#30222
This report goes to great lengths to explore the origins, history, and maturity of software-based office suites and Microsoft Office for the Mac.
McLean, Prince. AppleInsider (2007). Articles>Software>History
#10369
The Roots of SGML: A Personal Recollection 
One of the inventors of the markup language that evolved into Standard Generalized Markup Language describes the origins of SGML and provides an anecdotal history of markup language development from the late 1960s to the 1980s.
Goldfarb, Charles F. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Information Design>SGML>History
#29682
Same Methods, Different Disciplines: The Historian and Linguist as Technical Communicators 
Can a liberal arts degree be parlayed into a career in technical communication? The presenters explain how they did precisely that, applying the overarching principle: 'Same method, different discipline.' This paper provides examples of how a history major (lead author Maureen Hogg) and an English major (co-author Dan Voss) drew upon the skills they honed as undergraduates in their respective majors to advance their careers as technical communicators at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation in Boulder, CO, and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando, FL, respectively. In Part 1, Hogg takes several principles of historiography and shows how she applied them in developing a series of information products on Ball Aerospace's landmark Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) program. In Part 2, Voss shows how principles of rhetorical analysis he learned in a course on linguistics became the linchpin in a year-long integrated strategic communication campaign that helped Lockheed Martin land a major contract to build the next-generation air-to-ground missile system for the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.
Hogg, Maureen and Daniel W. Voss. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>TC>Linguistics>History
#24444
Explains how rhetoric is related to modes of inquiry and to the social community in classical rhetoric and in scientific rhetoric in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Zappen, James P. WAC Clearinghouse (1991). Articles>History>Scientific Communication
#15191
September 1, 1999, through November 30, 1999
This report covers specifications, standards, and amendments received from September 1, 1999, through November 30, 1999. Special emphasis has been placed on documentation in the category Technical Manual Specification & Standards (TMSS); however, other documents with widespread appeal are also included.
Bach, Claudia. Intercom (2000). Articles>History>TC
#15192
September 1, 2000 through November 30, 2000
This report covers specifications, standards, and amendments received from September 1, 2000, through November 30, 2000.
Bach, Claudia. Intercom (2001). Articles>History>TC
#24555
Finding a method to determine terrestrial longitude was critical in the early seventeenth century as countries attempted to establish territorial boundaries. The magistrate and natural philosopher Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637) spent much of his life working on a solution to this problem. As an early technical communicator, he was concerned with the criteria of acceptable observations, the standardization of materials and methods, and the communication of results. He refined a variety of strategies to obtain these observations and ensure their accuracy. He persuaded missionary priests to make observations throughout the Levant by promising patronage and gifts or stressing practical applications in the solution to the problem of longitude and church calendar reform. Although Peiresc did not resolve the issue of determining longitude, his efforts did provide the basis for work by later astronomers.
Tolbert, Jane T. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>TC>History
#22907
By the time I stopped being President in 1993, the sense of computer documentation as a unified whole had ended. When one has such competent folks as Bill Horton writing entire books just on icons, you know that the days of single book coverage…or single SIG coverage were gone forever. Moreover, when the 20,000 member STC decides that it will focus on computers and writing, then the tiny 1200 member SIGDOC gets lost in the welter of talks, papers, presentations, and conventions. So it goes…
Brockmann, R. John. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Documentation>History
#22908
In the few short years that I have been connected with SIGDOC, the world of the technical communicator has changed quite a bit. These changes are visible in several major areas: in the work itself, in the technology and tools that the communicator uses, in the technologies about which they create information, in the work environment, and in the culture in which they operate.
Haramundanis, Kathy. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Documentation>History
#22905
In the mid 1970's, technical writers documented weapons of mass destruction for the military and its contractors. There were few computer-related jobs outside IBM and the other manufacturers. Corporate systems development managers did not know that people existed who were interested in such work.
