Actively Learning About Readers: Audience Modelling in Business Writing    

The advantages of peer feedback in business writing classes are clear. Students receive more appraisals of their writing than any single lecturer can ever realistically deliver. Also, the feedback comes from different perspectives and sometimes carries extra credibility coming from fellow students. Students gain from giving one another feedback as well. It is certainly learning by doing. Critiquing the work of colleagues raises awareness of the many ways to approach a given task and demands skills of analysis and attention to detail. Delivering feedback also requires tact and the ability to look for positives to commend as well as areas to improve. Reviewing written documents is a skill that students will certainly use in their future work lives. However, many of us have experienced problems with peer reviewing. Students hesitate to criticise their friends and prefer praising in a general way rather than suggesting improvements, which requires confidence.

Holst-Larkin, Jane. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Audience Analysis

Activists' Influence Tactics and Corporate Policies    

Corporations increasingly pay attention to issues of social responsibility, but their policies and procedures to articulate such responsibilities are not just a result of the good will of top management. Often, such policies and procedures are devised because some stakeholders raised their voice on issues relating to the interests of employees, investors, governments, and others. One category of visible though heterogeneous stakeholders is composed of 'activist groups.' In this article, we present a range of tactics that activist groups employ to influence corporate policy and conclude with some corporate policy responses to these tactics, illustrated with some examples. Different Tactics Activist groups usually start an influence campaign by collecting and organizing information about some issue about which they are concerned (e.g., sustainable development, human rights, labor conditions), disseminating this information to their audiences and formulating desired outcomes. They inform the target firm's top management of their particular concern and propose desired outcomes or alternative courses of action. If the firm's responses are considered inadequate, they will likely continue their campaign, but by starting to employ a more varied set of tactics. Below, we discuss four different types of tactics that activist groups use to leverage pressure on firms and that do not rely on the state or legal action for resolution of the issue: shareholder activism, political consumerism, social alliances, and alternative business systems (de Bakker and den Hond, 2007).

de Bakker, Frank G.A. and Frank den Hond. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Policies and Procedures

Activity Modeling: Toward a Pragmatic Integration of Activity Theory with Usage-Centered Design  

Activity modeling is a systematic approach to organizing and representing the contextual aspects of tool use that is both well-grounded in an accepted theoretical framework and embedded within a proven design method. Activity theory provides the vocabulary and conceptual framework for understanding the human use of tools and other artifacts. Usage-centered design provides the methodological scaffolding for applying activity theory in practice. In this Technical Paper, activity theory and usage-centered design are outlined and the connections between the two are highlighted. Simple extensions to the models of usage-centered design are introduced that together succinctly model the salient and most essential features of the activities within which tool use is embedded. Although not intended as a tutorial, examples of Activity Maps, Activity Profiles, and Participation Maps are provided.

Constantine, Larry L. Constantine and Lockwood (2006). Articles>User Centered Design>Methods

Activity Theory: A Versatile Framework for Workplace Research  

During the past decade activity theory has attracted a small but influential group of researchers in two fields that contribute to theory and research in technical communication: human-computer interaction and composition studies. In my STC-sponsored research into electronic editing in technical communication, I am applying activity theory to provide a coherent explanatory perspective on the findings of the qualitative portion of my study. This paper provides a brief introduction to activity theory and applies its analytical framework to help make sense of the qualitative data I gathered on electronic editing practices and attitudes in three different technical communication workplaces.

Dayton, David. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory>Activity Theory

Activity Theory: Basic Concepts and Applications

This tutorial introduces participants to Activity Theory, a conceptual approach that provides a broad framework for describing the structure, development, and context of computer-supported activities. The tutorial will consist of lectures, discussion and small group exercises. A Web community will be established so attendees will be able to continue to learn about and use activity theory.

Kaptelinin, Victor and Bonnie A. Nardi. CHI (1997). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Theory>Rhetoric

Actual Readers Versus Implied Readers: Role Conflicts in Office 97    

This article uses reader role theory to explain the dramatic failure of Paper-clip, the interface to Office 97's online help system. Called an Office Assistant, it is designed to shield users from the complexities of the software. Problems with Paper-clip surfaced as soon as Office 97 was launched. This article explains the Paper-clip controversy in terms of reader role conflicts by showing why actual readers rejected Paper-clip's role as implied writer and why they rebelled against the reader role Paper-clip implied for them.

