A Concise Guide to Technical Communication Online: Student Resources

Welcome to student resources to accompany A Concise Guide to Technical Communication, by Laura J. Gurak and John M. Lannon. First select a chapter from the pull-down menu above. Once you have selected a chapter, you can choose from the left-hand menu a variety of resources to help you understand the topics covered in the text. Among your choices are links to Web sites focusing on a range of topics related to writing and technical communication, including audience analysis, ethical issues in technical communication, layout and document design, web-site development, and research.

Gurak, Laura J. and John M. Lannon. Pearson Education (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Undergraduate

Doing Research With Internet Texts: A Brief Bibliography

A brief bibliography of works on Internet and cyberspace culture.

Gurak, Laura J. University of Minnesota (2000). Resources>Bibliographies>Online

The Impact of the Internet and Digital Technologies on Teaching and Research in Technical Communication    

Technical communication practices have been changed dramatically by the increasingly ubiquitous nature of digital technologies. Yet, while those who work in the profession have been living through this dramatic change, our academic discipline has been moving at a slower pace, at times appearing quite unsure about how to proceed. This article focuses on the following three areas of opportunity for change in our discipline in relation to digital technologies: access and expectations, scholarship and community building, and accountability and partnering.

Gurak, Laura J. and Ann Hill Duin. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>TC>Multimedia>Online

Internet Glossary    

This glossary defines terms used in this issue that might not be familiar to readers. It includes terms that may not be well known to Internet-savvy readers today because of changes in the technology since 1996.

Gurak, Laura J. and Christine M. Silker. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>Internet

Into the Blogosphere

This online, edited collection explores discursive, visual, social, and other communicative features of weblogs. Essays analyze and critique situated cases and examples drawn from weblogs and weblog communities. Such a project requires a multidisciplinary approach, and contributions represent perspectives from Rhetoric, Communication, Sociology, Cultural Studies, Linguistics, and Education, among others.

Gurak, Laura J., Smiljana Antonijevic, Laurie Johnson, Clancy Ratliff and Jessica Reyman. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Books>Web Design>Writing>Blogs

IText: Future Directions for Research on the Relationship between Information Technology and Writing    

The vast majority of people who use information technology (IT) every day use IT in textcentered interactions. In e-mail, we compose and read texts. On the Web, we read (and often compose) texts. And when we create and refer to the appointments and notes in our personal digital assistants, we use texts. Texts, as already a technology in themselves, are deeply embedded in cultural, cognitive, and material arrangements that go back thousands of years. Information technologies with texts at their core — the blend of IT and texts that we call ITexts — are, by contrast, a relatively recent development. To participate with other information researchers in shaping the evolution of these ITexts, researchers and scholars concerned with the production and reception of text must build on a knowledge base and articulate issues, a task undertaken in this article. We begin by reviewing the existing foundations for a research program in IText, then go on to scope out issues for research over the next five to seven years. We direct particular attention to the evolving character of ITexts and to their impact on society. By undertaking this research, we urge ourselves and others to play a part in the continuing evolution of technologies of text.

Geisler, Cheryl, Charles Bazerman, Stephen Doheny-Farina, Laura J. Gurak, Christina Haas, Johndan Johnson-Eilola, David S. Kaufer, Andrea Lunsford, Carolyn R. Miller, Dorothy Winsor and JoAnne Yates. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>Writing>Online

