and objectivity comes at the cost of other useful features, such as reiteration, contextualization, and agonism, which (in Tannen's phrase) involve a greater relative focus on interpersonal involvement between speaker and auditor/ reader.

This article introduces “rhetorical body work” as a framework for understanding professional embodiment in health provider education and technical and professional communication (TPC) pedagogy. Usi...

This study aimed to determine the effectiveness of embedding review and drill as a strategy in teaching technical writing to the second year students of Bachelor in Architectural Engineering Technology (BArET) at Surigao State College of Technology, Surigao City. It also probed the respondents’ level of writing competency both in the control and experimental groups as to grammatical accuracy, paragraph organization, and mechanics before and after instruction. Moreover, it investigated the significant difference on the writing competency of the respondents in both groups exposed to the conventional and review-and-drill strategy of instructions. The study employed a quasi-experimental research design. A research-made questionnaire was used to gather the data from the eighty (80) respondents. The data were analyzed through Mean and Standard Deviation, T-test for dependent and independent samples. Results revealed that the writing competency of the respondents in the control and the experimental groups did not meet expectations before instruction. However, after instructions were given, writing competency of the former became “accomplished” while that of the latter became “exemplary”. With regard to the effectiveness of the two instructions, both are effective; but the embedded review-and-drill strategy prevailed more effective based on the mean gains obtained by the respondents in the experimental group. Based on the foregoing findings of the study, the following conclusions were drawn: the writing competency of the respondents has improved after embedding review and drill as a new strategy of teaching and the conventional one as well. Nevertheless, they both excelled after being taught with lessons using different instructions; the conventional and the embedded review and drill in teaching technical writing are effective in developing writing competency of the students; and, embedding review and drill in teaching technical writing is more effective compared to the conventional instruction.

Improving assessment of engineering students’ technical communication skills is a good way to monitor and improve teaching of these skills, and positively impact associated learning. The present study reports on a method used to assess students’ technical writing abilities, while also evaluating the impact of technical writing-related instruction and associated curricular and pedagogical approaches. In this way, students’ improvements can be mapped to instruction methods. The strategies for enhancing the delivery of technical writing-related instruction are discussed in terms of the proposed assessment method. This method has three main parts: 1) Sample Generation Procedure – the strategic establishment of a pair of written reports, serving as BEFORE-Labs and AFTER-Labs, and similar enough in topic to justify comparison after assessment, but unexpected to students so that reports are not simply replicated; 2) A Rubric for Technical Writing – encompassing major features of technical writing requirements of engineering lab courses and developed to be both descriptive (having descriptions in each category, to make expectations explicit for evaluators and students) and holistic (having short summarizing narratives for different levels of work, to capture overall quality quickly); and 3) an Evaluation Demonstration – in which a matrix of faculty instructors from sections of different engineering lab courses used the rubric to retroactively assess the samples. Together, these efforts are used not only to assess improvements in students’ technical writing, but by effect also gauge teaching and effectiveness of curricular and pedagogical interventions. In two engineering lab courses, a thermo-fluid lab course and a solid mechanics lab course, BEFORE-Labs and AFTER-Labs were generated using either a method of impromptu “one-hour labs”, with experiments conducted and reports submitted all within an hour at the beginning and end of one semester, or comparison of full lab reports from consecutive semesters of students. Evaluation results clearly show that there were aggregate improvements in students’ technical writing skills, and as such it is concluded that the teaching methods were effective.

This paper describes the guidelines for writing effective manuscript that complies with general scientific writing style and in particular with those that are incorporated by the editors and reviewers of the Global Clinical Engineering Journal (www.GlobalCE.org) when they evaluate submission of manuscripts. Readers of this paper will gain understandings of the manuscript preferred writing format and of the submission’s individual sections. Examples are provided for each of individual sections that further explain their purpose and contrast of their various styles. When the guidance provided in this paper is incorporated into a new submission, it is expected to elevate the quality of the writing as well as the desire of young clinical engineers to publish about their work and the interest of the scientific community to read it.

In this article, I argue that technical reporting and documentation processes function to mitigate uncertainty and enable complex systems in the endeavor of big science. The argument draws on two years of field research investigating technical reporting and documentation processes at a federally funded supercomputing center dedicated to scientific research. A central question the study sought to answer was, “How does one build a new supercomputer?” One of the answers that emerged is that supercomputers are built by the genre assemblages of documents that mitigate financial, political, and technological uncertainties, and their attendant risks, that are inherent to technoscientific cutting-edge enterprises. Given their centrality, these genre assemblages function as essential infrastructure for the U.S. national laboratory system and for big science endeavors in general. In conclusion, this article argues that documentation that mitigates uncertainty serves an important infrastructural function for organizational life more generally.

