Change Agents or Followers: Analyzing Genres in the Business Writing Classroom  

Asking business students to perform a rhetorical analysis of generic conventions may help students gain the confidence to modify those conventions. Research shows that while generic conventions impose constraints, experienced writers also learn they have the agency to modify those conventions to meet the exigency of the rhetorical situation. The article reviews both traditional conceptions of the nature of genre as well as recent research, and describes an assignment which uses genre analysis as a means of teaching students the social nature of generic structures.

Amidon, Stevens R. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Genre>Business Communication

New Media Technology II

Two collaborative presentations about the status and factors that influence technology adoption within research in technical communication programs.

Amidon, Stevens R., Stuart Blythe, Libby Allison, Miriam Williams and Meloni McMichael. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Multimedia>Technology

Wrestling With Proteus: Tales of Communication Managers in a Changing Economy    

Because communication specialists often lack the power and prestige of other knowledge workers, such as engineers and product designers, managers who direct the work of communication specialists face unique challenges. This study, based on interviews with 11 communication managers, found that their agency and identity were determined both by the structure of the organizations in which they worked and by their use of genres, technologies, and regulatory techniques. With their work undergoing transition because of globalization, outsourcing, and rapid technological change, the stories that these managers tell demonstrate the importance of studying management as it specifically applies to communication specialists.

Amidon, Stevens R. and Blythe, Stuart. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2008). Articles>Management>Communication