#20793
Quotations Give You Wisdom of the Ages
Quotations allow you to tap a wealth of wisdom and ideas that have survived the test of time, or caught your attention amid information overload. They also give credibility to the speaker's points. But you must take care in choosing and using others' words.
Writing that Works (2003). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric
#19358
Rabbit Trails, Ephemera, and Other Stories: Feminist Methodology and Collaborative Research
As a basis for our exploration, we have analyzed our own experiences to date in four ongoing collaborative research groups. In using self-reflective critique as our method of analysis, we are keenly aware that the evolving nature of these collaborative groups has influenced the construction of our arguments here. And, conversely, we realize that our critique may in turn influence the evolution of these groups. Moreover, we recognize as a formative constraint our interest in preserving and continuing to work with colleagues in these groups. Plainly stated, we continually asked ourselves, 'Will the colleagues in our collaborative groups ever speak to us again after reading this article?' Because of this concern, we shared drafts with all of these colleagues, asked for their comments, and provided an opportunity for them to offer alternative interpretations.
Burnett, Rebecca E. and Helen Rothschild Ewald. JAC (1994). Articles>Rhetoric>Collaboration
#18370
Re-Examine Your Skills And Incorporate New Ideas To Keep Fresh
Anyone who has ever sat in an audience knows it's all too easy to watch a presentation and come away with – not much. The problem might be the content, or perhaps the technology used, but most likely the fault lies with the presenter. Although all speakers strive for brilliance, it's all too easy to be seen as dull or arrogant. So how does one avoid these labels when presenting? By continually looking for ways to change your presentation style. This is not always easy, since frequent presenters eventually develop a style that works for them in just about any setting. But it never hurts to re-analyze your skills and incorporate new ideas to keep fresh and in touch with your audience. Here are a few suggestions to consider when your style needs some dusting off.
Bingham, Chris. Presentations (2002). Articles>Presentations>Rhetoric
#29034
Augustus is often described as the emperor who transformed Rome from a city of brick to a city of marble. When he returned victorious to Rome in BCE 29, Augustus embarked on a project to rebuild Rome with the splendor its new imperial status demanded. Despite the tranquility and prosperity enjoyed by most Romans during the Early Empire, many also felt a sense of loss. Much had changed in their social order at the end of the Republic. The nobility and the lower classes began to share more interests and Roman society took on a more egalitarian and commercial nature. Under Emperor Augustus, the function of rhetoric was stripped from legislative arenas and confined mainly to legal courts and ceremonial competitions. In the spirit of renewed patriotism and pragmatism, principles of rhetoric were also applied to writing about technical subjects, such as engineering and architecture. Both Vitruvius and Cicero used his writing to persuade Roman citizens to reclaim their heritage: of building arts in Vitruvius case; of philosophy and meaningful public oratory in Cicero s case.
Longo, Bernadette. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2000). Articles>Rhetoric>History>Italy
#21978
Reading Darwin, Reading Nature; or, On the Ethos of Historical Science 
Darwin must be read and reread, interpreted and reinterpreted. We find this attention to a body of work that is well over a hundred years old to be highly unusual and worth investigating.
Miller, Carolyn R. and S. Michael Halloran. North Carolina State University (1993). Articles>Scientific Communication>History>Rhetoric
#15180
Discusses ways that public speakers can adjust to the body language and visual cues of their audiences.
Walinskas, Karl. Intercom (2001). Articles>Rhetoric>Presentations
#20527
Reality TV Meets Presentation Fears: A Shrinkrapp
It is important to focus on one’s thoughts when approaching presentations. Often these thoughts can be based on myths: widely held beliefs that just are not true.
Lee, Scott. Presenters University (2003). Articles>Presentations>Rhetoric
#14908
Reconsidering the Role of Plain Style in Technical Writing
According to the technical writing textbook used in the Introductory to Technical Writing class I teach, there are two purposes and at least five audiences of technical documents. Yet students are taught only one style of writing to satisfy all writing situations: the plain style. This essay examines the history and current state of plain style's role in technical writing. It further discusses plain style's relation to rhetorical and instrumental approaches to technical communication, and finally offers writing teachers a new approach to plain style and instrumental language in technical writing.
Campbell, Jill. Orange Journal, The (2002). Articles>Rhetoric>Writing
#27371
Procrastination can be productive.
Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric
#29162
Andrew Feenberg's critical theory of technology is an underutilized, relatively unknown resource in technical communication which could be exploited not only for its potential clarification of large social issues that involve our discipline, but also specifically toward the development of a critical theory of illustrations. Applications of critical theory help strengthen our discipline by forcing us to delineate extant approaches and consider whether democratic goals are being achieved through those approaches. If a critical theory of illustrations can be built from Feenberg's critical theory of technology, it should be useful for classroom instructors and researchers as well as theorists.
Northcut, Kathryn M. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Scientific Communication>Visual Rhetoric>Technical Illustration
#32055
Remembering Your Reader in Web Design
Technology advancements have allowed for many improvements and enhancements in web design. Drastic changes have been made concerning programming, development, and available features. From flash animations, to blog pages, forums, and live chat, website designers have a multitude of design elements that can be added to their websites. Multimedia products such as audio, video, and podcasts are some of the other advancements in web design. One thing that has not changed, however, is the website readers. Successful website developers know and understand this concept, and apply it to every website that they design.
Haig, Anders. ReEncoded (2008). Articles>Web Design>Rhetoric>Audience Analysis
#24817
Rendering Technical Communication: Toward a First Philosophy of First Principles
This presentation examines a tension—common to students, practitioners, and academics—central to answering some form of the question ‘what is technical communication?’ The tension can arise in the attempt to provide a concise yet sufficient answer that embodies the variety of either the skills used in preparing technical communication, or the types of technical communication produced. Principles of classical rhetoric are useful in examining this communicative tension, and the role of first principles in technical communication is scrutinized. From this the formulation of a first philosophy of first principles is attempted toward addressing the popular communicative tension.
