It's Not What You Know: A Transactive Memory Analysis of Knowledge Networks at NASA    

Much of America was stunned into mourning on February 1, 2003 as the space shuttle Columbia was reported to have broken up over Texas. The ensuing investigation revealed that debris at liftoff was the cause of the crash, but the official report suggested that NASA's organizational communication was just as much to blame. This article uses transactive memory theory to argue that there were significant gaps in the knowledge network of NASA organizational members, and those gaps impeded information flow regarding potential disaster. E-mails to and from NASA employees were examined (the 'To' and 'From' fields) to map a network of communication related to Columbia's damage and risk. Although NASA personnel were connected with each other in this incident-based network, the right information did not get to the people who needed it. The article concludes with extensions of theory and practical implications for organizations, including NASA.

Garner, Johnny T. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2006). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication>Government

It’s the Communication, Stupid: Lessons in Communication-Driven Product Development  

Changes in software design and development are creating new opportunities for technical communicators at DDS. Writers have become an integral part of product teams, evaluated on their ability to help get products out the door. In some cases writers’ deliverables have themselves become full software development projects. As technical writers take on new roles they’re getting increased visibility, more interesting and varied work and a chance to move up ladders outside of the traditional technical writing group.

Dykstra, Peter. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Communication>Collaboration

Kairos in the Rhetoric of Science  

If there is a canonical text in this still-early period of the rhetorical criticism of science, it is the 1953 Nature paper in which James D. Watson and Francis H.C. Crick proposed the double helix structure for DNA.

Miller, Carolyn R. North Carolina State University (1992). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Rhetoric

Keeping the Rhetoric Orthodox: Forum Control in Science      

Academic disciplines certify knowledge through publication in scholarly journals; therefore, peer review of journal articles is one method of authorizing someone’s speech.  It is possible, however, to see peer review and other strategies as methods by which elites silence or de-authorize voices that pose a threat to their status.  This article discusses four methods of forum control--peer review, denial of forum, public correction, and published ridicule.  Examples are drawn from cases in science.

Sullivan, Dale L. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Scientific Communication>Rhetoric

The Key to Mayo's Successful Publications? Dave Swanson

Mayo wants to give people actionable, not merely interesting, information.

Smith, Sally. Editorial Eye, The (1997). Articles>Scientific Communication>Publishing>Biomedical

Knowledge Management and Life Long Education in Science    

In 1998 ENEA, the Italian National Agency for New Technologies, Energy and the Environment, launched an e-learning platform with the mission of sharing scientific knowledge among everyone, not just workers but also students and the unemployed, in order to use its research results to support competitiveness and sustainable development. In 6 years, more than 20.000 users have followed one or more of the 46 on line courses. Many agreements with schools, universities, private and public training organisation are now under way to improve the dissemination of scientific knowledge and to build an open data base of scientific learning objects that anyone can use.

Moreno, Anna and Sergio Grande. Data Science Journal (2005). Articles>Knowledge Management>Education>Scientific Communication

Knowledge Management and Pharmaceutical Development Teams: Using Writing to Guide Science    

This article introduces a way of working with drug development teams that relies on writing as a key development activity. The work of cross-functional teams in pharmaceutical research and development can be guided by the use of tools normally thought of as 'writing' tools. Writing can be used intentionally to help teams develop their thinking, identify and respond to troublesome issues, and develop project documentation efficiently. The article introduces the use of a 'seed document' (one step in a systematic, wholly collaborative, document development process) to establish a conceptual knowledge bank for a development team, and demonstrates how complex documentation can flow naturally out of the evolving seed document. The authors argue that structured writing can help team members, who have varying perspectives and expertise, engage in substantive conflict and reach consensus on team responses to difficult issues.

