#29214
The CCCC Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication: A Retrospective Analysis 
This article presents the history, purposes, outcomes, and significance of the CCCC Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication during its first five years. It analyzes the topical areas and research methods of the 34 dissertations nominated for the award from 1999 to 2003, as well as the evaluations of the judges. Methods of the nominated dissertations are interpretive (41%) and empirical (59%), but many dissertations combine methods. In the empirical category, qualitative methods (17) outnumber quantitative methods (3). The most frequent topical areas are workplace practice (8), rhetoric of the disciplines (7), and information design (6). Topics that are not widely investigated include issues of race and class and international communication.
Selber, Stuart A. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Research>TC>History
#24475
The 1995 E and R PIC Focus Group on Technical Communication Research will continue the dialogue begun at STC annual conferences in 1993 and 1994. The 1993 Focus Group discussed partnerships between the Society, industry, and the academy, while the 1994 one discussed planning initiatives for technical communication education.
Batorsky, Barry J., Saul A. Carliner, John James Conklin, Jeffrey L. Hibbard, Kenneth T. Rainey, Stuart A. Selber, Sherry G. Southard and Katherine E. Staples. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Research
#14453
Electronic Support Systems for Technical Communication Teachers 
This presentation provided a rationale for electronic support systems and an overview of how such systems can be designed to meet the needs of technical communication teachers and programs.
Selber, Stuart A. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>Education>Online>EPSS
#22193
Heuristics for Sustainable Distance Education
Discusses eight conditions for technological change that can support innovation in educational settings. These conditions, which were first directed toward library contexts and then studied in a variety of education-related contexts, encapsulate the majority of sustainability issues associated with distance education. These eight conditions are not exhaustive, but programs that achieve many of them will probably experience a high degree of sustained success.
Selber, Stuart A. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Online
#22926
Notes Toward a Socially Informed Pedagogy for Computer Documentation
This article extends Johnson-Eilola's main argument and then, using a thought experiment, examines an extended example of its implications. The experiment follows a student who learns how to produce technical communication artifacts following the philosophy that informs most technical communication classes and that leads to production of the functional but not conceptual systems Johnson-Eilola critiques. The article concludes by recommending changes in overall curricula and in individual courses that would better educate communicators to account for the social implications of their work
Selber, Stuart A. Journal of Computer Documentation (2002). Articles>Education>Documentation
#14855
Online Support Systems: Tutorials, Documentation, and Help 
Online support systems help computer users achieve goals and accomplish tasks within the contexts of their primary work. Although this definition is extremely broad and includes a wide range of digital forms—from low-end interface elements to high-end hypermedia applications, in this chapter we generally focus on planning, designing, and testing mid-range systems: tutorials, documentation, and help, regardless of their virtual instantiation. We discuss electronic rather than print-based forms because organizations increasingly deliver user support online for a variety of reasons: to reduce development and production costs; to anticipate distributed computing systems and other environments in which users rarely have easy access to print-based materials; and to benefit from the sophisticated searching and interactive capabilities that online environments can provide. In cases where print-based support is still necessary (for example, in packing instructions and in some troubleshooting areas), processes for constructing these documents can be extrapolated from the discussion that follows.
Selber, Stuart A., Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Brad Mehlenbacher. North Carolina State University (1997). Articles>Documentation>EPSS
#14452
Review: The Social Formation of Technical Communication Studies
As a species of rhetoric and composition, technical communication studies is wrestling with issues of identity, professionalization, and status that help to define an academic discipline. Recent scholarly work has debated the research methods that might be productive for an applied field in a postmodern age, the theoretical and pedagogical connections between composition and technical communication in an electronic age, and the tensions between training and education in a global age that requires new models of work.
Selber, Stuart A. CCC (1998). Articles>Reviews>TC
#21824
Sustainable Practices in Distance Education
We are engaged in distance education because our graduate program is committed to responsible instructional practices in the computer age. As humanists, our efforts in this relatively new area are primarily energized by opportunities to revisit basic educational assumptions, test the social claims made about distanceeducation, and prepare future teachers who can operate both effectively and judiciously in online environments. From our perspective, departments that foreground the values of the profession will find distance education tobe a productive site for literacy education, one that can even influence the shape of resident instruction in positive ways.
Selber, Stuart A. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Online
#13695
Technical Writing in a Technological Age: Changes in the Classroom and the Workplace
Over the past decade, new media and computer technologies have permeated both the technical writing classroom and the technical writing workplace. Documents written for, and used in, these two contexts no longer include just verbal text messages and simple line art printed on standard, 20 pound white paper, as they often did in the 1970s and early 1980s. Technical writing documents today appear not just in print but in electronic form, and in electronic form these documents include multiple media such as high-resolution graphics, audio and video clips, animation sequences, and visual effects. Couple this expanded electronic form of technical writing with Internet protocols that allow for the global exchange of information, and it becomes clear that distinct challenges and opportunities exist for the field of technical writing in a technological age. What is the nature of these challenges and opportunities in the classroom and the workplace? And, what is the relationship between new media, computer technologies, and the changes currently evident in these two contexts?
Selber, Stuart A. Addison Wesley Longman (1997). Articles>Education>Online>Technical Writing
#13697
Technical Writing Workbook: Model Documents
This Workbook contains models of corporate communications that take creative, proactive advantage of the capabilities of the Web. As you work through the activities and questions for each model, think about ways in which you can apply similar strategies and techniques to your own academic and professional writing.
Selber, Stuart A. Addison Wesley Longman (1997). Academic>Course Materials
#13696
Technical Writing: Simulated Search Activity
This activity is meant to simulate the process of finding and evaluating information on the World Wide Web. We present it as a simulation to aid new Web users, who may feel uncomfortable with conducting an actual search. For detailed information on searching for information on the Web, as well as evaluating and citing sources, see our online guides.
Selber, Stuart A. Addison Wesley Longman (1997). Academic>Course Materials>Research>Search
