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Introduction: This article describes our work to build an undergraduate program in user experience centered on empathy, access, and humanism. About the case: This teaching case is focused on how we situated accessibility (a11y, a numeronym) at the core of our undergraduate degree. Based on our program values, industry experience, and market need, we aimed to build a program that focused on accessibility. Situating the case: Our work is situated in the literature of technical communication, specifically on accessibility as social justice design. Focusing primarily on issues of pedagogy, we discuss the market need for this work, both inside the academy and within industry. Methods/approach: Through our experimental work applied within the program's framework, we built a foundational course, launched an intensive short program (study away), and developed opportunities for student knowledge sharing on the local, regional, and national levels. Results/discussion: Focusing on accessibility gave our students a strong foundation and broader connections with outside partners focused on user experience. Conclusions: Placing accessibility at the center of the mission, scholars and practitioners alike can address these concerns and keep their commitment to creating user experiences centered on shared values of equity, sustainability, and usability. With the rising need for accessibility specialists in the workforce and structured programs in academia, this article describes how technical communicators can develop these foundations in their own organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Engineering programs must take creative approaches to ensure that their students receive needed communication instruction in curricula constantly experiencing pressures of accreditation, state, and industry requirements: expectations for students’ knowledge and skills increase although curricula are compressed. Situating the case: Technical communication and engineering education scholarship describe multiple models for integrating writing instruction into engineering curricula: 1. writing across the curriculum, 2. partnership models, 3. embedded models, and 4. support models. About the case: Technical and professional writing and engineering faculty collaborated to develop a hybrid model, which borrows from multiple existing models for integrating technical writing education throughout the engineering curriculum, both in and outside of courses, including collaborative workshops, specialized writing center support, and other interventions. Methods/approach: Survey research was conducted with students on the effectiveness of multiple writing interventions. Results/discussion: The hybrid model enables students to experience a variety of writing interventions; students perceived them as beneficial. Students found most effective writing interventions occurred in the context of their engineering coursework. Faculty and administrators found the approach beneficial because of its collaborative nature and because it balanced instructional time with external support methods. Conclusions: Local solutions to universal problems must take many variables into consideration: people and programmatic cultures, disciplinary and institutional contexts, and curricular, regulatory, and funding constraints. The authors’ hybrid model for integrating technical writing into the engineering curriculum represents a flexible, sustainable approach adaptable to meet specific needs in specific environments at different institutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Technical communication, business communication, and professional communication are potentially overlapping disciplines with open disciplinary questions. A comparative topical analysis of research topics can identify similarities and differences between them, addressing intellectual and physical concerns for each. Literature review: Recent topical analyses have been done for technical communication. Historical topical analyses have been done for business communication. Few professional communication topical analyses exist. Some studies were done 15 or more years ago, and one related comparative study exists. Research questions: 1. What research topics are unique to each of the disciplines of technical communication, business communication, and professional communication in a corpus of research abstracts spanning 1963–2017? 2. What topics are shared among the disciplines of technical communication, business communication, and professional communication in a corpus of research abstracts spanning 1963–2017? Research methodology: I used collocation analysis on the target phrases technical communication, business communication, and professional communication from a 4822-abstract corpus. I compared words collocated with target phrases to find words unique to a single term, those shared with two terms, or those shared with all three terms. Results/discussion: Findings identified science communication as a technical communication topic; other findings corroborated previous research. Business communication findings corroborated previous research and identified an emphasis on global communication. Findings show professional communication as a rhetorically flexible term that creates a space for emerging concepts and expands disciplinary boundaries. The three shared communication, pedagogy, international, and disciplinary concerns. Conclusions: The disciplines feature some overlap but maintain distinct research foci. Professional communication is a distinctive discipline that assists technical communication and business communication by incubation of emerging concepts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem: Few frameworks exist for building content strategies around user-generated content. We present a framework for building content strategies that enable user participation in the development and delivery of