#30386
Applying the Elaboration Likelihood Model to Technical Recommendation Reports 
Elaboration Likelihood Model (ELM) can help proposal writers identify effective document design techniques and parts of arguments that are critical to persuasion. In addition, ELM has implications for other types of technical communication, including recommendation or feasibility reports. While one would anticipate that decision-makers would be willing and able to evaluate critically all arguments presented in a recommendation report, ELM explains why this is rarely so. Therefore, technical communicators can profit by understanding and using the two routes to persuasion or attitude shift, the central and peripheral routes, explained by ELM.
Engle, Carol. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Business Communication>Reports>Rhetoric
#14299
Architecture and Communication Among Product Development Engineers
This paper summarizes some quantitative measures and qualitative observations that we have made regarding the effects of architecture on technical communication. We begin with some early results, showing how the probability that two organizations’ members will communicate regularly declines rapidly with the distance between their work locations. . Following this, we assess several objections to these observations and deal with each. We look briefly at the relationships among different media, (i.e., face-to-face, telephone, electronic mail) and how each is affected by separation. Finally, we discuss some examples of architectural strategies for managing communication.
Allen, Thomas J. MIT (1997). Articles>Communication>Engineering
#31470
Are You Communicating Dynamically?
It took only a few years for the Internet to fundamentally change the way we communicate. Marketers have learned to take advantage of this new medium by creating innovative ways to reach their audiences. But what about business communicators? Have we really taken advantage of everything the ’Net has to offer? With all the choices for news and information, how do we cut through the noise of the competition, keep our audiences engaged and influence them to move in the right direction? We need to think of the Internet as a dynamic communication tool that gives us the ability to target, focus and change our messages constantly in order to influence diverse sets of audiences.
Bechtel, Chris. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Communication>Marketing
#23395
We can't halt the flow of incoming email messages, but we can give you some suggestions that will help you become a better email communicator.
Blicq, Ronald S. TC-FORUM (1999). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email
#31340
Are You Guilty of Sloppy E-mails? It Can Cost You
Some of the nicest people we know send the most thoughtless e-mails. Many are telegraphic, with a smattering of disconnected words and abbreviations, leaving the reader to fill in the blanks. Most are dashed off without review and arrive in their native state: confusing, grammarless and brimful of spelling errors. That's not even to mention lack of logic and transitions.
Canavor, Natalie and Claire Meirowitz. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email
#13839
"Aristotle's Pharmacy": The Medical Rhetoric of a Clinical Protocol in the Drug Development Process 
This article analyzes the clinical protocol within the rhetorical framework of the drug development and approval process, identifying the constraints under which the protocol is written and the rhetorical form, argumentative strategies, and style needed to improve and teach the writing of this document.
Bell, Heather D., Kathleen A. Walch and Steven B. Katz. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical
#29272
The Art and Science of Policy and Procedure Writing and Publishing
This is an informational site dedicated to topics relevant to writing and publishing business process knowledge, especially policies and procedures. The objective of this site is to openly share information about writing and publishing policies and procedures and other forms of business knowledge.
Kopp, Gary. Policy Procedure Manual (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Policies and Procedures>Technical Writing
#21572
The Art of Risk Communication: Overcoming the Public Fear Surrounding Controversial Projects
Technical writers and editors in the environmental field can make additional contributions to the document production process by becoming familiar with risk communication principles. These principles can help us communicate more effectively with the public about controversial environmental projects, which are ever increasing. Considering the public's power to delay such projects, our ability to diminish public opposition through good risk communication skills is invaluable.
Barr, Christine R. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Risk Communication>Environmental>Writing
#31701
Whether you're a tech writer, documentation manager or training professional, after reading this article you may consider incorporating some marketing techniques into your annual objectives to maximize your career development.
Harris, Kerri. Writing Assistance (2005). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing
#25336
Little attention has yet been paid to the unique workplace that the Hudson's Bay Company constituted and the unique discursive activity on which that workplace fundamentally depended.
Venema, Kathleen. Rhetor (2004). Articles>Business Communication>History
#31403
Assess Your Publication's Value and Impact
The next time your boss asks you, "So what has the publications done for us lately?", have some of the following measurements to hand over.
Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2000). Articles>Business Communication>Newsletters>Bandwidth
#27720
This paper analyzes emerging community informatics evaluation literature to develop an understanding of indicators used to gauge project impacts in community networks and technology centers.
O'Neil, Dara. Georgia Institute of Technology (2002). Articles>Communication>Community Building>Assessment
#29738
Assessing Information Needs of Diverse Users to Guide Web Design and Content Development
This paper presents a qualitative study of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's diverse users and their mental models regarding injury-related content. The study employed an innovative modified contextual inquiry method utilizing tailored, in-depth interviews with five distinct user groups. Included in this paper is a detailed description of the background, framework, and method used for this study. Analysis of the full results was still in process at the due date of this paper. The results will be in the presentation's slide set and available from the STC website www.stc.org.
Pettit Jones, Colleen and Susan J. Robinson. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Web Design>Scientific Communication>Biomedical
#31814
This case study documents how two business school professors worked together to design and implement a process for uniformly assessing learning outcomes across all sections of a managerial communication course. The study demonstrates and provides examples of the answers to the five questions in the school’s assurance of learning process model. The study also provides prescriptive tips for administrators and instructors on how to avoid the typical pitfalls of implementing an assurance of learning process.
