Review: A Review of Free, Online Accessibility Tools

This article reviews eight, free, online web accessibility tools and examines the general characteristics of accessibility tools. The review provides a comparison between tools, and offers suggestions as to which tool would be appropriate for each of the following audiences: web designers, web developers and web evaluators.

Blair, Peter. WebAIM (2004). Articles>Reviews>Accessibility>Software

Review: A Review of Morae 2.0 for Usability Testing

TechSmith's recent release, Morae 2.0, features a new graphing tool, integrated satisfaction survey, and embedded task definitions. The editable marker log in Observer and the improved timeline controls in the Manager improve operator efficiency. This article highlights these and other new features of the new 2.0.

Shrestha, Sav. Usability News (2007). Articles>Reviews>Usability>Testing

Review: Review of Nine Books on Digital Photography    

This article reviews the following books on digital photography: Shoot like a pro!: Digital photography techniques by Julie Adair King; Digital photography bible: Desktop edition by Dan Simon; How to do everything with digital photography by Dave Huss; Total digital photography: The shoot to print workflow handbook by Serge Timacheff and David Karlin; The practical guide to digital imaging: Mastering the terms, technologies, and techniques by Michelle Perkins; Digital photography expert: Light and lighting by Michael Freeman; The essential lighting manual for digital and film photographers by Chris Weston; Digital photography expert: Close-up photography by Michael Freeman; Professional techniques for black & white digital photography by Patrick Rice.

Sullivan, Bill. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Reviews>Photography

Review: A Review of RoboHelp Office 2002

This is the first in a series of articles that builds into a personal review of RoboHelp Office 2002. This first article introduces the new release and discusses Topic Templates, Headers and Footers, and the new MS Word Import capability.

Ellison, Matthew. WritersUA (2002). Articles>Reviews>Software>Adobe RoboHelp

Review: Review of Screen Capture Tools

Describes the important attributes of a capture tool and examines and compares the features of five popular products.

Ellison, Matthew. WritersUA (2005). Articles>Reviews>Software>Screen Captures

Review: Review of Writing at the Edge: Student Webs from Brown University  

In Writing at the Edge, George Landow has provided a hypertext that is both in and about hypertext.

Eyman, Douglas. Kairos (1996). Articles>Reviews>Hypertext

Review: Rhetorical Grammar, 5th Edition    

Throughout the book, Kolln works to build the readers' confidence and encourage them to think of grammar as a tool. Rhetorical Grammar is a textbook for undergraduate students, and Kolln keeps this target audience in mind by making the 322- page book user-friendly.

Tutt, Bryan. Business Communication Quarterly (2007). Articles>Reviews>Grammar>Rhetoric

Review: Scrolling Forward: Making Sense of Documents in the Digital Age  

If you like to think about your work philosophically, or even if you don't, David M. Levy's book tackles some of the big questions in our profession: paper versus digital, reading versus viewing, libraries versus the Web, brick and mortar schools versus distance education. And the great thing about the book is that he thinks you don't have to choose between one or the other in each of these apparent dichotomies; in fact, what's needed is a balance between the two.

Crawley, Charles R. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Reviews>Publishing>Online

Review: Small Pieces, Big Thoughts

'Small Pieces Loosely Joined' is touted on the cover as 'A Unified Theory of the Web.' But its author, David Weinberger, knows better. And he says as much in the book. It's a unified theory, but not the kind you sum up in a tidy little equation.

Hinton, Andrew. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Reviews>Information Design

Review: The Social Formation of Technical Communication Studies    

As a species of rhetoric and composition, technical communication studies is wrestling with issues of identity, professionalization, and status that help to define an academic discipline. Recent scholarly work has debated the research methods that might be productive for an applied field in a postmodern age, the theoretical and pedagogical connections between composition and technical communication in an electronic age, and the tensions between training and education in a global age that requires new models of work.

Selber, Stuart A. CCC (1998). Articles>Reviews>TC

Review: Some Reflections on the Emergence of a Profession    

Producing Quality Technical Information played a major role in the shift from product-oriented information to user-oriented information. It brought to a large community of technical communicators an awareness of the role that technical information should play: not a description of a technical product or process but, rather, a description of what people need to do to use the product or perform the process. This shift in focus -- from product to user -- led to many changes in our profession and in our professional careers. No longer mere documentors of what others had done, we emerged as professionals who added value and usability to the project on which we worked.

Grice, Roger A. Journal of Computer Documentation (2002). Articles>Reviews>User Centered Design

Review: Spying for Words

Want to know more abou words? Or want some more brilliant snippets? Log on to The Word Spy. It is a site maintained by Paul McFedries, the well-known author and word-follower.

Dalvi, Meghashri. Indus (2005). Articles>Reviews>Web Design

Review: SQL Server Integration Services Using Visual Studio

Beginners Guide to SQL Server Integration Services Using Visual Studio 2005 provides you with the basic knowledge that you should have before you move on to more advanced ETL [Extraction, Transformation, and Loading]. The book will also provide you with a comprehensive description of the many designer windows that you may encounter while working with the designer. This guide provides the building blocks describing each block by way of an example as well as describing the nuts and bolts that bind the blocks. A majority of SSIS tasks are covered in this book and they are described fully in the summary of table contents section. You start building packages right from Chapter 2 and continue on to Chapter 20 gathering and building upon your knowledge in each step.