Bernhardt, Stephen A. and George A. McCulley. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Knowledge Management: Refining Roles in Scientific Communication

Libraries historically have been identified with the functions of storage and retrieval. In recent years, they have expanded their role to include information transfer and the creation of the networked, digital library for information access and dissemination. More recently, the William H. Welch Medical Library (WML) of the Johns Hopkins University (JHU) has been exploring strategies to integrate the library more fully into the scholarly and scientific communication process. The result is a new role we call knowledge management.

Lucier, Richard E. University of California San Francisco (1990). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication

Knowledge Portal as a New Paradigm for Scientific Publishing and Collaboration

This paper addresses the newly emerging paradigm of scientific knowledge dissemination and collaboration. The paper is based on the particular area of knowledge collaboration in the Architectural, Engineering, Construction and Facilities Management (AEC/FM) industry, including knowledge sharing and technology transfer in the area of environmentally friendly concrete materials. The research and scientific community is moving away from the old “information spread” model for dissemination of scientific information, where knowledge is channelled through paper-based refereed academic journals and conference proceedings. Researchers are becoming involved in publishing their articles in online-refereed journals that provide free or low fee access to scientific information. In this paper the authors propose some general architecture and design guidelines for online, collaborative research environments (Knowledge Portals) in the AEC/FM industry. These virtual, collaborative spaces are becoming an essential part of the modern scientific publishing and knowledge transfer processes within professional communities of practice. The proposed model of the Knowledge Portal for the AEC/FM industry could also serve as a generic model in designing virtual research collaborative environments for other areas of knowledge sharing and collaboration. The paper describes existing technological solutions, adapted by online communities of practice, for maintaining corporate knowledge portals, scientific publishing and knowledge exchange spaces and proposes generic architecture and design principles for a generic Knowledge Portal. As an essential part of the Knowledge Portal, and a sample case study of knowledge dissemination, the paper describes existing stand-alone and Web-based digital collections of research data in the area of environmentally friendly concrete.

Martens, B. and W. Jabi. ITcon (2004). Articles>Writing>Scientific Communication

La Comunicación Científica: ¿Arte O Técnica?  

El último fin del científico es comunicar la información de la forma más comprensible y rápida y se necesitan algunas pautas para cumplir este objetivo. Este artículo intenta orientar y responder a cuestiones que pueden surgir a los autores que desean escribir artículos o exponer una comunicación oral, ahorrarles tiempo y asegurarles claridad y coherencia. La exposición oral es una responsabilidad pero, también, es una oportunidad única que puede proporcionar grandes satisfacciones, después de seguir un mínimo de reglas básicas.

Campos, Rosa J. Universidad de Grenada (1999). (Spanish) Articles>Scientific Communication

Labor Costs can Make or Break the Case: Which Way Should This Manager Go?

When your business case deals with a project or program, labor costs may be the largest single cost category, by far. Labor costs can even loom large in in a major capital expenditure (CAPEX) business case, if the acquisition comes with a serious need for operating and maintenance support (as in many IT CAPEX requests, for instance). How well you handle the labor costs can make or break the case.

Solution Matrix (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Management>Business Case

Lack of Annual Report Analysis on a Social, Political and Historical Basis

One area of rhetorical analysis of business writing that seems to be neglected is the analysis of annual reports on the social, political, and historical level. An admittedly-brief four hour review of on-line technical journals and academic articles on the subject of annual report analysis failed to produce a single article directly related to this subject. The only articles that I did find dealt with the analysis of contemporary annual reports on a financial basis. However, my research did uncover an article on the teaching of the conventions of business writing, such as annual reports, and an article on reconstructing the image and narrative in distressed organizations.

Remali, Peter. Michigan Tech University (1998). Articles>Writing>Business Communication>Reports

The Lack of Annual Report Analysis on a Social, Political and Historical Basis

One area of rhetorical analysis of business writing that seems to be neglected is the analysis of annual reports on the social, political, and historical level. An admittedly-brief four hour review of on-line technical journals and academic articles on the subject of annual report analysis failed to produce a single article directly related to this subject. The only articles that I did find dealt with the analysis of contemporary annual reports on a financial basis. However, my research did uncover an article on the teaching of the conventions of business writing, such as annual reports, and an article on reconstructing the image and narrative in distressed organizations.

Remali, Peter. Michigan Tech University (1998). Articles>Business Communication>History

A Lack of Coordination is Why Technical Support Isn't Working  

Technical support relies heavily on users' abilities to perform tasks, and we're all more than familiar with the difficulty involved with assisting inexperienced computer users. Most widespread worms and viruses take hold and spread due to poorly maintained systems, commonly home systems found on broadband networks.

Yarden, Jonathan. TechRepublic (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Collaboration>Help

Latino Culture and Health Communication  

Many Latinos face barriers to receiving health care in the U.S. These barriers can include lack of English and literacy skills, as well as cultural differences in the communication styles used by Latino patients and non-Latino health care providers and communicators. Simply translating health materials into Spanish may not be enough to overcome these communication barriers. However, research has shown that oral forms of communication such as Spanish-language radio broadcasts, lectures in English-as-a-second-language classes, or small-group discussions led by Spanishspeaking leaders can be very effective in disseminating health information to Latino audiences.

Freeman, Krisandra S. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Scientific Communication>Ethnic>Biomedical

Learning the Intricacies of Effective Communication Through Game Design    

As many teachers of communication come to realize, students often operate under the misconception that the effective use of language consists primarily of memorizing and applying the rules and regulations of grammar. Even worse, some students believe that they must inherit a talent for language and that without a genetic predisposition, they can never learn to use language well. Demonstrating otherwise isn't easy, but because good communication skills are crucial to success in a professional environment, teachers must attempt to do so. In Introduction to Technical and Scientific Communication, a course I teach at James Madison University, I have students complete a fairly traditional assignment in a somewhat nontraditional way, one that highlights the intricacies of effective communication in a context that students find accessible. A typical assignment for an introductory-level technical communication class requires students to write a set of instructions for a procedure they know well. This straightforward assignment is useful but rather uninspiring, not only because students have difficulty realistically defining the audience they're addressing but also because it's much too easy to tap into the already existing sea of instructions available on the Internet. I remembered an assignment from my days as a graduate student teaching freshman composition. The assignment, based on the rhetorical mode of process analysis, required students to create and explain a game generically called 'Student.'

Bednar, Lucy. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Education>Business Communication

Learning to Love Whistleblowers

Darren Dahl explains why some businesses that once feared whistleblowers are now giving workers new ways to report wrongdoing.

Dahl, Darren. Inc. Magazine (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Management

Learning-to-Communicate and Communicating-to-Learn in Veterinary Medicine: A Survey of Writing, Speaking, and Reading in Veterinary Medical Curricula    

This article reports the results of a survey of thirty-one colleges of veterinary medicine in the United States and Canada to identify common writing, speaking, and reading tasks performed by veterinary medical students and practicing veterinarians. From the twenty-seven colleges that responded (87% response rate), we learned that writing, speaking, and reading tasks are assigned in almost every veterinary medical course and that the communication tasks assigned in veterinary medical courses accord well with the communication tasks expected to be performed by practicing veterinarians. Along with these learning-to-communicate tasks, veterinary medical students are also assigned communicating-to-learn tasks. Unlike many of the writing-to-learn tasks associated with writing-across-the-curriculum programs, communicating-to- learn tasks in veterinary medical courses seem concerned with teaching students to think like veterinary medical practitioners. The emphasis on communication in veterinary medical curricula is probably due to some extent to the emphasis on problem-based learning, a curricular innovation popular in veterinary medical education. Problem-based learning requires that instruction be designed around cases or problems to be solved rather than topics or information to be covered. This merging of research and practice in the education of veterinary medical students may offer lessons for the education of professional practitioners in technical communication.

