Typography is the study and process of typefaces; how to select, size, arrange, and use them in general. Traditionally, typography was the use of metal types with raised letterforms that were inked and then pressed onto paper. In modern terms, typography today also includes computer display and output.
#25481
Blogs and Technical Communication
Blogs are a simple, yet powerful tool and their popularity is rapidly growing. How are blogs affecting the community and technical communication?
Cottrell, Christina. Michigan State University (2003). Articles>Content Management>TC>Blogging
#25456
Content Management is starting to wrestle with what Clayton Christensen calls The Innovator's Dilemma: the inability of successful companies to adapt to a new, disruptive technology.
Hiler, John. Web Crimson (2002). Articles>Content Management>Technology>Blogging
#25453
Blogs as Virtual Communities: Identifying a Sense of Community in the Julie/Julia Project 
We must understand, first, why virtual communities are considered important, and, second, what the characteristics of a virtual community are. Then, we must determine if at least some blogs have these characteristics.
Blanchard, Anita. Into the Blogosphere (2004). Articles>Communication>Community Building>Blogging
#23682
Blogging as a trend has gained enormous popularity with the simplification of automated self-publishing systems, such as Blogger at www.blogger.com, or MT at www.moveabletype.org. Blogging as a way of life is also gathering adherents at a rapid pace.
Young, Lisa. MetroVoice (2003). Articles>Publishing>Online>Blogging
#26293
Blogs, A Primer: A Guide to Weblogs in the Classroom and in Research
I want to make two arguments. The first, a largely implicit one, concerns the life cycle of online scholarship and is marked by my added emphasis on the word 'article' in the opening sentence of this essay. My second argument, the explicit one, is about the value of blogging in the writing classroom.
Barrios, Barclay. CCCC Online (2005). Articles>Education>Writing>Blogging
#31366
Blogs: The Fast Track to Getting Global Awareness
“We need to get global awareness fast,” says your CEO. “Make it happen.” When faced with the need to rapidly increase your organization’s visibility around the world, there are some daunting and expensive challenges, particularly if your company does not have a local presence in the countries it is targeting. Hiring local public relations and marketing communication talent, translating collateral into local languages and identifying and getting into both formal and informal business networks are just a few of these challenges.
Albrycht, Elizabeth. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Blogging
#31387
Blogs: Viral, Targeted, Fast, Informative--And Becoming Critical
The world of blogging, also known as the blogosphere, is wild, highly viral, uncensored and unedited. It is also the newest and most critical tool in a business communicator's toolbox. Why? Because with blogs, communicators can quickly, regularly and easily deliver a variety of information to a highly targeted audience. A good blog will create a more personal relationship with customers and influencers by showing that the company is listening and responding to what they have to say.
Cohen, Ephraim. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Online>Blogging
#26933
Bloom's Taxonomy in Technical Content Development
Technical writers provide information enabling users to learn and apply various technologies. In the endeavor to enable users, technical writers often need to use different strategies of classification, presentation, and structuring for the different types of information. However, in most cases such classifications or decisions about the best method of presentation and optimum structure are guided by instinct and are rarely heuristic. In this article, we present an established classification of information called Bloom’s taxonomy (of educational objectives), which can help technical writers make decisions about content classification.
Robbani, Wasique. KeyContent.org (2006). Articles>Document Design>Academic>Contextual Inquiry
#23397
The Blue Background in PowerPoint
Why is the default color of PowerPoint dark blue? People prepare the best slides man can create - and yet they leave the default color stay dark blue.
Fuchs, Amo. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Presentations>Visual Rhetoric>Color
#28137
Review: The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation 
If you are still struggling to decode the complex jargon and structure of English grammar with a long list of reference books, relax. The long wait for a reader-friendly book on English grammar is over. With her straightforward and perfectly-logical approach, Jane Straus reveals the mysteries of grammar and punctuations in her book The Blue Book of Grammar and Punctuation. The book is extremely well-organized, allowing readers to quickly locate the required topics. Concepts are described in clear and simple phrases, backed with examples from everyday language usage.
Kudesia, Saurabh. International Journal for Technical Communication (2006). Articles>Reviews>Style Guides>Grammar
#19603
In the dusty institutions where usability standards gather to party with each other, ISO 9241 is a bit of a celebrity. It is widely cited by people who would be hard pushed to name any other standard, and parts of it are virtually enshrined in law in some European countries. But as is the fate of many celebrities, all most usability professionals know about the standard is its name. This white paper describes each of the 17 parts of ISO 9241 in detail.
Travis, David. Userfocus (2003). Articles>Usability>Standards
#18881
The nature of hypertext challenges many underlying assumptions for traditional literary critics. Literary critics frequently like to think that they have objectively looked at the lexias of the work, thoughtfully considered them, and constructed a solid interpretation or analysis of the work based on those lexia. Hypertext, however, presents the possibility that two critics who are reading the same work may have differing sets of lexia from which to work. Thus, even if critics objectively consider the lexia before them, they cannot free themselves from the subjectivity of the reading performance that made those lexia (and not others) appear. This raises the concern that, if hypertext critics can only present subjective views of the text, there may be little or no benefit to reading or writing those critiques.