Rhetoric, Privacy, and Persuasion in Cyberspace

This course provides a theoretical and critical overview of communication in cyberspace, such as email, MOOs, Web pages, Usenet newsgroups, e-lists, and other forms of Internet-based communication. Although television and radio have had significant impacts on the rhetorical situations of human discourse, the interactive, simultaneous, global technologies of the Internet are being viewed as an even greater force (some say revolution) in how we communicate with each other. This revolution can be understood from many perspectives, but rhetoric offers a critical lens through which to see the social and cultural implications--particularly the persuasive power and implications for personal privacy-- of this technology. Communication in cyberspace is different from traditional communication in many ways. In rhetorical studies, for example, communication is usually evaluated first by deciding if it is spoken or written and then by considering such communication in terms of the rhetorical canons. Yet online communication blurs the boundaries between oral and written discourse and raises questions about the traditional canons. In addition, interactions in cyberspace raise questions about identity, literacy, gender, community, intellectual property, privacy, commerce, the classroom, and the corporation. An interdisciplinary body of research called Internet Studies has arisen in response to this phenomenon. As a result, this class will analyze Internet discourse using rhetorical and other theory, with an emphasis on the persuasive power of electronic space. We will apply these ways of thinking to discourse taken from the Internet. Students will have an opportunity to publish white papers as part of the Internet Studies Center at the University of Minnesota.

Gurak, Laura J. University of Minnesota (2002). Academic>Courses>Graduate

Rhetoric, Technology, and the Internet: What Corporations Can Learn From the Case of Lotus Market Place  

Current focus on creating a National Information Infrastructure by increasing the capacity of the Internet computer network will have direct implications for companies who produce technical products and services. More and more organizations are already using the Internet to talk with customers, assess user needs, and provide product information. Yet corporations may not be familiar with the communication style of computer networks. A protest in 1990 over a Lotus Development Corporation product illustrates how the traditional fact-driven corporate communication style might clash with the more emotional and informal style often assumed on computer networks.

Gurak, Laura J. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Technology>TC>Online

Technical Communication in Cyberspace    

This introduction to a special issue of Technical Communication focuses on how the profession is functioning in cyberspace. It represents a range of topics: teaching about the Internet and via the Internet; working within organizational constraints; thinking rhetorically when creating a Web page; and remembering the international issues inherent in using the Internet. The technology, as this special issue illustrates, has great potential, and we should keep our eyes open for the possibilities and promises of teaching and practicing technical communication in cyberspace.

Gurak, Laura J. and Christine M. Silker. Technical Communication Online (1996). Articles>TC>Online

Toward Broadening our Research Agenda in Cyberspace

Competing visions of society's future in the online world continue to abound, tending most often to offer dichotomous scenarios of such a society: on the one hand are the cautionary tales of the new information technology as a potential danger, which 'threaten[s] a loss of tens of millions of jobs in the years ahead' and brings with it the potential to 'isolate us from one another and cheapen the meaning of actual experience'. On the other hand are the technological optimists who see great possibilities for community and humanity; for 'drawing people into greater world harmony' and creating orderly, efficient, and fun electronic worlds with few negative side effects. How, then, within the context of such dichotomous positions can we critically analyze the possible social and humanistic outcomes of life in cyberspace?

Gurak, Laura J. Computer-Mediated Communication (1996). Articles>Cyberculture

Toward Consistency in Visual Information: Standardized Icons Based on Task    

Argues for continued work on developing standards for icon design. Suggests that icons should be standardized not just within products, but across applications. Suggests that icons be standardized based on the complexity of the task represented.

Gurak, Laura J. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Weblogs, Rhetoric, Community, and Culture

Looking at blogs as rhetorical artifacts allows scholars to examine the ways in which they contribute to changing what it means to communicate online. To this end, the articles presented here view the blog through the lens of their social, cultural, and rhetorical features and functions. Through study of the language, discourse, and communicative practices of bloggers, the authors provide insight into weblogs as a means of representing and expressing the self, forming identity, facilitating student-centered learning, building community, and disseminating information.

Gurak, Laura J., Smiljana Antonijevic, Laurie Johnson, Clancy Ratliff and Jessica Reyman. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Blogging

The Impact of the Internet and Digital Technologies on Teaching and Research in Technical Communication    

Technical communication practices have been changed dramatically by the increasingly ubiquitous nature of digital technologies. Yet, while those who work in the profession have been living through this dramatic change, our academic discipline has been moving at a slower pace, at times appearing quite unsure about how to proceed. This article focuses on the following three areas of opportunity for change in our discipline in relation to digital technologies: access and expectations, scholarship and community building, and accountability and partnering.

Gurak, Laura J. and Ann Hill Duin. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>TC>Research>Online