Thompson, Isabelle and Charles M. Hendrix. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2000). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Veterinary

Legal Code: When Intra Becomes Extra

And somehow, on March 8, months of chat logs--what a CEO and his management team talked about in their almost daily online chats were the ordinary, boring aspects of running a company. But a few posts involved company strategies. The posts revealed negotiating tactics the team planned to use with business partners, and some of those tactics revealed a fundamental lack of good faith. If the public message logs didn't increase the company's liability exposure, they certainly poisoned its hard-earned business relationships.

Fausett, Bret A. WebTechniques (2001). Articles>Communication>Legal>Online

Legal Communication in Technical Communication Programs: Worth Thinking About?    

What, if anything, should technical communication programs teach their students about the nature of law and the production of legal discourse? When is technical writing also legal writing, and vice versa; when is legal writing (really) technical? Are there distinctions worth maintaining and dissolving here? Do lawyers' relationships to, and problems with, legal writing contexts and processes parallel in important ways technical writers' relationships to, and problems with, technical writing contexts and processes? If they do, is a conversation between the disciplines worth institutionalizing, at least experimentally, in each other's programs?

Stratman, James F. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Business Communication>Legal>Technical Writing

Legal Consequences of Employer Discharge Procedures    

The employment contract is sometimes misunderstood by both employees and employers. Drafters of employee manuals, policies, and procedures should be aware that the nature of the at-will employment relationship can be transformed into a binding employment contract by the words and phrases chosen. Just imagine the following scenario: On his first day as an Otis Accounting firm employee, Eric was provided an employee manual outlining all firm policies and procedures. Eric was not provided a written employment contract. Despite exemplary work performance at Otis Accounting for more than 2 years, Eric was fired because his supervisor, who belonged to one political party, discovered a bumper sticker for a candidate from the opposing party on Eric's car. Devastated by the unexpected dismissal, Eric sued for wrongful termination. To determine its potential liability, Otis Accounting must first ascertain the nature of its employment relationship with Eric.

Joseph, Stephanie. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Policies and Procedures>Contracts

Legal Issues Involved in Monitoring Employees' Internet and E-Mail Usage

Many employers have determined that there is a need to monitor employees' computer usage. According to a 2003 survey by the American Management Association, more than half of U.S. companies engage in some form of e-mail monitoring. Often, this is in addition to monitoring work-related communications and activities—including reviewing Internet usage, videotaping the work-site or recording employee telephone calls. More and more employers are engaging in some form of monitoring. Unfortunately, without a full understanding of the risks, employers may open themselves up to potential lawsuits. In addition, such techniques may result in low morale among employees who resent being told that they cannot use e-mail for personal messages and feel that their every move is being monitored.

Towns, Douglas M. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Legal>Email

Lessons from Environmental Communication  

The Environmental Careers organization estimates that by 1993, there were over 150,000 environmental educators and communicators in the United States. Environmental communication is the only area specifically cited as a growth area in the STC’s 1994-98 Strategic Plan; by 1995, the Society’s PIG in Environmental, Safety, and Health Communication had grown to approximately 500 members. This presentation examines what environmental communication and other areas of scientific and technical communication might learn from one another and the curricular implications of such lessons.

Waddell, Craig. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Communication>Environmental

Lessons from Y2K for Strategic Management of Information and Communication Technology  

Y2K was a unique event, particularly for any organization that relies on information and communication technology to accomplish its mission and adhieve its strategic goals. There were various impacts on the design, development, and maintenance of systems and applications throughout the organization, as well as various impacts on the roles and responsibilites of people who deal with them. The fact that Y2K did not result in widespread catastrophic failures actually makes it a richer potential source of critical lessons for longterm strategic management of information and communication technology. We are now in a position to learn from this 'test' and apply those lessons to evolving organizational strategies for managing information and communications. This presentation explores issues and initial progress in the following five areas: (1) organizational roles and responses; (2) information gathering, use, and value; (3) life cycle management of systems and software; (4) information assurance and critical infrastructure protection; and (5) understanding the relationship between risk and response.

Haselkorn, Mark P. International Society for the Systems Sciences (2000). Articles>Management>Communication