http://tc.eserver.org/authors/Applen,_J.D. A bibliography of works by Applen, J.D. in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Applen,_J.D. http://tc.eserver.org/24770.html http://tc.eserver.org/24770.html The International Classification of Diseases (ICD) has been employed by the world's public health officials to chart the nature, frequency, and geographic origins of diseases and causes of death in human populations since the late nineteenth century. The ICD has been modified every decade since the 1890s, and a study by Bowker and Star of these changes, in concert with the work of others on the practices employed in information mapping, can be used to better understand the organization of large-scale web sites. Specifically, web designers must adapt classification schemes to fit multiple social worlds. Additionally, we need to understand that these systems can become so entrenched in our thinking that they become "invisible," thus undermining our ability to adapt them as future needs or insights arise. http://tc.eserver.org/24772.html http://tc.eserver.org/24772.html Object oriented coding languages are used to more accurately label and search for content embedded in electronic texts. An object can be a graphic, a row of specific data housed in a table, a written text, or any other piece of information that conveys meaning. XML, XLink and RDF are second-generation object-oriented coding languages and tools derived from SGML. I illustrate how these object-oriented languages can effectively deploy the indexing techniques and systems traditionally used by information professionals. http://tc.eserver.org/24771.html http://tc.eserver.org/24771.html One of the reasons that people who seek out information on web sites often feel powerless is that when they do not find what they are looking for, their own tacit sense of what they know is not validated. If tacit knowledge is not calculated for in the design of a web site, it puts the people navigating the site in the position of passive observers. The primary reason for this can be found in the rigid organization schemes in place on many sites. Even the most sophisticated manuals that offer methods for designing web site architectures fail to suggest how they can replicate what is known in knowledge management circles as an “enabling environment.” http://tc.eserver.org/24224.html http://tc.eserver.org/24224.html The production of a web page has become a common assignment in a number of university classrooms, but there has yet to be established a pedagogy for the generation of large group-generated web sites that replicate the methods found in industry. In Studies in Hypertext, a course offered to technical communication students at the University of Central Florida, such a pedagogy is being shaped. In this course, students with little or no experience in web site generation work their way through a series of written and small web site construction tasks to eventually produce one complex and competently-integrated web site. http://tc.eserver.org/20318.html http://tc.eserver.org/20318.html By engaging the rhetorical and technical challenges of formal requests for proposals (RFPs), observation reports, and group work plans, first-year engineering students at UC Santa Barbara demonstrate that they are able to emulate the design strategies employed by professional engineers in the production of design proposals. Because the RFPs called for products that aided the disabled, the students also became practiced in the research and questioning skills that engineers need to employ when they are designing products for a population of consumers with special needs http://tc.eserver.org/14253.html http://tc.eserver.org/14253.html Technical communicators can expand their roles into the realm of knowledge management if they augment their already considerable skills with a basic understanding of XML coding and a critical understanding of how this applied tool can allow us to shape, store, and transfer knowledge. To do this, they can start by examining how the use of tools and their relationship to the materials, assumptions, and methods of the scientific community contribute to the culture of research activity and then transferring these ideas to their workplaces. Additionally, they need to understand that knowledge management systems can include tacit knowledge. In their roles as knowledge managers, they can teach organization members how they can help design, access, and contribute to databases; alert them to new information as it is made available in knowledge repositories; and work to facilitate an environment of trust and sharing that allows knowledge management systems to flourish. http://tc.eserver.org/14050.html http://tc.eserver.org/14050.html With special attention to the rhetor-audience relationship, the course studies history and practice of modern rhetorical theory. The main idea is that you learn the classical elements of rhetoric in some detail and then practice applying them to contemporary texts, whether they are the ones you are writing or analyzing. I think you should use this course so you can better understand not only rhetoric, but other areas of study that you are interested in, whether it be technology, popular culture, or a discipline outside of English. Make this course work for you. http://tc.eserver.org/14049.html http://tc.eserver.org/14049.html The aim, or purpose, of this course is to prepare you for a variety of job-related writing tasks. Success in technical writing, however, requires that you first know for whom you are writing and why. Consequently, this course will stress audience awareness and purpose in written communication. The course will also help you select the appropriate materials for a writing assignment and arrange the material in a logical and appropriate sequence. Additionally, you will learn to evaluate your products (and those of others) before submitting them for approval. In other words, you will develop your writing processes, much as you are developing other problem-solving tools necessary for success in your career. You will learn to anticipate the needs of your audience, to select materials and their arrangement to best meet those needs, to prepare the final product, and to analyze and revise until you achieve professional-quality work ready for submission to your audience.