Shroyer, Roberta. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Word Processing>User Interface>Microsoft Word

Adapting Technical Communication Core Skills to Navigate the Health Care System  

Technical communicators gather data from subject-matter experts and then transform it into information that helps users accomplish tasks. In this workshop, we demonstrate how to adapt our expertise to effectively interact with health care professionals--to improve our understanding of the health care industry. By relying on our professional skills, we can successfully navigate the health care maze and effectively operate in the "foreign" environment of the doctor's office, hospital, and care facilities. And, in doing so, we will improve the quality of care we receive.

Isakson, Carol S. and Katherine Brennan Murphy. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Adapting to Scrum: Challenges and Strategies  

Read about some of the challenges facing technical writers who create product documentation in a Scrum environment, as well as strategies for confronting these challenges.

Sigman, Christine M. Intercom (2007). Articles>Project Management>Agile>Scrum

Adapting Traditional Editing Practices for Online Documentation  

Technical editors are possibly best known for their abilities to transform information with format, content, grammatical, and mechanical problems into coherent, concise, understandable, and usable documents. Editors must not only provide such services for the information authors, but they must also understand and support users' needs and expectations. This presentation gives editors an approach to editing online documentation that is rooted in traditional editing practices.

Fink, Bonnie L., Carol Gasser, Jennifer Giordano and Beth A. Williams. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Editing>Documentation>Online

Adaptive Technologies and Techniques for People with Vision Problems  

Talk with Gloria Reece, a senior member of STC’s AccessAbility SIG who can help you understand vision problems and the technologies that exist to make information accessible. Get practical advice for implementing new technologies in your workplace.

Reece, Gloria A. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Accessibility>Visual>Workplace

Add A Custom Menu To a Microsoft Word Toolbar

In Microsoft Word, you can use menus and toolbars to control how you manage your documents. Menus display a list of commands. Most menus are located on the menu bar at the top of the Word window. Shortcut menus are available when you right-click text, objects, or other items. Toolbars can contain buttons with images, menus, or a combination of both. By default, the Standard and Formatting toolbars are docked side by side below the menu bar. You can also add a custom menu to your toolbar.

Klariti. Articles>Word Processing>Software>Microsoft Word

Add a Touch of Drama  

Several similarities exist between writing technical documentation and writing dramatic scripts. Technical writers who also write drama find they become much more aware of audience, differentiate more easily between 'need to know' information and 'nice to know' details, and better anticipate reader actions and reactions.

Blicq, Ronald S. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>TC

Add New Tricks to Your Performance

One of the things I noticed about circus performers was that they are always practicing and always learning. Why? Because audiences demand acts that delight them. Therefore, to keep their routines fresh and interesting to themselves as well as to the audience, performers are always learning something new, something more difficult, or something fresh. You, as a technical communicator, need to have the same passion for adding new tricks to your performance. A great place to start is with usability: design, testing, and analysis. Why? If you make sure that your documents are well written, doesn’t that automatically make them usable? Of course not. Well-written documents are simply that—well written. Your prose may be technically accurate, clear, and succinct, but if people can’t find it, or don’t know about it, or if it documents a hard-to-use product, then no one will use it. As Judy Glick-Smith says: 'It’s communication, not literature.'

Wise, Mary. Usability Interface (2000). Articles>Usability

Add One Egg, a Cup of Milk, and Stir: Single Source Documentation for Today

What happens when the software firm you work for decides it will not deliver large printed manuals any more? Then the request comes to put everything online. Six months later, user profiles shift to the World Wide Web and you're asked to deliver HTML. In the future, a database of SGML information chunks may let us deliver anything, any which way. Today, we must devise a system that allows us to 'author once, publish many'. Such as system is crucial for software and hardware documentation. The method I chose was to go from FrameMaker to Acrobat .pdf files to HTML. I wrote in Adobe FrameMaker, then converted to .pdf files with Adobe Acrobat, and converted FrameMaker to HTML files with Quadralay WebWorks Publisher. But while we're waiting for the future, just learning SGML and diving deep into DTDs alone could be a mistake. SGML is a language which sets out structure, and most of us are concerned with content. Enter Information Mapping, or information types of your own devising. Identifying chunks of information such as a procedure for changing the default printer is extremely important. If we then mark each chunk for an index and record its type and title, we've also got the keywords for a future database.

Stieren, Carl. Simware (1997). Articles>Documentation>Single Sourcing

The Added Value Features of Online Scholarly Journals    

Online scholarly journals have become an important tool for the generation of knowledge and the distribution and access to research. The purpose of this article is to analyze the features of online scholarly journals and to determine whether they incorporate new Internet-enabled features and functions which help to meet the needs of the members of the scholarly community more effectively. Drawing on Taylor's concept of added value [1], the features of online scholarly journals were classified into the following types: features which enhance ease of use and facilitate access to data, features that provide selected information and thus reduce noise, features which improve quality, features which address specific user needs, and features which contribute to time or cost savings. The analysis revealed that, although some online journals operate in the same way as print journals, there are others which incorporate innovative features which are transforming the journal to make it a more effective tool for scholarly activity.