Higgason, Richard E. Journal of Digital Information (2003). Articles>Information Design>Hypertext>Theory
#23486
A good understanding of the subject matter or the access to a specialist is an important element in technical writing and translation. It is a quality issue that I don’t believe too many people in the business would dispute. In Brazil, however, the creation and translation of technical material has increasingly become a problem exactly because this factor is being overlooked.
Destro, Delio. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Language>Localization
#25113
An overview of the typical components of a printed technical book and the typical content, format, style, and sequence of those components.
McMurrey, David A. Illuminati Online (2001). Articles>Document Design>Publishing
#22058
Combine the probing thoughts of media culture sage Marshall McLuhan with the visual insights of design guru David Carson and the result is the quintessential coffee table book for anyone that works with technology and design. The Book of Probes is an intentional chocolate-in-my-peanut-butter experiment to combine the ideas of McLuhan with the images of Carson in thought provoking ways.
MacLaughlin, Steve. Boxes and Arrows (2004). Articles>Reviews>Graphic Design
#12931
I was a tech writer long before I wrote my first book, although I had to jump through some difficult hoops to land my first tech writing job (a series of six tests on technology); however, a great deal of my work later, especially my consulting jobs, came about as a result of my books and the reputation they bestowed on me. Being published between covers brings you respect almost as quickly and surely as becoming known as a millionaire business owner does. Even now, it happens. A reader who owns a small business in Baltimore hired me recently to do some consulting with him, after reading one of my books published a few years ago. The gentleman had read several books on the subject of proposal writing and contracting, and he decided that my book reflected the kind of thinking he needed, although it was one of my most slender volumes.
Holtz, Herman. TECHWR-L (2001). Articles>Writing>Publishing
#13644
Review: Book Reviews in Technical Communication
This page provides links to book reviews related to technical communication. I am looking for book reviews to publish. Please email me if you have a review that you would like to see published here. Note that this is a non-commercial site -- I don't pay for reviews.
#25574
Boost Your Website With Expert Content
The only effective way to promote a website is by hosting unique, quality content. Search engine optimization and paid inclusions are a waste of time and money if there isn't a compelling reason for your visitors to come back once they have found you.
Warren, Robert. TypePad.com (2003). Articles>Web Design>Writing
#22190
Border? What Border? Documents are Interfaces
Documents are interfaces. In situations where documents help us do tasks - whether simple or complex - they look and act like software interfaces. Academics in technical communication are in the business of helping people learn to design, build, analyze, and assess these interfaces. Yet, only occasionally do we admit this responsibility. Judging from our curricula, our research journals, and our textbooks, we still view this responsibility as somehow distinct from what we do to teach 'technical writing,' 'technical editing,' or 'document design.' It isn't.
Hart-Davidson, William. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>User Interface>Theory
#25568
Review: Bosworth's Web of Data
In a Thursday morning keynote at the MySQL Users Conference 2005, Google's Adam Bosworth advocated an open model for data. Although he was not referring to open source, he expanded upon the example by explaining that customers like open source software because of the transparency.
Steinberg, Daniel H. O'Reilly and Associates (2005). Articles>Reviews>Information Design>SQL
#23073
Bottoms Up: Designing Complex, Adaptive Systems
Web design is under attack. Our enemy is a dangerous meme known as reductionism. This devious adversary is spreading the notion that we can fully understand Web sites as a combination of simpler components, and that we can break the process of design into lots of quick steps and clearly defined deliverables.
Morville, Peter. New Architect (2002). Articles>Information Design>Web Design
#30210
This article uses qualitative material gathered at the Los Alamos National Laboratory (LANL) to construct a model of the rhetorical activity that occurs at the boundaries between diverse communities of practice working on complex sociotechnical systems. The authors reinterpret the notion of the boundary object current in science studies as a rhetorical construct that can foster cooperation and communication among the diverse members of heterogeneous working groups. The knowledge maps constructed by team members at LANL in their work on technical systems are boundary objects that can replace the demarcation exigence that so often leads to agonistic rhetorical boundary work with an integrative exigence. The integrative exigence realized by the boundary object of the knowledge map can help create a temporary trading zone characterized by rhetorical relations of symmetry and mutual understanding. In such cases, boundary work can become an effort involving integration and understanding rather than contest, controversy, and demarcation.
Wilson, Greg and Carl G. Herndl. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Scientific Communication>Collaboration>Rhetoric
#28642
Brainstorming is an individual or group process for generating alternative ideas or solutions for a specific topic. Good brainstorming focuses on the quantity and creativity of ideas: the quality of ideas is much less important than the sheer quantity. After ideas are generated, they are often grouped into categories and prioritized for subsequent research or application.
Usability Body of Knowledge (2007). Articles>Usability>Methods>Collaboration
#22052
Brainstorming and Storyboarding
The whole idea of “brainstorming” is to get ideas on paper. No particular order or structure, just get them ideas down. All you need is a quiet room, a clock, and pencil and paper. The procedure is simple: think about the subject and write down every idea that pops into your head within a set time.
#27328
Begin sentences with subjects and verbs, letting subordinate elements branch to the right. Even a long, long sentence can be clear and powerful when the subject and verb make meaning early.
Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric
