http://tc.eserver.org/authors/Tebeaux,_Elizabeth A bibliography of works by Tebeaux, Elizabeth 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/Tebeaux,_Elizabeth http://tc.eserver.org/30689.html http://tc.eserver.org/30689.html Describing the emergence of the first shipbuilding texts, particularly those in English provides another chapter in the story of the emergence of English technical writing. Shipwrightery texts did not appear in English until the middle decades of the seventeenth century because shipwrightery was a closed discourse community which shared knowledge via oral transmission. The shift from orality to textuality in shipwrightery did not occur until advancing navigation principles enabled ships to sail in open waters. Shipping rapidly became a commercial business, and shipwrightery was forced to move from closely-guarded simple design principles to mathematically-based designs too complex to be retained only in memory of shipwrights and shared via oral transmission. Textual transmission began to supplant oral instruction. The evolution of English shipwrightery provides rich research opportunities for historians tracking the development of technical writing. http://tc.eserver.org/29019.html http://tc.eserver.org/29019.html English technical writing clearly emerged during the Renaissance and the first decades of printing, but during the 1641-1700 period technical writing gained credibility and prestige. It was a valued tool for achieving the utilitarian ends of an age in which practical goals were valued more than aesthetic ones. Technical writing can be found in a range of disciplines, such as agriculture, medicine, science, as well as the major English trades and crafts. As a valued form of discourse, it illuminates the world of work in seventeenth-century England and the problems faced by the early experimenters of the Royal Society who sought to use science to solve major human, military, and economic problems while seeking to expand understanding of nature. Studying technical writing of this period allows us to track the continued development of technical writing as a distinct form of discourse. http://tc.eserver.org/29046.html http://tc.eserver.org/29046.html Emphasis on page design, as an aid to visual accessibility, did not receive attention in modern technical writing until the 1970s. However, accounting documents and instructional texts utilized format and document design strategies as early as the twelfth century to enhance the organization of quantitative data and linear bookkeeping entries. Format in text was used to reflect the arrangement used in oral accounting practices and to produce uniform documents. Thus, format was integral to the rise of pragmatic literacy of the commercial reader. During the Renaissance, these early format strategies received impetus from Ramist method. The result was design strategies that attempted to capture the rigid principles of organization fundamental to commercial accounting. These early accounting documents also illustrate the plain style that would become the focus of the later decades of the seventeenth century. Clarity in language paralleled clarity in page design for the sole purpose of eliminating ambiguity on the page and on the sentence level. Plain style was thus nurtured by financial forces long before the advent of natural science. http://tc.eserver.org/24502.html http://tc.eserver.org/24502.html The increasing significance of NAFTA (the North American Free Trade Agreement) to the economy of the United States makes understanding Mexico important. Because the histories and cultures of the US and Mexico differ significantly, the written communication of each country also differs. Rhetorical strategies for written business communication in Mexico reflect the country's bloody, cyclical history and its resulting culture characterized by collectivism, high power distances, fatalism, and emphasis on building trust and relationships. Despite Mexico's economic problems, it is a country in transition. Because of the increasing presence of US business entities in Mexico, communication protocols are changing, as US technology and ways of doing business infuse the traditional Mexican culture. Understanding how to communicate effectively in Mexico requires an understanding of the country's history and culture as well as the changes occurring there. In addition to having a basic grasp of Mexico's history and culture, both old and new, US writers must know where any Mexican company is situated along this changing cultural continuum and how the continuum shapes the design of written business communication. http://tc.eserver.org/14023.html http://tc.eserver.org/14023.html Anderson, Brockmann, and Miller have compiled an anthology of essays devoted to research in technical and scientific communication that should be read by any professional writing teacher who hopes to maintain a career in this field and by graduate students who are contemplating applied communication as an area of concentration. While the editors have not dealt with the pragmatic reasons for doing research (preferring to stress the scholarly motives), this anthology could well be subtitled “How to Write for Promotion and Tenure if You Teach Technical Writing in an English Department.” For technical writing teachers facing the publish or perish mandate in English departments, the essays exemplify the kinds of research that will help one survive amid literature-oriented colleagues who often think that technical writing teachers have nothing to publish or teach that has any depth or value. The essays, 12 in all, cover five currently popular main research areas in scientific and technical communication. http://tc.eserver.org/13970.html http://tc.eserver.org/13970.html In the mid 1970's, the bleak employment outlook for English Ph.D.'s and the increasing demand for writing teachers, particularly technical writing teachers, lead our department to develop a rhetoric and composition component within our traditional English graduate program. One of the courses developed for the graduate rhetoric program was Analysis of Technical Writing. When it was designed, the course had three goals: (1) to provide study in the rapidly growing area of applied rhetoric; 2) to provide training necessary for English doctoral students to begin teaching a basic course in business and technical writing on the junior or senior college level; and (3) to enhance the employability of these graduate students by preparing them to teach sections of our basic technical writing course while they were completing their graduate work. The department believed that providing interested students an opportunity to gain experience in teaching technical writing would give our graduate students a definite advantage in applying for college teaching positions. http://tc.eserver.org/13925.html http://tc.eserver.org/13925.html The first books and the first technical books published by English women during the 1475-1700 period can be useful in teaching students about the emergence of technical style or 'plain style.' If we examine the style of these women writers, long ignored by canonical studies, we can see that plain English existed before Bacon and received its impetus not from science, but from the utilitarian attitude that pervaded the 1475-1700 period. These women writers provide a microcosm for studying the rise of modern English prose and what we now call technical (or plain) style. They also provide an efficient way to expose students to early published works by women and their contribution to the history of technical writing. Examining style from such a perspective helps students see that technical communication was a prevalent kind of writing before Bacon and the Royal Society. Thus, technical communication--and the style of technical communication--studied from this unique historical perspective deepens students' awareness of the roots of technical communication as it contributed to the history of English discourse.