#29567
The deep niche--the rolling 'interest tribe' comprised of that day's enthusiastic, new audience--is something that publishers must acknowledge, and accommodate in our business plans, if we are to sustain ourselves. The Web is not merely a threat to publishers--it can also be the means to connect to the people we most want to reach: the interested reader.
Jensen, Michael. Journal of Electronic Publishing (2007). Articles>Publishing>Research>Online
#24564
This article turns to the concept of interdisciplinarity as a framework for the design and development of observational studies investigating the discourse of medicine in language-based fields such as linguistics, rhetoric, composition, and professional communication. It argues that observational studies be designed as disciplined interdisciplinary studies, defined as research that makes an acknowledged contribution to both medicine and language studies. It proposes two guiding principles for the design of observational studies in medicine, both of which focus on issues of prospective design.
Barton, Ellen. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>Research>Biomedical
#23795
Designing and Implementing Technical Communication Research 
Designing and implementing successful research in technical communication involves an ongoing, circular process consisting of four parts: (1) planning the project and identifying funding needs, (2) matching research needs with funding sources, (3) writing and submitting a focused proposal, and (4) responding to the reviews of the proposal. This same approach can be adapted to fit the unique needs of any research situation.
Zimmerman, Beverly B. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Research>TC
#30427
Developing a Continuum to Describe Technical Communication
The more integrated a discipline is, the greater the likelihood that the researchers are sharing ideas and the greater the chances are for developing theories and models to support the knowledge base. A fragmented discipline offers few connections between discussions and research. This study of technical communication literature reports and reflects upon the dialogue established among practitioners, researchers, and scholars as theories are built. A continuum--fragmented to integrated--places areas of study in technical communication and offers an interpretation of the field.
Smith, Elizabeth Overman 'Betsy'. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Research>Professionalism
#30371
Style checkers are software programs designed as writing tools. Despite their popularity in both academic and industrial settings, the effectiveness and advisability of using the technology is still unproven. A main issue is the ability of users to determine whether the program's suggestions are useful and to ignore inappropriate advice. Freshmen composition students, beginning technical writing students, and advanced technical writing students were asked to mark all suggestions made by RightWriter 4.0 as 'useful,' 'wrong,' or 'ignored.' Results show that all students ignored approximately 50% of the suggestions; however, freshman writers perceived a larger percentage of the suggestions that they ignored to be wrong rather than just not useful.
Moosally, Michelle J. and Roland D. Nerd. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Research>Education>Software
#22736
E-Learning in the Library: Developing an Online Library Research Tutorial
The instruction librarian at GustavuAn examination of this draft tutorial serves to illustrate some of the issues concerning 'e-learning' in the context of online library research tutorials.s Adolphus College (GAC) in St. Peter, Minnesota has created a draft online library tutorial: 'Doing Research at the Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library – and Beyond,' available at http://www.gustavus.edu/oncampus/academics/library/tutorial.An examination of this draft tutorial serves to illustrate some of the issues concerning 'e-learning' in the context of online library research tutorials.
Hulseberg, Anna. Techniques (2003). Articles>Research>Online
#24475
The 1995 E and R PIC Focus Group on Technical Communication Research will continue the dialogue begun at STC annual conferences in 1993 and 1994. The 1993 Focus Group discussed partnerships between the Society, industry, and the academy, while the 1994 one discussed planning initiatives for technical communication education.
Batorsky, Barry J., Saul A. Carliner, John James Conklin, Jeffrey L. Hibbard, Kenneth T. Rainey, Stuart A. Selber, Sherry G. Southard and Katherine E. Staples. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Research
#30251
Education, Training, and Research Stem Overview
Whether we are new or experienced technical communicators, formal and continuing education and training are vital for our careers. And the basis for much of our education and training is developed from research.
Armbruster, David L. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Research
#29570
Effect of E-Printing on Citation Rates in Astronomy and Physics
In this report we examine the change in citation behavior since the introduction of the arXiv e-print repository. It has been observed that papers that initially appear as arXiv e-prints get cited more than papers that do not. Using the citation statistics from the NASA-Smithsonian Astrophysics Data System, we confirm the findings from other studies, we examine the average citation rate to e-printed papers in the Astrophysical Journal, and we show that for a number of major astronomy and physics journals the most important papers are submitted to the arXiv e-print repository first.