This nationwide study of business communication instructors examined course delivery, course outlook, topics and depth of coverage, social media and technology coverage, diversity coverage, critical thinking, and accessibility. The outlook for the course appears positive and promising, and instructors continue to add content to the course. An important finding is that business communication instructors’ level of confidence in technology significantly affects how they cover technology-mediated communication. Therefore, we suggest professional associations and higher education institutions should provide more opportunities for voluntary training in these newer communication technologies. Further research is needed about the strain placed on business communication instructors.

In this study, a Scientific Communication Curriculum (SCC) was designed for middle school students and teachers to equip them with scientific communication (SC) skills, and the skills included in the SCC were integrated into the middle school lessons. Within the framework of the Curriculum Design Research (CDR), designing the Scientific Communication Curriculum (SCC) and integrating into the lessons were conducted by two cycles and each cycle consisted of four stages; analysis, design, implementation, and evaluation. In the first cycle, SCC was developed and implemented for the evaluating the effectiveness of the SCC in terms of teaching scientific communication skills to the students with the help of Information Technology (IT) course teacher. In the second cycle, the scientific communication skills were integrated into the lessons in collaboration with the teachers and the School Librarian (SL). As a part of the design process, the Teacher Training Program (TTP) was organized to equip all middle school teachers with scientific communication skills and to help them how to teach and how to integrate the SC skills. Furthermore the TTP served as a professional development component of the CDR framework. Based on the quasi-experimental study results and also opinions of the students and the IT teacher towards the first implementation stage, it was concluded that the SCC was effective in equipping students with scientific communication skills. Regarding the findings from the second cycle, the integration process was satisfying for the teachers and the SL. Teachers found the TTP helpful for their professional development. According to views of the teachers and the SL on the integration process was a positive and useful step for them. The results of this study were addressed and discussed under the headings of design principles, curriculum components, and professional development that are components of the CDR model.

We developed a comprehensive training module for the undergraduates majoring in chemical education with a simple microfluidic experiment. The students were required to read a scientific reference o...

Science, technology and engineering functional literacy should be developed purposely in the school system – like any other competence, it does not develop spontaneously. For this purpose, a didactic model, the Metacognitive Model for Developing Science, Technology and Engineering Literacy (McM_T&E), was developed. Apart from acquiring knowledge and skills from the field of technology and engineering, the McM_T&E is equally focused on developing functional literacy in the field of technology and engineering, as well as in the field of science, through the development of students’ metacognitive knowledge about reading strategies for reading STE explicatory texts and for reading manufacturing instructions. The McM_T&E was implemented in a Technology and Technique’ (T&T) class, grade six, in Slovenia. Results show that focusing on science, technology and engineering literacy in Technology and Engineering classes by using the McM_T&E model increases the students’ science, technology, and engineering functional literacy, which is a fundamental competence in the 21st century. Keywords: functional literacy, metacognitive didactic model, science functional literacy, technology, engineering functional literacy.

At a multinational company, daily written communication between staff, supervisors, customers, and suppliers is frequently conducted using digital tools (e.g., emails, smartphones, and texting applications) often across multiple nationally, linguistically, and conceptually defined borders. Determining digital tools’ impact on intercultural encounters in professional environments like these is difficult but important given the sheer volume of digital contact in technical and professional environments and the ongoing global struggle to broker peace and productivity amid communities’ many perceived differences. Using examples drawn from a case study of binational manufacturing sister companies, I build on recent work in professional, networked written communication to analyze two WhatsApp exchanges, one between a central study participant and his customer, another between the participant and an employee. This study shows how asynchronous digital communication tools created complex “silences” in writing between participants. In these silences (e.g., a lack of or delayed response to a text) individuals try to explain others’ actions for themselves. Drawing on a combination of third-generation activity theory and Latourian actor-network theory, I show that while explaining others’ actions in writing with whatever cultural shorthand is available may remain a common part of everyday life and research, it can be a poor guide for explaining others’ actions, especially in digital writing. My study shows how research of, and instruction in, digital tool use in intercultural writing contexts requires attention to the material conditions and objectives potentially shaping one’s own as well as others’ composition choices.

