Planning a Community: The Value of Online Learning Communities in Technical Communication  

Businesspeople, faculty, and students can participate in learning communities in a variety of ways. Online learning communities provide benefits to individuals and the group, even if a community uses only low-tech communication tools. Learning communities are important because they create a human connection often missing in our Internet communication and allow people from diverse locations and backgrounds to share information and experiences. Effective learning communities celebrate diversity and create a supportive environment for members working toward a common goal.

Porter, Lynnette R. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Communication>Collaboration

Planning and Information Foraging Theories and Their Value to the Novice Technical Communicator    

Two complementary cognitive theories help to explain how novice technical communicators learn effective search methods: information foraging theory, a model of information-seeking behavior that combines human-computer interaction with anthropological constructs; and strategic planning theory, a communication model of how humans plan and achieve social goals. The paper includes an extended example of how a new communicator might learn to use both models on the job.

Gattis, Lyn. Journal of Computer Documentation (2002). Articles>Communication>Planning

Planning and Information Foraging Theories: Social Implications and Extensions    

Information foraging theory and strategic planning theory can help technical communicators think about effective research methods. A broader understanding of social theory can complement Gattis's approach by adding considerations related to underlying ideological assumptions and to how research practices are situated in the larger contexts of organizations, communities, and cultures.

Jack, Jordynn. Journal of Computer Documentation (2002). Articles>Communication>Planning

Plastic Language for Plastic Science: The Rhetoric of Comrade Lysenko    

Rhetoric of science reveals the role of rhetoric in the complex social enterprise that is standard science. Rhetoric plays a role in non-standard science too. The recent elucidation of the human genetic code calls to mind an earlier, tragic episode in the history of genetics, Lysenkoism in Stalinist Russia. It involved the repudiation of standard science in favor of an insular, intuitive, and anti-intellectual science called agrobiology which supposedly could shape agricultural productivity to political will. The tragedy is that careers were ruined and millions suffered starvation as the new science failed to bear its predicted fruit. Whether seen as a debased rhetoric of science or as a rhetoric of debased science, it assumed that language is plastic and can support a plastically reconceived science that reflected the plasticity of nature itself. This plastic rhetoric is strikingly similar to Plato s view of sophism, which of course differs considerably from contemporary views of sophism.

Dombrowski, Paul M. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>Scientific Communication>Rhetoric>History

Policies and Procedures Can Help Your Organization

Compliance and meeting operational needs are two very important reasons for implementing a system of policies and procedures.

Bizmanualz (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Documentation>Policies and Procedures

Policy and Procedure Communication and the Lone Writer  

As a lone writer developing policy and procedure documentation, many of us face what appear to be insurmountable hurdles in reaching our intended goal – useable documentation that accurately reflects the business’ operations. It usually begins with trying to get everyone to take the need for P & P documentation seriously. This can be followed by frustrations in getting the information required to write coherent and useful documentation. Then there is the need for standards for which no one sees the importance – ‘just a whim of the writer’. Add to this volatile mix the requirements of many international standards impacting how business is conducted, and you wonder why anyone in right mind would take up the challenges of this field of writing. But it really can be fun and a very rewarding field of endeavor.

Mason, Susan, Rich Maggiani, Julia Margulies and Ralph E. Robinson. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Documentation>Policies and Procedures>Business Communication

Politics Goes Blogging

New technology is changing the face of internal and external organizational communication. Blogs are evolving at a tremendous pace and are not simply the stuff of boring journals and ideological rants. If you feel as if you’ve been caught napping while blogging has taken off, fear not. Blogs provide a way for organizations to bypass the media, to get quick feedback and to take on issues they would otherwise ignore or miss entirely. For an individual, a blog can be a way to set one’s own agenda and be heard. But it’s the political blog that’s fueling the trend so far—an intelligent PR tactic.

Fernando, Angelo. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Communication>Blogging>Politics

Politics, Sound Science and the Precautionary Principle

William Lowrence’s Of Acceptable Risk (1976) began the forthright treatment of the subjective elements of risk assessment. Maintaining that 'risk' was scientifically objective, his discussion of 'safety'—as socially acceptable risk—acknowledged the political nature of the overall evaluation. But even a rigid determination of a clear risk—say of injury from skydiving—cannot tell us why only some people will agree to jump from an airplane.