Rigo, Joe. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Documentation>Collaboration>History
#22906
Back in these ancient days SIGDOC was a very relaxed organisation full of personal opinion, and hominess. To give you the flavour of that far off time, I shall present this report as a personal anecdote rather than a proper technical document. Please forgive me, those of you with more formal and well balanced notions of history.
Patterson, Diana. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Documentation>History
#14775
In this article, two original members of the Association of Technical Writers and Editors (TWE), a parent organization of the Society for Technical Communication, discuss how the profession and the Society have changed since TWE's inception.
Rutkowski, Ed. Intercom (2002). Articles>TC>History
#29096
Studying past examples of successful technical communication may offer insight into strategies that worked with technologies and audiences in an earlier time. This article examines the texts documenting a controversy before and during the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Ellen Swallow Richards, chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bertha Honore Palmer, president of the Fair's Board of Lady Managers, had distinctly different visions of how cooking technology should be presented. Palmer invited Richards to create a Model Kitchen in the Woman's Building, but Richards wanted to avoid gendering the new knowledge of nutrition and she fought to control her exhibit. The multimedia Richards used in her resulting Rumford Kitchen exhibit reminds us that sometimes an entertaining but familiar atmosphere might be the best way to introduce threatening new knowledge and technology, particularly to our increasingly international and intergenerational audiences.
Lippincott, Gail. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>TC>History>Rhetoric
#14689
This article discusses the impact of STC's annual conference on the professional development of technical communicators.
#19387
STC@50: STC Members Share Their Stories
In commemoration of STC's 50th anniversary, several Society members share anecdotes about their experiences in STC and the technical communication profession.
Babcock, Elizabeth. Intercom (2003). Articles>TC>History>STC
#29163
The Steel Bible: A Case Study of 20th Century Technical Communication
The "steel bible" emerged in 1919 and went through 11 editions in 80 years. In its evolution we can see the shift from individual to group authorship, an increasing use of visual elements, and a physical change from a small, hand-held volume to a weighty desktop reference. In a textual analysis, we can see that it was essentially static, changing only by additions and deletions, as the industry evolved. The eventual closing of hundreds of plants and the migration of the industry to other countries can be seen in the change of publisher, the sudden absence of photography, and the international references. Originally, the steel bible came from the factory floor and the words of the plant managers, but by the 1990s, it was a highly-abstracted representation of knowledge. In the steel bible, we can see the history of the industry and the maturing of technical communication in the 20th century.
Johnson, Carol Siri. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Documentation>History>Engineering
#21290
The Story Behind Usability.gov
The seeds for Usability.gov were sown in early 1999 when the popular CancerNet web site came up for a redesign. As usual, we began by seeking input for the new design from technical professionals: web designers, content writers, engineers. Our 'kitchen cabinet' also included users. But the opinions from this broad group of professionals and laymen were as diverse as their backgrounds. Whose ideas were right?
Koyani, Sanjay. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Usability>History
#14364
The Structure of Technical Communications Revolutions
Professions change their ways of doing business when their paradigms -- their ways of seeing -- change. Technical communication went through one such paradigm change when the engineer-as-writer-and-reader became the technical-writer-as-writer and the user-as-reader in the early 1950's. In the 1990's, the technical communication paradigm is again changing, and this change will mean: the form of computer documantation will become more plastic; the concept of readability will become more of a design issue with the rise of document prototyping; audience analysis will become much less haphazard and dependent upon stereotypes; and the role of the technical writer will increase in visibility, responsibilities, and opportunities. John Carroll's new book on minimalist documentation, The Nurnberg Funnel and Edward Tufte's Envisioning Information are harbingers of this new paradigm change.