In this paper we share our experience with curriculum delivery through industry institute collaborative domain specific theme based projects. We had floated the theme based projects and industry floated projects during their 5th and 6th semester respectively. The theme based projects facilitate the students to think beyond the curriculum, and the industry projects help them to mould themselves to the industry expectations. The theme decided for 5th semester 2017-18 batch students (first batch of KLE technological university) was to enhance their coding skills with focus on optimization. During their 6th semester they had to choose the projects from the pool of around 13 industry projects. Along with technical skills, the presentations skills are also mandatory to mark their feet in the competitive world, students were guided to use open source English grammar checking and plagiarism checking tools to prepare their project reports towards enhancing their technical writing skills. It was challenging to meet the expectations of the industry and to speak the same language to solve the given problem within a short span of a semester. Towards this, the competent students are allowed to continue with their 6th semester projects as Institute Research Project (IRP) with exemption of two electives in their forth coming semesters. The vision of IRP is to mould the students to industry expectations and foster their technical skills towards the development of the product.

In the last 20 years since the year 2001 Australian aviation safety regulations have increased from some 550,000 words to 1.8 million words. Yet in the same period, and despite civil aviation fleet hours remaining essentially unchanged, the number of Australian civilian aviation accidents has grown. This is somewhat surprising in light of the safety goal of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 which is the prevention of accidents and incidents. What then has the more than threefold regulatory increase meaningfully accomplished in terms of the Act's conception of safety? The research responds with both critique and solution using an emergent, hermeneutic 'methodology of methodologies' and a case study from the Administrative Appeals Tribunal of Australia (AATA). The critique phase employs a hermeneutic close-reading of aviation regulations to demonstrate that regulatory 'liability-proofing' undermines the safety goals of the Act. The critique phase also shows how liability proofing and consequent dynamics of over-regulation flourish when no compelling and consistently actionable 'accident-proofing' conception of safety exists. In an attempt to better conceive just such a conception, the research moves to the solution phase where 50 years of Australian Transport Safety Bureau (ATSB) aviation investigations (1968-2021) are examined to meaningfully conceive a reality-based model called the Incident, Accident, and Safety Attribution (IASA) Model. The research then concludes by showing how the IASA model – as a 'red rule safety' conception and so-called because it emerges from 'written in blood' accidents – can usefully serve aviation regulators, managers, and practitioners by clarifying, emphasising, and standardising accident-proofing goals. It is hoped this can then moderate the current inclination towards regulatory excess and thus the safety goal of the Civil Aviation Act 1988 can be better realised.

This dissertation explores multimodal composing strategies enacted by technical and professional communication (TPC) writers during and post-COVID-19 period. The researcher presents an investigation into a course unit project and pedagogical approach framed around the idea of multimodal composition in an upper-division professional writing class with transnational students majoring in management, economics, health science, aviation technology, mathematics, computer engineering, accounting, consumer science, biology, and agronomy in a large research university in the Midwest. This study advocates a multimodal approach to teaching writing in its expanded sense with multimodal career unit project assignments in multiple media and modes, including resumes/CVs, personal statements, LinkedIn profiles, video profiles/resumes, job position analyses, and rhetorical and mode analyses. This project presents implications for instructors of technical and professional communicators who are aiming to develop and update their curricula and teaching pedagogies situated in multiple modes across global audiences, for multiple purposes, and in a variety of media.

This electronic textbook deals with specialized translation as a form of intercultural communication. It attempts to link specialized translation with the cultural elements of the language and culture concerned, placing them in the broader context of globalization. It emphasizes the fact that the rapid developments brought about by globalization in many areas and the attempts to impose uniformity on specialized texts will not be able to eliminate the cultural elements of the target languages. These will continue to be present in the communicational and economic policies of those involved in the field of specialized translation. The textbook starts with a historical account of the emergence and evolution of specialized language, followed by a description of contemporary specialized translation and communication. A thorough examination of modern specialized language will then be attempted, explaining the ways in which specialized language has been shaped and the linguistic influences it has been subjected to up to the modern era. The main specialized languages prevalent in the field of specialized communication will also be discussed, providing linguistic and cultural evidence that clarifies the development of the specialized languages under consideration. Finally, a presentation of specialized translation in the context of interlingual and intercultural communication will be given, citing various views on the formation of certain specialized texts with reference to the phenomenon of localization and the use of controlled language., Το παρόν εγχειρίδιο ασχολείται με την ειδική μετάφραση ως μορφή διαπολιτισμικής επικοινωνίας. Επιχειρείται σύνδεση της ειδικής μετάφρασης με τα πολιτισμικά στοιχεία της εκάστοτε γλώσσας και του πολιτισμού τοποθετώντας τα στο ευρύτερο πλαίσιο της παγκοσμιοποίησης. Τονίζεται το γεγονός ότι οι ραγδαίες εξελίξεις που επέφερε η παγκοσμιοποίηση σε πολλούς τομείς και οι προσπάθειες επιβολής ενιαίου χαρακτήρα των ειδικών κειμένων δεν θα μπορέσουν να εξαλείψουν το πολιτισμικό στοιχείο των γλωσσών-στόχων. Το στοιχείο αυτό θα συνεχίζει να υπάρχει στο πλαίσιο της επικοινωνιακής και οικονομικής πολιτικής των ατόμων που εμπλέκονται στον τομέα της ειδικής μετάφρασης. Ξεκινώντας με μια ιστορική αναφορά στην εμφάνιση και εξέλιξη της ειδικής γλώσσας, περιγράφεται η εικόνα που επικρατεί σήμερα στη σύγχρονη ειδική μετάφραση και την ειδική επικοινωνία. Στη συνέχεια θα επιχειρηθεί μια διεξοδική εξέταση της σύγχρονης ειδικής γλώσσας, όπου θα εξηγηθούν οι τρόποι διαμόρφωσης της ειδικής γλώσσας και οι γλωσσικές επιρροές που αυτή δέχτηκε μέχρι τη σύγχρονη εποχή. Θα γίνει επίσης αναφορά στις κυριότερες ειδικές γλώσσες που επικρατούν στο τομέα της ειδικής επικοινωνίας δίνοντας γλωσσικά και πολιτισμικά στοιχεία που διασαφηνίζουν την πορεία των ειδικών γλωσσών που εξετάζει. Τέλος, θα γίνει μια παρουσίαση της ειδικής μετάφρασης στο πλαίσιο της διαγλωσσικής και διαπολιτισμικής επικοινωνίας παραθέτοντας διάφορες απόψεις για τη διαμόρφωση ορισμένων ειδικών κειμένων με αναφορά στο φαινόμενο της εντοπιοποίησης και στη χρήση της ελεγχόμενης γλώσσας.

Background: Previous research on user-generated content in technical communication focused primarily on non-traditional forms of technical communication outside of traditional institutions and organizations. User-generated content from the forum StackOverflow provides rich knowledge and stories behind problems faced by web and software developers. This study explores how technical communicators engage in this knowledge-rich content specific to web and software developers. Our findings provide insights into how researchers, instructors, and practicing technical communicators might leverage user-generated forum content in their work. Literature review: Previous research examined how user-generated content is a form of technical writing and technical editing. Furthermore, some research in technical communication has examined how technical user forums present a type of user-generated content to which technical communicators might add value. However, no research on user forums has explicitly examined how technical communicators engage in user forums to gain subject-matter familiarity or expertise. This study seeks to explore how technical communication students engage in user forums to troubleshoot coding problems. Research questions: 1. Are technical communication students able to successfully solve unfamiliar coding problems using user-generated content posted on the StackOverflow website? Are they able to identify the conceptual knowledge needed to solve the coding problem? 2. When learning about new, unfamiliar technical content, how do technical communication students search for information and decide which forum content to engage with? 3. Do technical communication students make meaning and actively fill knowledge gaps when they engage in new, unfamiliar technical content on StackOverflow? 4. After searching and reading through user-generated forum content to troubleshoot a coding task, do technical communication students feel confident enough in what they learned to teach someone else? Results: Most participants were unable to solve any of the coding problems using StackOverflow. Those who did successfully troubleshoot the coding problems exhibited more active scanning when selecting a search thread and made meaning of thread content more closely. Conclusions: Actively engaging and making meaning of thread content reveals insights into the stories behind the thread. These stories provide important details and clues for gaining subject-matter familiarity, but users must actively engage in meaning-making to access the stories and fill knowledge gaps. Practitioners and instructors can leverage content on StackOverflow to better understand coding problems. StackOverflow threads, along with other user-generated forum content, also give instructors insight into technical audiences and can be leveraged to teach students how to use primary research to better understand audiences. Researchers can continue to study how novice users interact with user-generated content by investigating how confidence levels affect meaning-making.