Bereano, Philip L. Harvard University. Articles>Risk Communication>Biomedical

A Polythematic Real-Time Synergistic Hybrid Data Telecommunication System for Scientific Research with Bidirectional Fuzzy Feedback Peer Review by Expert Referees    

Heterogeneous research environments, interests and locations do not necessarily coincide, thus hitherto the primary method of communication amongst researchers has been email. In this article a novel unified polythematic, real-time, synergistic, data telecommunication system is proposed with peer-reviewed, bidirectional fuzzy feedback for research scientists, to facilitate scientific information exchange via the extensible markup language (XML) on multiple scientific topics, e.g. in mathematics, physics, biology and chemistry.

Petratos, Panagiotis. Data Science Journal (2003). Articles>Knowledge Management>Scientific Communication>Collaboration

Power Emails: How to Write Them

Most emails have lousy subject lines, are too wordy, and probably are deleted unread, read but not responded to, or filtered out as spam. Learn how to avoid these fates by composing Power Emails that are legal, ethical, and effective.

Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Rhetoric

The Power of Showing You are Human

Here's a tip on how to achieve that in a way that grabs attention and builds credibility. Illustrate it. Don't tell it.

Usborne, Nick. ClickZ (2002). Articles>Writing>Business Communication

Practical Tips for Language: The Ladder to the Top

We the Technical Editors are spared of one worry which our colleagues from journalism generally have: In our work we need not pay 'so much' attention to 'as much as possible' large number of editions. But the situation is different, if we--as is always the case--are to also look after the company's web presence. What is an edition in the context of printing is here the so-called 'page ranking' among the major search engines like Google and Yahoo. Many imagine that a listing in the hits lists depends on chance or, that it is mainly due to some technical means. That is all wrong: by employing some clever textual work the chances of web pages being found can be significantly increased. In reality, even elaborate techniques can lower the chances of hits: Frames, JavaScript and Flash Intros often derail the search engines. And the results may look all right, but regrettably the page will no longer be found.

Nickl, Markus. tekom (2006). Articles>Language>Editing>Business Communication

Practical Tips for Merger Communication

When two companies merge, the complexities, emotions and often sweeping changes behind the deal can hinder effective communication to key stakeholders. Yet a well planned and implemented communication strategy contributes to the very success of the merger itself. How can you overcome the obstacles to developing and delivering on a merger communication strategy?

Fagan-Smith, Barbara and Ruta Skelton. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Financial>Workplace

Practicing Professional Communication Principles by Creating Public Service Announcements    

A primary goal of most introductory business and technical communication courses is to introduce students to the idea that the professional communication most of them will engage in is different from the writing they do for academic purposes. This overall idea covers several principles concerning professional writing. First, in an academic essay, a student may tell all he or she knows about a topic to an expert reader (the instructor); in professional writing situations, however, writers are most likely sharing only a small part of the information they know with nonexpert readers. Second, when writing in professional situations, writers must actively envision audiences different from themselves, audiences that will have different concerns and purposes than the writers do. Finally, the audience, purpose, and medium of a professional communication situation drive the choices a writer will make. If students are to understand these principles, discussing them in class is insufficient; students must also practice them. Implementing active learning that applies these principles authentically can be challenging. The makeup of many business and technical communication courses means that not all students share expertise in a given field that they can draw on for common assignments. Hypothetical assignments may not give students a deep sense of context, and students may continue to perceive the instructor as the real audience for such assignments.

Frederick, Terri. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Multimedia

Practitioner's Perspective

The biggest challenge for auditors is to make sure that they're measuring the right things. All too often communicators measure only their outputs—the messages and channels they're producing—without connecting them to the outcomes of using these outputs.

Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Assessment

Predicting Intended Unethical Behavior of Business Students  

What is the likelihood that our students will perform unethical behavior in the work environment? This study measures students’ intended behavior for four hypothetical unethical situations by investigating the following determinants: attitude toward the behavior (belief), subjective norm (pressure), perceived behavioral control, perceived personal outcome (benefit), and perceived social acceptance by others. Using the Fishbein model of planned behavior, belief was consistently the most powerful predictor of intent in all four situations. Perceived behavioral control, perceived personal outcome, and perceived social acceptance by others were moderately good predictors of intent. Subjective norm was the weakest predictor of intent.