May, Gary L. and Michael Tidwell. Association for Business Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Business Communication
#18589
Authorship for Research Groups
Major clinical research investigations, especially large multicenter trials, require the involvement, cooperation, and dedication of many individuals. Roles and responsibilities range from conceiving the study and designing the protocol to collecting and analyzing the data, and numerous essential steps in between. Following completion of the study, the most important responsibilities are prompt preparation of a manuscript that reports the study findings, and timely submission of the paper to a journal for peer review, publication, and communication of the study findings to the scientific and clinical communities. The number of collaborative studies and multicenter clinical trials seems to be growing, with increasing numbers of published articles involving a study group. For instance, 22% of the 185 research articles published in JAMA as Original Contributions in 2001 specifically identified a study group, compared with 6% of 172 Original Contributions published 10 years earlier. Authorship of these studies increasingly involves some indication of group participation and responsibility, reflecting the cooperative nature, multidisciplinary teamwork, and complexity of such investigations.
Flanagin, Annette, Phil B. Fontanarosa and Catherine D. DeAngelis. JAMA (2001). Articles>Scientific Communication>Collaboration
#20814
Automated Email From Websites to Customers
Transactional email can be a website's customer service ambassador, but messages must first survive a ruthless selection process in the user's in-box. Differentiating your message from spam is thus the first duty of email design.
Nielsen, Jakob. Alertbox (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email
#28149
Avoid the Use of Familiar Phrases and Messages in Your Emails
Sometimes copywriters and content writers write in clichés. To a reader, the line has barely any meaning, and certainly no impact. Why not? Because it is too familiar. Because he or she has read the same phrase so many times before, in too many other places.
Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email
#29740
Avoiding Disasters with Better Communication
Many of the memoranda and letters related to the Chicago flood, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident and the Challenger and Columbia shuttle disasters that warned of impending disasters went unheeded. The reason: the writers failed to properly use various rhetorical features and conventions. They failed to include necessary information, omitted unnecessary detail, placed important information in inappropriate locations, used qualifiers to reduce perceptions of the consequences of actions, and failed to follow organizational conventions related to transmission of information. Their lack of knowledge of rhetorical strategies exacerbated the problems associated with the contexts in which the various documents were written, resulting in misunderstandings.
Boiarsky, Carolyn. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Scientific Communication>Risk Communication
#31618
Avoiding Global Misunderstandings
When we think of miscommunication across national boundaries, the mostmemorable blunders often relate to problems with translation. Butthere are far more subtle pitfalls thatcan occur. Here, Angela Sinickas shares some of the common mistakes that can lead global communications to miss the mark.
Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2004). Articles>Business Communication>International
#31364
Avoiding Wrong Turns in the Shrinking Global Village
With the global village growing smaller every year, more and more communication professionals are taking on assignments that span a wide range of countries and cultures. Cross-border responsibilities require that you constantly expand your horizons and learn about new places and people. At the same time, it can be more than a little daunting to get up to speed on each country’s business and social conventions—and when the two do and don’t mix.
Bird, Shelley. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Business Communication>International>Cultural Theory
#31561
Review: Balanced Scorecard Step-by-Step: Maximizing Performance and Maintaining Results
Paul Niven's book is invaluable for communicators whose companies are implementing a Balanced Scorecard, and it can also provide a great deal of useful information on setting measurable goals for a staff function like communication to ensure it aligns with a company's strategy. The book provides easy-to-understand summaries of how various business processes work for communicators who want to better understand their businesses.
Sinickas, Angela D. Communication World Bulletin (2003). Articles>Reviews>Communication>Assessment
#18855
A Beginner's Guide to Effective Email
In a conversation, there is some minimum of shared context. You might be in the same physical location, and even on the phone you have, at minimum, commonality of time. When you generate a document for paper, usually there is some context embedded in the medium: the text is in the proceedings of a conference, written on a birthday card, handed to your professor with a batch of Econ 101 term papers, or something similar. With email, you can't assume anything about a sender's location, time, frame of mind, profession, interests, or future value to you. This means, among other things, that you need to be very, very careful about giving your receivers some context. This section will give specific strategies for doing so.
Sherwood, Kaitlin Duck. Webfoot.com (1998). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Email
#24908
A physicist-turned-editor shows you the basics required for copyediting physics papers (physical quantities, symbols, units, scientific notation, the structure of mathematical expressions, the nature of graphs), and points the way to learning enough 'editorial physics' to begin substantive editing.
Murphy, Peter W. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Editing>Scientific Communication
#19370
Behind the Scenes of Scientific Debating
In analysing a scientific debate, there are at least two types of relevant information. One is the debate itself, experienced first hand or via a transcript. Another is what can be called backstage information, which includes the debaters’ preparations, plans, notes, thinking and reservoir of arguments and responses. Familiarity with backstage information can provide insights for understanding the dynamics of the debate. Often, the only individuals with much backstage information are the debaters themselves, plus perhaps one or two advisers or close friends. An observer of the debate seldom has access to backstage information. The next best thing, then, is generalisations based on backstage experience with debates of a similar nature.
Martin, Brian. University of Wollongong (2000). Articles>Scientific Communication>Rhetoric
#31045
As Business Analysts we have such a great opportunity everyday to use a variety of skills in ever changing project situations. This gives us the chance to showcase and develop in multiple areas that will help us evolve the profession of Business Analysis and help us each grow in our own careers.
Wick, Angela. BA Collective (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Collaboration