content. Key concepts: For this framework to be successfully implemented, this implementation team needs a working knowledge of user-generated content strategy, or the development of strategies for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content that encourage user participation. The framework also requires an understanding of the relationship between content models and technologies. Finally, practitioners utilizing the framework must also understand the role of content moderation in facilitating development of user-generated content. Key lessons: Our framework for user-generated content strategy specifies three main practices: 1. Developing a content strategy that enables interactions among administrators, moderators, users, types of content, and technologies within a given network; 2. building content models within technologies so that all interactions flow seamlessly; and 3. using content moderation to ensure that users are empowered to contribute content while respecting quality guidelines. Implications: Though there are challenges to facilitating user-generated content that unites organizational goals and user goals, the use of a framework like ours can benefit organizations that want to make user-generated content a core part of what they do. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study adopted a corpus-linguistics approach to investigate the gender effects in students’ technical and scientific writing. Specifically, we analyzed whether gender influenced how males and females used adverbs (e.g., very, really , and definitely) and passive voice (e.g., the article was published in the journal). The overuse of both adverbs and passive voice has been associated with poor writing clarity and concision. Literature review: Previous research works on gender effects in language have been mixed. Since these are all the essential elements of effective technical communication, teachers need to know what gender effects might exist. Research questions are as follows: 1. Does gender influence the student writers’ use of adverbs? 2. Does gender influence the student writers’ use of passive voice? Methodology: The sample included 87 writers (46 females and 41 males) who contributed to a 757,533-word corpus. Researchers analyzed 12,111 instances of adverbs and 4,732 instances of passive voice within a variety of technical texts. Results/discussion: Female writers used significantly more adverbs as well as more additive/restrictive, degree, and stance adverbs than expected. Male writers used more linking and manner adverbs than expected. Female writers also used significantly more passives, particularly passive verbs associated with reporting findings and interpretation. In contrast, male writers associated with passive verbs used to describe methods and analyses. Overall, the results suggested that females and males used the same style markers to fulfill different rhetorical functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Correspondence analysis is a statistical method that allows researchers to explore relationships among complex categorical variables. This paper will provide researchers with the theoretical and practical foundations for understanding and applying correspondence analysis to their own research agendas. Problem: Technical communicators use a variety of research methods and collect a variety of types of data. Of particular interest to technical communicators is categorical data, or data that are not traditionally quantitative. For instance, technical communicators often collect and analyze language data from a variety of texts. Analyzing this type of data can be difficult using traditional statistical methods. Key concepts: Variable types, a priori versus exploratory research designs, contingency tables, and data visualization are central to understanding the foundations of correspondence analysis. Key lessons: To conduct correspondence analysis, a researcher must walk through a series of steps including: (1) determining whether correspondence analysis is appropriate, (2) choosing a statistical software package, (3) running the correspondence analysis, and (4) interpreting and applying the results. Implications for practice: While correspondence analysis provides many useful insights into categorical data, a researcher must consider several things when deciding to use correspondence analysis. These include the potential to misinterpret and misapply the results of a correspondence analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research problem: In Ireland, technical communication has developed as an academic and occupational field since the late 20th century. Research on the field in Ireland is limited. Research questions: (1) To what extent do technical communicators in Ireland operate as a community of practice? (2) What steps are Irish technical communicators taking toward professionalization? Literature review: This study uses a theoretical framework that combines symbolic interactionism and communities of practice theories. While traditional professionalization theory uses a structural functionalist approach to the study of occupations, characterizing disciplines as professions depending on whether they meet certain traits (including autonomy, market closure, license to practice, and service orientation), symbolic interactionism prioritizes interactions among individuals. In this sense, it overlaps with the concerns of communities of practice. A community of practice involves a group of people working together, and creating meaning through their interactions. Studying an occupation through this lens foregrounds individual and community identity, and how that is formed and informed by work. Methodology: Mixed methods—a survey, focus groups, and interviews—were used to explore Irish technical communicators' perceptions of aspects of their field: practice, education, value and status, and professional and community structures. Results: The findings indicate that Irish technical communicators exhibit traits of communities of practice (such as joint enterprise and shared repertoires). They also identify with their job title and practice. A key finding is that some Irish technical communicators have a keen appetite for community involvement. This enthusiasm notwithstanding, barriers to professionalization include low visibility of the role in Ireland, limited evidence of professionalizing activity, and the potential for career stagnation. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Research problem: This study investigates the phenomenon of user-generated content strategy in an open-source, wiki-based content-management system (CMS) for the repair of technological devices (xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="http://ifixit.com" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"http://ifixit.com). By “user-generated content strategy,” we mean processes for developing systems for producing, moderating, and encouraging user-generated content. Research questions: (1) What strategies, or holistic means of organizing content, are used to manage repair manual content via an open-source, wiki-based content-management system that relies on content generated by a wide variety of users? (2) What content rules, or logical premises for how and where content is developed, emerge from a qualitative case study of such a CMS? Literature review: Though a wealth of empirical research has been conducted into user-generated content, few studies have focused on the explicit strategies employed by organizations to develop and encourage such content. At the same time, several recent calls by researchers in both academia and industry have indicated a need for such content models. Some of the challenges these thinkers have noted with creating user-generated content strategies include the difficulty of maintaining a consistent strategy across content generated by users who don’t necessarily understand what strategies are in place, as well as maintaining a modicum of quality assurance without squelching user participation. Methodology: We conducted a content audit of iFixit’s main educational initiative, the Technical Writing Project (xlink:type="simple" xlink:href="http://edu.ifixit.com" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"http://edu.ifixit.com) to identify strategies iFixit uses to organize content in this initiative. iFixit is an open-source wiki to help users repair their own devices. We supplemented the audit with interviews with student participants in the project and iFixit technical writing staff to find out what technologies and other affordances affected users of the iFixit Technical Writing Project. Results and conclusions: The main user-generated content strategies used by iFixit include allowing users a wide range of means to participate (such as posting comments or developing their own repair guides), using a content moderation queue (or simple interface for seeing all updates to the wiki), ensuring quality assurance of all repair guide content through redundancy (such as making sure experienced users vetted every published guide), and staging (or arranging information in a linear sequence) information in a multimodal fashion (using multiple modes of communication to reinforce the same information). Such strategies represent a commitment by iFixit to opening up practices that are central to creating content, such as repair documentation, to any interested internet user. Lessons for organizations who wish to encourage user-generated content include developing strategies that protect users from the worst consequences of their actions, that encourage participation, and that allow for experienced users to vet new content. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The book targets two main audiences. It primarily addresses students and instructors of technical communication, and also addresses industry practitioners. The book provides practical and theoretical examples that both the primary and secondary audiences can incorporate in their pedagogy and industry practices. The author includes learning activities at the end of each chapter that teachers/instructors can emulate in the technical communication classroom. The approaches in the book make it a significant contribution for the teaching and practice of technical communication. The author admonishes students, instructors, professionals, and industry practitioners to change technical communication by paving the way for design thinking and making. He summarizes the need to adopt design thinking as a methodology in technical communication to make designs user- and human-centered, and to advocate for social justice in our approaches to teaching, learning, and practice in the field. Thus, he calls for a rethinking of technical communication pedagogy "to focus less on genres.". The author also argues that design thinking is a necessary component of technical communication and shows how it can be incorporated into technical communication practice and pedagogy. The examples and learning activities presented in the book make it a valuable guide for students, teachers, and practitioners of technical communication. Instructors of technical communication will find the learning activities presented throughout each chapter of the book particularly useful. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study explores the characteristics of authors who have published in technical communication journals between 2008 and 2012 to generate insights into who is actively contributing to scholarship in the field. These insights drive a broader discussion regarding programmatic implications and interdisciplinary approaches to research. Research questions: (1) Who is publishing in technical communication journals? In which departments are they housed and in which departments did they receive their Ph.D. training? (2) What relationship exists between an author's departments (current and Ph.D.) and the publication venues he or she chooses? (3) What relationship exists between an author's department (current and Ph.D.) and the type of research he or she produces? (4) What relationship exists between an author's department (current and Ph.D.) and collaboratively authored articles? Also, is there a relationship between doctoral training outside the US and collaboratively authored articles? (5) Among authors with Ph.D.'s in technical communication, is there a relationship between doctoral program and research output (collaboratively authored articles and research method)? Literature review: All disciplines, especially maturing disciplines, must examine and evaluate the research its scholars produce in order to identify trends that signal growth and areas that require additional growth. Previous research indicates that departments in which people trained and where they work influence the research profiles of individuals, and by extension, the field. This is particularly true in technical communication, whose research features a plurality of methods, a positive attribute of the field. However, an uneven distribution of research methods used in the field also presents potential areas for growth. Methodology: A data set of 674 authors who have published in the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (TPC), \ Technical Communication Quarterly, and \ Journal of Business and Technical Communication (JBTC), between 2008 and 2012 was coded for current department, Ph.D. department, department with a technical communication degree program, research method, and collaboratively authored articles. Data were analyzed using contingency table analysis and correspondence analysis. Results and discussion: Authors from English departments constitute nearly 30% of the sample; authors from information systems and technology departments and management, business, and economics departments made up more than 20% of the total sample. A little over 20% of the sample received a Ph.D. degree in technical communication. Authors from information systems and technology departments and management, business, and economics departments are highly associated with TPC. Authors from English departments and writing departments were associated with TCQ and JBTC. TC is associated with authors from education departments and human-centered design departments. Authors from information systems and technology departments and management, business, and economics departments were associated with surveys and experiments. Authors from English departments were associated with case study and mixed methods research. Non-US authors and ones from engineering, computer science, linguistics, information systems and technology, and management, business, and economics departments were all highly associated with collaboratively authored articles. These results provide insights into which disciplines are most influential and opportunities to consider the approaches and training of our diverse population of scholars in an effort to build a cohesive body of research. The results are limited by the time frame of the study, and future studies could examine a more extensive sample to examine shifts in authorship characteristics over time. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

This study explores a comprehensive sample of experimental and quasi-experimental research within five leading technical communication journals over a 20-year period. Exploratory studies can overview how a method has evolved within a field, highlighting how it has advanced understanding of communication and identifying areas for further inquiry. Research questions: (1) How has experimental research in technical communication journals developed over the 20-year period? Specifically, how much is being published, which journals publish experiments, what topics are being explored, and what fields are informing this research? (2) What content characterizes experimental research in technical communication? Specifically, how explicit are the research questions/hypotheses, are the results of pilot studies reported, what are the sample sizes and populations used, and what measures do researchers use? (3) Who publishes experimental research in technical communication? Specifically, which authors and affiliates are most associated with experimental research, and how does the sample's gender and authorship distribution compare to existing research? Literature review: We first address how scholars have assessed research in technical communication and how these findings implicate experimental research. We then review features of other exploratory studies that inform this study's design. Methodology: We conducted a quantitative and qualitative analysis of 137 experiments, a comprehensive sample identified from a corpus of 2,118 refereed papers published from 1992 to 2011. We coded 14 variables related to the causal relationships that the experiments addressed and who produced the research. We subjected the data to multiple statistical measures, including contingency table analysis and correspondence analysis. Results and conclusions: Over the 20 years, the journals published experimental research at a consistent rate. This could indicate that these methods have a stable presence in the field, or a discouraging sign that output is not on the rise despite calls from leading scholars. IEEE \, Transactions \, on \, Professional \, Communication (TPC) emerged as a strong producer of experiments, publishing 45% of the sample. TPC was also associated with most recent experiments, assuming this role from Journal \, of \, Technical \, Writing \,\,and \,\,Communication, which was associated with early experiments. In addition, TPC, Journal \,of \,Business \,and \,Technical \,Communication, and Technical \,\,Communication correlated with experiments on collaboration, pedagogy, and intercultural communication, respectively. The results also revealed that recent experiments reported significantly more explicit research question/hypotheses and pilot studies, an encouraging sign for the quality of future experiments. Finally, Spyridakis published the most experiments over the past 20 years, and researchers at the University of Washington and the University of Twente were the top affiliates associated with output. The configuration of both of these institutions' programs, which seem to align with a traditional science model, might suggest how the evolution of technical communication programs impacts the type of research that its affiliates produce. Our results are limited by the small, though comprehensive, sample and the exploratory natures of measures like correspondence analysis. Future research could use the proposed framework to investigate the evolution of other research methods in technical communication, strengthening our body of knowledge. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

As translation of technical documents continues to grow rapidly and translation becomes more automated, the roles of professional communicators and translators appear to be converging. This paper updates preliminary findings first presented at the 2008 International Professional Communication Conference, Montreal, QC, Canada. It analyzes trends revealed from recent surveys and recommends follow-up research to determine if the trends may continue and become entrenched. The authors conclude with recommendations for academic programs interested in adjusting to the trends. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Quantitative content analysis can enrich research in technical communication by identifying the frequency of thematic or rhetorical patterns and then exploring their relationship through inferential statistics. Over the last decade, the field has published few content analyses, and several of these applications have been qualitative, diluting the method's inherent rigor. This paper describes the versatility of quantitative content analysis and offers a broader application for its use in the field. This discussion frames two original case studies that illustrate the design variability that content analysis offers researchers. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Technical communication and usability (user experience, or UX) have a long, intertwined history, dating back at least to the 1970s. The author, who has been active in both fields for the last three decades, gives many examples of how technical communicators have influenced UX practice and how usability specialists have influenced technical communication. The author also explores how technical communicators can continue to contribute to future UX theory, research, and practice through collaboration, through their communication skills, dealing with the reality of ever-increasing complexity in products and processes and dealing with the need to adapt to more rapid change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concurrent think-aloud protocol (CTA) is often used in usability test settings to gain insight into participants' thoughts during their task performances. This study adds to a growing body of research within technical communication that addresses the use of think-aloud protocols in usability test settings. The eye movements and verbalizations of 10 participants were recorded as they searched for information on a website. The analysis of transcripts and real-time eye movement showed that CTA is an accurate data-collection method. The researcher found that the majority of user verbalizations in the study included words, phrases, and sentences that users read from the screen. Silence and verbal fillers that occurred during CTA enabled users to assess and process information during their searches. This study demonstrates the value technical communicators add to the study of usability test methods, and the paper recommends future avenues of research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Existing literature argues, in general terms, that China has a growing need for technical communication and technical communication education. Following up on these studies, this paper more closely examines China's needs for technical communication education. Based on interviews with industry professionals and reviews of their writing samples, this paper seeks to find out who among the industry professionals in China needs technical communication, what their communication practices are, the areas in which they need education, and what US technical communication professionals can do to help develop this education. Preliminary findings and suggestions as well as topics for future research are presented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A major challenge in engineering education is to prepare professionals for communicating well in writing and speaking, using appropriate technologies, within professional contexts. Communication in the global engineering world includes collaboration on cross-functional teams, virtual-project team management, and writing for multiple, complex audiences. This tutorial discusses how one small engineering school has integrated technical communication teaching and assessment throughout the curriculum with demonstrated success. The integrated curriculum, formative and summative assessments, and real-world contexts offer one model to address growing communication challenges. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Results in past studies comparing teaching time and effort in online and face-to-face (FTF) teaching environments have been inconsistent. This research study compares the instructional time and effort it took the authors to teach the same course online and FTF in their respective universities. The authors hypothesize that it takes more time to teach online courses. The results of the two-semester study show that both authors spent more time per student, approximately 20% more, in the online courses. In the total time spent per student online compared to the total time spent per student FTF, the paired-samples t -test showed a statistically significant difference (t(3) = 6.163, p = 0.009). The authors speculate a number of factors contributed to this difference and the perception that teaching in an online environment takes more time and effort than teaching in a FTF environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