Wilson, Barbara A. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Ethics>Business Communication

Preparing Communicators for Contemporary Challenges: Organizational Communication in the STC Curricula  

What should organizational communication courses contribute to an STC curriculum synthesizing technological and critical literacies? We argue for a strong theoretical component as a way of setting technical competencies and organizational roles in critical perspective. We illustrate the importance of a theoretically-informed synthesis in extended examples from a recent co-op experience at a major government lab. The changing role of technical communicator can be viewed in terms of changing models of organization and communication with implications for STC curriculum design and real-world practice.

Sotirin, Patricia. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Communication>Workplace

Preparing for a Crisis: Tips on Writing a Crisis Communication Plan  

A crisis communication plan details how a company will operate in a crisis. It should include sections on potential crises and strategies for managing a crisis using a crisis management team. The plan should include details on the team's functions, training for the team members and the company spokesperson, and use of a crisis management center and a media center. The plan should address implementation of practice drills and an evaluation of each drill and actual crisis.

Molony, S.T. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Risk Communication>Rhetoric>Crisis Communication

Preparing Your Organization for Pandemic Flu

In the past few weeks, articles appeared on the inside pages of The New York Times and other news sources, with reports from Indonesia of human-to-human infection by avian flu, such as Elisabeth Rosenthal's article "Human-to-Human Infection by Bird Flu Virus Is Confirmed." Another article by Donald McNeil in the Times reported that mortality rates for avian flu are higher in young people, which was also the case in the devastating Spanish flu pandemic of 1918.

Matalucci, Paul. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Articles>Management>Risk Communication>Biomedical

The Presentation of Safety Information in Product Manuals  

Technical communicators may be asked to design and develop safety information for a product manual. During this process, technical communicators can add value to the presentation of safety information. In addition to adhering to a manufacturer’s internal guideline for the content and formatting of safety information, other factors can be considered as well. This paper presents the following factors: (1) an overview of common failure-to-warn allegations, (2) an analysis of current practices in automotive owner’s manuals for presenting safety information, and (3) an update on a new ANSI Z535 consensus standard for the presentation of safety information in product manuals.

Wisniewski, Elaine. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Documentation>Risk Communication>Technical Writing

Preserving the Positive Functions of the Public Domain In Science    

Science has advanced in part because data and scientific methodologies have traditionally not been subject to intellectual property protection. In recent years, intellectual property has played a greater role in scientific work. While intellectual property rights may have a positive role to play in some fields of science, so does the public domain. This paper will discuss some of the positive functions of the public domain and ways in which certain legal developments may negatively impact the public domain. It suggests some steps that scientists can take to preserve the positive functions of the public domain for science.

Samuelson, Pamela. Data Science Journal (2003). Articles>Intellectual Property>Copyright>Scientific Communication

Press Releases Are a Colossal Waste of Time: Mail the Media a Letter Instead

I haven't sent out a traditional press release in the last 10 years. But I have placed stories about my clients in The Wall St. Journal, New York Times, ABC News, The Today Show, Good Morning America and just about any other major media outlet in the United States. Editors surely don't need me or any other publicist to write their stories. They need me to point them in the direction of a good story, succinctly give them the facts as I see them, the sources I know and then get out of the way so they can write their own stories. I do those things by writing pitch letters, good ones.

Ochman, B.L. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Public Relations>Press Releases

Primary Purpose of the Web

"Communication" vs. "Interaction"? Find out why unrestrained, random communication on the web is not good in and of itself, and why relevant, practical information and functionalities for task completion are much more vital. Learn why "communicating for the sheer joy of communicating" is a waste of time and web space.

Streight, Steven. Blogger.com (2005). Articles>Internet>Communication>Web Design

A Primer on Financial Statements

One of the major challenges facing corporate communicators is understanding the financial statements of public companies. First, there is the math. Then, there is the matter of all that unfamiliar jargon. The purpose of this column and its next few installments is to give you an overview of the primary financial statements—the balance sheet, the income statement and the statement of cash flows—and how they are generated, so that you can make sense of a public company’s financial documents.

Gentry, James K. Communication World Bulletin (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Financial

Privacy Laws and Communication

With the advent of the Internet and the ability to send personal information to many places in very little time, privacy has become an important issue for businesses across the globe. How to retain the free flow of information without violating an individual’s right to privacy is a difficult balance to strike and one that different countries approach in various ways.

Turbeville, Heather. Communication World Bulletin (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Privacy>Email