Brockmann, R. John. ASTC (1995). Articles>History>TC
#29092
Teaching the History of Technical Communication: A Lesson With Franklin and Hoover
The first part of this article shows that research in the history of technical communication has increased in quantity and sophistication over the last 20 years. Scholarship that describes how to teach with that information, however, has not followed, even though teaching the history of the field is a need recognized by several scholars. The article provides and defends four guidelines as a foundation to study ways to incorporate history into classroom lessons: 1) maintain a continued research interest in teaching history; 2) limit to technical rather than scientific discourse; 3) focus on English-language texts; and 4) focus on American texts, authors, and practices. The second part of the essay works within the guidelines to show a lesson that contrasts technical texts by Benjamin Franklin and Herbert Hoover. The lesson can help students see the difference in technical writing before and after the Industrial Revolution, a difference that mirrors their own transition from the university to the workforce.
Todd, Jeff. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>TC>History>Education
#14311
Technical Communication - Evolution
The history of communications dates back to the pre-historic times when our ancestors used to communicate with the help of signs, flags, drums, fire, making odd noises. Those were the times when any language was not developed to communicate effectively.
Malik, Suman Lata. Technical Communications Group (2002). Articles>History>TC
#13900
Technical Communication from 1850-1950: Where Have We Been?
As the discipline of technical communication undergoes increasing scrutiny by scholars and teachers and as the discipline continues to evolve with advancements in technology, we should pause to consider some foundational, historical issues that led to the formation of a technical communication pedagogy in the first place. This piece evaluates shifts in an engineering curriculum from roughly 1850 to 1960 that made possible the development of a technical communication curriculum.
Kynell, Teresa. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education>History
#13921
Technical Communication from 1950-1998: Where Are We Now?
The changes in technical communication education between 1950 and 1998 have led to disciplinary maturity: the development of academic programs and of a body of innovative research. This disciplinary maturity parallels the professional identity and growth of numbers of technical communication practitioners. As a thriving multidiscipline with many direct research and pedagogical connections to the workplace, technical communication can uniquely influence workforce values, providing a new, evolving disciplinary model for higher education. However, technical communication’s disciplinary maturity also means a movement away from practice and from the service course, the foundations of technical communication as a discipline and the sources of its workplace influence.
Staples, Katherine E. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>TC>History
#13951
Technical Communication Has a Bright, Exciting Future! 
What did Henry Ford do? He learned from other people’s experiences as well as his own. He took risks. He saw failure as a lesson, and he applied everything he learned to perfect the product, the process, and the policies that shaped the American automobile industry. In short, he was a great innovator. And, because he was so willing to share the lessons he learned, he became an inspiration to many others. The field of technical communication has a bright and exciting future because we’re innovators, just like Henry Ford. We work constantly to perfect the product, the process, and the policies that shape our profession. Technical communication work is being performed in more diversified environments than ever before, with experience, skills, and talents that vary widely. We know that there will always be a need for trained people to explain new technology, processes, and products so audiences can better understand or use them, so our future is bright and exciting. Technical communication enjoyed sustained growth for the last eight years of the 20th Century, but times are different now. We entered this new millennium with high expectations for continued success only to have our hopes crushed by tragedy as America was thrust into uncertain times. We’ve learned that 2002 is going to be a lean year and that many companies have fewer people to do more work. To prepare for the future, there are a couple of things I think technical communicators should do.
Laurent, J. Suzanna. STC Puget Sound (2002). Articles>TC>History
#21713
Technical Communication Has Come Into Focus Because of the IT Industry
How has technical communication evolved over the years into what it is today? How big an industry is it and is there a count of the number of people working as technical communicators?
Menezes, Frederick. STC India (2003). Articles>TC>History>India
#13896
Technical Communication in the 21st Century: Where Are We Going?
Instead of offering a predictive “history” of the future, this essay explores how we arrive at our attitudes toward the future and the effects of such attitudes toward current practice. We greet the future with attitudes prepared by myths, master narratives that guide our vision of who we are and what we are becoming. One key myth in our discipline, the myth of immediate communication, proves an unreliable guide to the future. Readings in science fiction serve to demonstrate how a critique of the immediacy myth might proceed. The essay argues for a critically informed, open-minded approach to the future, an approach that encourages an honest self-criticism within the discipline.
Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>TC>History