Henneken, Edwin A., Michael J. Kurtz, Guenther Eichhorn, Alberto Accomazzi, Carolyn Grant, Donna Thompson and Stephen S. Murray. Journal of Electronic Publishing (2006). Articles>Publishing>Research>Online
#31342
Effective Risk Communication Starts with Solid Research
The terms risk communication, crisis communication and risk management are often used interchangeably. Crisis communication we understand to mean communicating once the crisis has hit. Risk management entails ensuring as far as possible that risks do not become a reality. Risk communication is part of risk management—informing responsibly on the extent of risk.
Macleod, Sandra. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Risk Communication>Research>Crisis Communication
#19984
The Emergence and Evolution of a Research Project
Research never goes exactly according to plan; nor should we expect it to because research is a rhetorically situated activity. This paper illustrates this truism by providing a brief summary of the author’s experiences in designing, proposing, re-designing, and carrying out an investigation into electronic editing using both quantitative survey and qualitative methods.
Dayton, David. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Research>Rhetoric
#29200
Emergent Genres in Young Disciplines: The Case of Ethnological Science 
Although the rhetoric of relatively stable scientific disciplines has been studied extensively, less attention has been paid to discourse formation in young disciplines. The author extends recent theories of genre and disciplinary discourse in a close rhetorical analysis of early papers in ethnological science. Practitioners apply extant rhetorical resources to new disciplinary problems as they learn to identify themselves as participants in a collective project. The young discipline 'learns' its discourse from its practitioners.
Henze, Brent R. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Research>Scientific Communication>Ethnicity
#29568
Scholarly communication through Open Access (OA) journals has become a global phenomenon. This article reports on a study that measures the value of OA journals based on citation counts (ISI's Journal Impact Factor). It compares three highly ranked commercial electronic journals to five OA electronic journals. The non-OA journals are MIS Quarterly, Journal of American Medication Informatics Association, and Annual Review of Information Science and Technology; the five OA journals are Ariadne, D-Lib Magazine, First Monday, Information Research, and Information Technology and Disabilities. The criteria are established by ten major databases: Thompson's ISI, American Psychological Association's PsycInfo, Latin American and Canadian Health Science's LILCS, National Medical Library's MEDLINE, Scientific Electronic Library's SciELO, The IOWA Guide, CSA's LISA, EBSCO's LISTA, H.W. Wilson's Library Literature and Information Science, and R.R. Bowker's Ulrich International Periodical Directory. These basic criteria are categorized under 11 broad issues: availability, authority and review policy, scope and coverage, exhaustiveness of articles, page format, availability of hyperlinks, currency, updating policy, search facility, and other miscellaneous issues. Ten years' growth of Library and Information Science (LIS) OA journals has been measured by counting articles manually. During the last ten years the highest number of articles was published by First Monday, followed by D-Lib Magazine and Ariadne; the average number of articles per issue reported in Ariadne ranks first.
Mukherjee, Bhaskar. Journal of Electronic Publishing (2007). Articles>Publishing>Research>Assessment
#28543
Evaluating Online Sources: A Tutorial by Roger Munger
This tutorial presents a brief overview of the reasons to evaluate information you find on the Internet, offers guidelines to assist you in the process, and helps you assess the information found on sample Web pages. Although the principles presented here apply to all kinds of information found on the Internet, the primary focus is on sites from organizations and companies-sites that you will likely visit while conducting research-rather than on personal Web sites.
Munger, Roger H. Bedford-St. Martin's (2007). Articles>Research>Online>Assessment
#25125
Technical writers enhance their career development and move faster through career transitions when they expand beyond the writing of didactic text to publish in journals and magazines. Additional attempts to write and publish creative and nonfiction pieces further develop their careers in any genre of communications.