After the controversial police shooting of a developmentally-disabled African-American teenager in July 2003, the new mayor of Denver~ CO, appointed a politically diverse task force to revise the police department's use-of-force policy and propose a new model for police oversight. This teaching case is based on the task force's deliberations and collaborative efforts to build policy consensus in a sometimes rancorous, high-stakes environment. In it, I reconstruct the story of the shooting that gave rise to the task force, trace the arc of the task force's 104-day existence, and analyze the letter and final report submitted by the task force's co-chairs to (1) demonstrate the highly-pressurized nature of policy language invention and the crucial impact of word choice in such policy, and (2) illustrate the difficulty the task force encountered in attempting to secure consensus and the manner in which the final work product acknowledges, rather than obscures, this struggle. Finally, the case includes recommended readings and a guide for individual and group activities for implementation in either an undergraduate- or graduate-level technical communication course. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we present, from an academic perspective, the perceived quality ratings of business and technical communication journals. Through a survey of academic experts, we asked respondents to rate the top overall journals, business communication journals, technical communication journals, and the top journals from a technology perspective. In addition, we asked respondents to list the journals that they read most frequently. We analyzed the results by breaking down the rankings into world regions and academic departments. The top-three overall journals for all regions are Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Journal of Business Communication, and IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON PROFESSIONAL COMMUNICATION. Importantly, differences by world region and academic department type were found in all these rankings. These results can support researchers worldwide by helping them target their publishing efforts to journals that have the best fit with their business and technical communication discipline, world region, and academic home. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our view of ethics in professional and technical communication has evolved, paralleling developments throughout society. Earlier views on ethics and values have grown into a broad perspective of complex gradations with people at many levels affecting eventual practical outcomes. This newer perspective includes not only persons but social forces and organizations. The organizational culture of NASA, for example, was specifically identified by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) as one of the causes of faulty communication leading to a terribly tragic event. The Challenger investigations of 20 years earlier, on the other hand, focused primarily on physical events, secondarily on professional judgments, and only little on the social and cultural context of the disaster. We learn by failures but also by self-examination. As we see how ethics and values impact technical events, we understand that technological progress is ultimately a human endeavor in which reflection and judgment is as important as measurement and observation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article uses Aristotle's concept of ethos, the audience's perception of a speaker's character, to analyze a set of documents relating to a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This analysis shows how the features of a successful persuasive ethos remain consistent through several genres, including scientific articles, reports, and press releases. Three major elements of a persuasive ethos include discussions of the practical implications of technical information, consistent efforts to make information accessible to the public, and a forthright representation of scientific uncertainties associated with complex technical information. By incorporating these elements into their texts, technical communicators can craft more persuasive documents dealing with controversial, high-stakes issues. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on the transition from school to work suggests that students entering the workplace struggle to adapt their writing and speaking to individual audiences. To address this problem, the article presents principles for using problem-based learning to design assignments that teach students to tailor communication to the needs of audiences. The approach focuses not on specific workplace documents but on the higher order workplace practice of effectively connecting documents and presentations to audience needs, and designing communication accordingly. A two-year study of capstone design courses suggests that the approach encourages students to explicitly consider audience needs when composing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This case study focuses on the role of language in managing organizational change. We examined the campaign and rhetorical strategies used by a major US airline to persuade customer service employees not to vote for Teamsters Union representation. The company's anti-union campaign documents included internal memos, letters, and emails. If included in a professional or technical communication course, these documents provide a powerful case for students to explore the role of written communication