Krishnaswamy, Jayaram. Packt (2007). Articles>Reviews>Databases>SQL

Review: Starring the Text: The Place of Rhetoric in Science Studies    

Given Alan G. Gross's substantial contributions to the rhetoric of science, most recently with Joseph E. Harmon and Michael Reidy (2002) in Communicating Science, I looked forward to reading Gross's latest work, Starring the Text: The Place of Rhetoric in Science Studies--until I read the preface. In the preface, Gross notes that Starring the Text is not a new con- tribution but a 'major refiguring' (p. ix) of his earlier work The Rhetoric of Science (1990). Like most readers, I am decidedly less enthusiastic about reading a revision of an older contribution than I am about reading a new contribution.

Paul, Danette. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2008). Articles>Reviews>Rhetoric>Scientific Communication

Review: The STC 54th Annual Conference

What I saw was a society of professionals emerging from a process of reflection and redefinition with a vitality and momentum that said, "There's a new sheriff in town, and she's brought the posse with her." The sheriff is Susan Burton, the new STC Director.

Hughes, Michael A. UXmatters (2007). Articles>Reviews>Knowledge Management

Review: STC Technical Communication Summit, Usability Track

The best part of my experience at the STC Summit was meeting people who, like me, are craving information on the trends of which we are such a large part--such as Web 2.0, user-centered design, and new software tools. For the most part, I got the information I craved. As a technical writer who is professionally heading deep into usability and user interface (UI) design, I actually went to the conference for the usability certificate program.

Marlett, Stacia. UXmatters (2007). Articles>Reviews>TC>Usability

Review: Submit Now: Designing Persuasive Web Sites  

The group that would probably benefit most from reading Submit now is marketers, particularly entry-level marketing managers or marketing students. The book does a fine job of connecting basic concepts of persuasion to designing Web sites that will motivate the four different types of Internet shoppers discussed earlier. I could, however, foresee how experienced marketers could find the information contained in this book too basic for their needs.

Coleman, Colleen. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Reviews>Writing>Marketing

Review: The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness

Whether you have been paying attention or not we are living in an age of aesthetics. So says Virginia Postrel in her latest book, The Substance of Style: How the Rise of Aesthetic Value Is Remaking Commerce, Culture, and Consciousness. Postrel examines how the role of aesthetics and style are transforming our culture and economy in a variety of ways.

MacLaughlin, Steve. Boxes and Arrows (2003). Articles>Reviews>Aesthetics

Review: Successful Writing At Work: Concise Edition    

Philip Kolin's purpose in writing Successful Writing at Work: Concise Edition is to introduce professional and business writing to undergraduate students who probably will not be taking other business writing courses. Kolin forgoes theory and provides ample exercises and examples. The concise edition, at 344 pages (10 chapters) and US$55, is 412 pages shorter and US$23 less than the full version, Successful Writing at Work (Kolin, 2006). While the book includes many of the important topics of the full version (such as discrete chapters devoted to letter writing, job applications, and writing procedures), the savings may not justify the loss of content and depth.

Dangler, Doug. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Reviews>Textbooks>Business Communication

Review: The Teacher-Researcher: How to Study Writing in the Classroom

The latest NCTE book list indicates that The Teacher-Researcher should interest English instructors at all levels. In fact, Myers’s “global purpose is to promote the development of teacher research among K-12 teachers by providing examples of different ways teachers can study writing in their classrooms,” mainly for assessment purposes (1). Although JAC readers may profit by applying some of Myers’s work in their research, The Teacher-Researcher as a whole is too eclectic and superficial. Because Myers sometimes treats details in his exposition rather cavalierly, he may confuse his primary audience as well.

Hagge, John. JAC (1987). Articles>Reviews>Education

Review: Teaching Yourself Adobe GoLive 4.0  

Reviews Adobe GoLive 4.0 Classroom in a Book, and Adobe GoLive 4.0 for Macintosh and Windows: Visual QuickStart Guide.

Wallia, C.J.S. Intercom (2000). Articles>Reviews>Software>Adobe GoLive

Review: Technical Communication  

Rebecca E. Burnett covers all the topics you'd expect in an introductory textbook for technical communicators. And she covers them thoroughly.

Campbell, Alexa. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Reviews>Textbooks>Technical Writing

Review: Technical Style: Technical Writing in a Digital Age  

Haile argues that 'books on technical writing often ignore the problems writers face in presenting equations and the problems readers face in decoding them.' That's often true. And, just as Edward Tufte's books show a passion for truth in statistical charts, Haile's analyses and prescriptions demonstrate how much he cares about clearing away the clutter that stands between readers and the underlying science.

Price, Jonathan R. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Writing>Technical Writing

Review: Technical Writing for Dummies  

If you're a professional technical communicator who is interested in gleaning a few tidbits of knowledge for yourself, while simultaneously preparing witty answers to the questions asked of you by those who don't know anything about the things you do, you might want to add a yellow or orange book to your bookshelf. You wouldn't be completely dumb or idiotic if you did.

Ecker, Pamela S. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>Writing>Technical Writing