Ball, Valerie M. STC Region 7 Proceedings (2002). Articles>Publishing>Research
#27783
Extracting Pearls from Other People's Brains: The Art of Interviewing
Perhaps one of the bigger challenges faced by white paper writers is coming up with good content. The default course of action is to do a Google search. While this approach can yield valuable information, the best pearls reside inside someone else's head.
Stelzner, Michael A. WhitePaperSource (2006). Articles>Interviewing>Research>White Papers
#31092
What is the biggest problem I face almost every time a client hires me to do something about a web project going awry? They don't know a thing about their users. They don't have a clue, whatsoever. Unbelievable but true!
Lafreniere, Daniel. Boxes and Arrows (2008). Articles>User Centered Design>Research>Usability
#30095
Faculty are strongly interested in issues related to scholarly communication.a Faculty generally conform to conventional behavior in scholarly publication, albeit with significant beachheads on several fronts. Faculty attitudes are changing on a number of fronts, with a few signs of imminent change in behaviors. The current tenure and promotion system impedes changes in faculty behavior. On important issues in scholarly communication, faculty attitudes vary inconsistently by rank, except in general depth of knowledge and on issues related to tenure and promotion. Faculty tend to see scholarly communication problems as affecting others, but not themselves. The disconnect between attitude and behavior is acute with regard to copyright. University policies mandating change are likely to stir intense debate. Scholars are aware of alternative forms of dissemination but are concerned about preserving their current publishing outlet.
University of California Berkeley (2007). Articles>Publishing>Research
#24696
Finding Out Who Likes What: A Research Tool Kit for Technical Communicators
As new technologies revolutionize our communication options, technical communicators must be increasingly accountable for the outcomes of our products and messages. Research in the behavioral and cognitive sciences has provided many data tools that can be very useful to technical communicators. Techniques such as simple descriptive statistics, the Delphi method, trained observers, chi-square analysis, and aptitude/treatment interaction analysis can help technical communicators discover and document the impact of your messages by revealing what you did right, who says so, and who disagrees.
Ausburn, Lynna J. and Floyd B. Ausburn. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Research>Writing>Technical Writing
#31573
Five Rules for Communication between Machines and People
The Human Research Institute has conducted extensive studies of the proper form of Machine-Human Interaction (MHI). Most of our work has been summarized in our technical report series and was presented at the last global MHI symposium. This report summarizes the key findings in nontechnical language, intended for wider distribution than just the specialized designer machines.
Norman, Donald A. uiGarden (2008). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Research
#24476
Focus Group on Technical Communication Research: An Academic Perspective
'Research' is defined as a systematic, though fluid, process for uncovering or generating knowledge. Its, forms include basic research, formal research, and scholarship. No one form is better than the others with the kind of information needed determining the process required. The investigative model presented describes research in terms of the processes and products involved. Echoing Kuhn, they believe that an interest is not a true discipline until it gives rise to its own set of questions--beyond those of its base discipline--and publishes answers to those questions in its own journals.
Allen, Jo and Sherry G. Southard. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Research
#31589
This month's column is a quiz. I'll set up some scenarios, you choose which research approach you think is best. At the end, I'll defend why I think my own answers are right!
Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2000). Articles>Research>Methods>Surveys
#29206
The Founding of ATTW and its Journal
The founding editor of The Technical Writing Teacher and a founding member of ATTW, recalls key moments in the history of ATTW and its journal, and the people who shaped the organization in its early years.
Cunningham, Donald H. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Research>Publishing>History
#30591
The Gentle Art of Questionnaire Design
It is important for us to gain knowledge about our audiences before we start developing our information packages. It is equally important for us to get feedback after we have produced our information so that we know how well it was received by our audiences.
Ridgway, Lenore S. and Roger A. Grice. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Research>Methods>Surveys
#31592
Get The Credit You Deserve From Surveys
The wonders of technology have opened up easy-to-use on-line survey creation and analysis. Yet if you take the numbers the surveys provide at face value, you may be under-representing your audience's true responses. The following examples demonstrate how to phrase questions for more accurate results.
Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2002). Articles>Research>Methods>Surveys