within a changing organization. We situate the case in the context of relevant literature and provide background information. We also include learning outcomes, methods, and implications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we first develop a framework of user-database interaction. Based on this framework, we then provide a discussion on how notable human factors influence various dimensions of user-database interaction. Following that, we propose using cognitive mapping techniques to overcome some cognitive and behavioral biases during user-database interaction. Three popular cognitive mapping techniques—causal mapping, semantic mapping, and concept mapping-are introduced as techniques to elicit an individual's belief systems regarding a problem domain. Through an example database application, we demonstrate how to use these cognitive mapping techniques to improve user-database interaction. Finally, we discuss the implications of this research for technical communicators during user-database interaction analysis and design. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing body of research relies on genre to analyze academic and professional communication and to describe how members of a community use language. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of genre-based research in technical communication and to describe the different approaches to genre and to genre teaching. While some research focuses on the textual analysis of genres, other studies focus on the analysis of the social context and the ideology and structure of the discourse community that owns the genre, and on the role of genres as social rhetorical actions of the community. These two perspectives are also reflected in the teaching of genre in technical communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Technical communicators can and should play an important role in the development of information systems to improve the usability of the systems. Besides writing user guides and training material, technical communicators can engage in four other tasks to add value to information systems development: acting as user advocate, writing online help, writing system and error messages, and providing advice on interface design. We assert that technical communicators' involvement in systems development should not be tied to a particular development methodology. Instead, they should be associated with four general tasks in systems development: system investigation, analysis, design, and implementation. We then discuss some notable human factors and their impacts on the tasks performed by technical communicators. Three cognitive mapping techniques—causal mapping, semantic mapping, and concept mapping—are introduced as a means to elicit an individual's belief system regarding a problem domain. These cognitive mapping techniques have great potential for overcoming some behavioral and cognitive problems as well as facilitating understanding among stake holders in the development of information systems. We discuss how technical communicators can apply various cognitive mapping techniques to improve the usability of the resulting information systems. The use of these techniques is illustrated using a case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sherron Watkins has been labeled a corporate whistleblower based on the letter she sent in August 2001 to Kenneth Lay, Chairman of the Board of the Enron Corporation. In her letter she identified Enron's unethical and illegal financial management practices, but her letter was never made public until the company's stock was all but worthless. This case is based on the Watkins letter as well as other articles published in the New York Times and Time magazine. First, we identify the context of the Enron scandal, reviewing the accounting practices that Watkins revealed in her letter. Second, we analyze the Watkins letter focusing on the rhetorical moves that Watkins makes In the letter and discussing how these moves constitute a persona for Watkins as author Finally, we present a developed case for use in the classroom; the case continues the analysis of Watkins' persona as it evolves through articles in other publications. We argue that the persona Watkins creates for herself in her letter undergoes a transformation so that by the time she appears as Time magazine's Person of the Year 2002, she is a corporate whistleblower. The case includes a two-day course plan with specified student learning outcomes, teaching resources, a group activity, and a selection of student responses to the case. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A primary goal of both distance and traditional courses should be that of distance reduction-a shrinking of the mental and time-dimensional separation between the students, the instructor, and the content to be learned. This sort of reduction brings the learning events of a class together in a holistic way that maintains an ongoing dialog with participants. This paper reports the results of a study that evaluated the use and effectiveness of course websites in three undergraduate technical communication courses. Research questions investigated students' site-visit frequency, purpose of use, and perceptions of distance reduction during out-of-class times via the constant availability of course companion sites. A survey was conducted to measure student responses to the course website used in their technical communication course. Anecdotal and empirical data indicate that course companion sites do decrease students' perceived distance during out-of-class times; however they also produce unanticipated results, such as increased student dependency on online information and a low tolerance for out-of-date information. Future research is suggested to further investigate the impact of course websites on both cognitive and affective modes of student participation and learning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]