Luzón, María José. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Research>Publishing>Online

Adding Life to Your Documentation  

Suggests several techniques technical writers can use to enliven their writing and improve their documentation.

Potsus, Whitney Beth. Intercom (2003). Articles>Documentation>Writing>Technical Writing

Adding to Your Tool Box

You've applied and interviewed for a position, but you don't get it because you don't have a particular skill set that the employer needs. You want to learn a new tool, but the software is expensive and you can't afford to spend a lot of money on software at this time. Do either of these scenarios sound familiar to you? If they do, you have some options for learning new tools and can add to your portfolio at the same time.This article looks at the options that you have for learning software -- teaching yourself, taking classes, volunteering, and on-the-job training.

Puffer, Paula. STC Northeast Ohio (2001). Articles>Education>Software

Adding Value as a Professional Technical Communicator    

Value added means generating greater return on investment than the cost of the initial investment.

Redish, Janice C. 'Ginny'. Technical Communication Online (1995). Articles>TC>Assessment

Adding Watermarks to PDFs

How do I insert a watermark in a PDF document?

Becker, Edward. PDFzone (2003). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright>Adobe Acrobat

Addressing Quality in the Real World  

Members of the STC Quality Special Interest Group (SIG) present a realistic look at Quality in today’s hectic business climate. Based on their experiences, you will gain insight into ways to improve documentation quality, establish processes to assist the improvement, and an understanding how outside forces can impact your documentation efforts. They will look at what is meant by quality, how it’s determined and measured; processes, techniques and basic tools that can be used to improve quality; and the impact of international standards on corporate policies and procedures. A case study will highlight some of the barriers, problems, and successes experienced by an organization in implementing a quality system for monitoring its documentation.

Jong, Steven F., Don Lenk, Amy Perry, Ralph E. Robinson and Roberta A. Rupel. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>TC>Quality

Adjust Your Documentation Plan for .NET  

Developing in the .NET environment requires internal documentation changes. Learn how to adjust your documentation plan so that it encompasses additional elements, such as the needs of mobile users.

Kelly, William T. TechRepublic (2003). Articles>Documentation>Server Side Includes

Administering Teacher Technology Training  

The collection of materials included here are designed to assist those, who for the first time, find themselves administering and developing an ongoing program for training teachers to use technology in the composition classroom.

Carnegie, Teena A.M., Amy C. Kimme Hea, Melinda Turley and David Menchaca. Kairos (2003). Articles>Education>Technology>Writing

Administration of an Electronic Classroom  

The electronic classroom in the Oklahoma State University English Department is now a little over a year old. In the three semesters we've been using it, a number of administrative challenges have surfaced. Some of those challenges were easily overcome, but others have been consistent dilemmas with no clear solution in sight. The day-to-day administrative issues in operating the facility center on issues of access and maintenance and repair. This article will focus on some of the major challenges with the intention of pointing out potential problems that may occur as other writing programs establish similar electronic teaching facilities.

Turner, John R. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Online

Administrative Decisions in Online Graduate Education  

Much of the discussion about online education appropriately focuses on pedagogy and technology. Any planning for online education must consider teaching methods and the technology to support them as well as the appropriateness of these methods and technology for the students and course materials. However, administrative decisions also influence the success of the course or degree program. This paper reviews these issues based on the experience of Texas Tech University in five years of offering an online Master of Arts in Technical Communication. Issues include course concept, costs, administrative authority within the university, and student selection and retention. The paper looks briefly at legal issues and at the concern about impersonality in online education.

Rude, Carolyn D. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Graduate

Adobe Acrobat: Publishing Online Documentation  

Documentation departments are often faced with the challenge of quickly distributing high-quality versions of printed documentation via the company Intranet, the World Wide Web, or CD-ROM. Adobe Acrobat is a simple, cost-effective way to publish documentation for a variety of media and requires little time or technical expertise to produce professional-looking results. Technical writers and web developers can easily use Adobe Acrobat to create portable document format (PDF) files from printed documentation. They can then add links and bookmarks, create an index, produce simple interactive forms, and add multimedia components to their documents.

Ogata, Kerry L. and Thomas A. Witherspoon. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Documentation>Online>Adobe Acrobat