Stone, Ronald L. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>TC>Rhetoric
#27350
Repetition works in stories, but only if you intend it. The repetition of key words, phrases, and story elements creates a rhythm, a pace, a structure, a drumbeat that reinforces the central theme of the work.
Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric
#24858
Resources for Teaching and Working with the Visual Aspects of Texts
An online guide that explains color theory and shows how to use it in design through examples and exercises.
Poynter Institute, The (2001). Articles>Education>Visual Rhetoric>Color
#15055
Rethinking Genre in School and Society: An Activity Theory Analysis 
This article attempts to expand and elaborate theories of social 'context' and formal schooling, to understand the stakes involved in writing. It first sketches ways Russian activity theory in the tradition of A. N. Leont'ev may expand Bakhtinian dialogism, then elaborates the theory in terms of North American genre research, with examples drawn from research on writing in the disciplines in higher education. By tracing the relations of disciplinary genre systems to educational genre systems, through the boundary of the classroom genre system, the analyst/reformer can construct a model of the interactions of classroom practices with wider social practices. Activity theory analysis of genre systems may offer a theoretical bridge between the sociology of education and Vygotskian social psychology of classroom interaction, and contribute toward resolving the knotty problem of the relation of macro- and microstructure in literacy research based on various social theories of 'context.'
Russell, David R. Written Communication (1997). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory>Rhetoric
#23666
Rethinking the Design of Presentation Slides
Summary, models, and templates of a new design of slides for technical presentations. This design is fully documented in Chapter 4 of The Craft of Scientific Presentations (Springer, 2003).
Alley, Michael. Penn State University (2004). Articles>Presentations>Information Design>Visual Rhetoric
#21629
La existencia del lenguaje visual propicia el concepto de y retórica u oratoria visual. Al igual que su contrapartida hablada, la visual tiene sus propias figuras y su forma de utilizarlas.
Dursteler, Juan Carlos. InfoVis (2003). (Spanish) Articles>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric
#27342
Reveal character traits to the reader through scenes, details, and dialogue.
Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Journalism>Rhetoric
#20639
The Rhetoric of Critical Procedures
One important aspect of technical writing is the production and use of procedures. Though technical writing serves a variety of purposes, teaching, informing, persuading, and even questioning, one of its primary and most common purposes is the 'how-to' function of providing procedures. There is a great deal of information available on writing procedures, the vast majority of it focusing on software documentation and product documentation.
Boelter, Walter H. Orange Journal, The (2003). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric>Technical Writing
#21974
The Rhetoric of Decision Science, or Herbert A. Simon Says
The tools of decision science are widely used and accepted in industrial and governmental decision making. But...
Miller, Carolyn R. North Carolina State University (1991). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory
#10402
The Rhetoric of Design: Implications for Corporate Intranets 
Sound structure and visual appeal are as important in attracting users to an intranet as the content itself because deliberate organizational and visual design allows users to navigate the site effectively and therefore helps users find the intranet a useful addition to their work flow rather than a burdensome one. In addition, by employing sound design principles, intranet developers will turn random facts filed away in databases or on servers into useful information, thus helping the intranet achieve its purpose as a medium for communicating and facilitating work processes in an organization. Unfortunately, design is an element that is sometimes overlooked in intranet development. To help developers better utilize design as an effective rhetorical tool in intranet development, this article examines issues such as creating form that is appropriate to function, determining audience needs and wants, and implementing structural and visual design principles. Intranet developers are often not professional comm
Jackson, Lisa Ann. Technical Communication Online (2000). Articles>Rhetoric>Information Design
#29078
The Rhetoric Of Promoting Health
This article uses Chaim Perelman's theories of argumentation to examine a recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) report, Promoting Health: Intervention Strategies from Social and Behavioral Research (2000). The IOM's text explores social and behavioral research to devise multipronged intervention strategies; it focuses on social, economic, behavioral, and political health as a means of assuring population health--and thereby expands the conventional boundaries of public health. Since Chaim Perelman's rhetoric is seldom applied in the field of health communication, employing his ideas to consider the role of style, arrangement, and argument in such a cutting-edge document can illuminate public health writing, as well as shed new light on Perelmanian rhetoric.
Hamilton, Margaret. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2002). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Rhetoric
#18921
Rhetoric, Community, and Cyberspace
Traditional notions of the rhetorical community as the locus of shared beliefs and values have been challenged increasingly and from several directions--from radical and post-liberal democratic political theory, from cultural studies and cultural criticism, and, most recently, from the perspective of the ill-defined and elusive 'place' called cyberspace. At the heart of these challenges is the problem of the relationship of the community to those outside it or on its margins, an uneasy relationship that is variously characterized as a tension between communitarianism and liberalism, between ourselves and Others, between a culture and its marginalized individuals, and as a complex relationship between the One and the Many. Contemporary notions of the rhetorical community characterize this community less as the locus of shared beliefs and values than as a public space or forum within which diverse and sometimes conflicting beliefs and values can be articulated and negotiated. We believe that new computer-mediated communication environments have the potential to become contemporary rhetorical communities--public spaces or forums--within which limited or local communities and individuals can develop mutual respect and understanding via dialogue and discussion. We recently tested our belief in a colloquium at Diversity University MOO, an electronic 'place' or cyberspace where individuals can 'meet' and 'chat' in real time.2 Our colloquium revealed to us a kind of rhetoric and a kind of community that seems quite unlike anything that we have seen before--seventeen 'voices' from different places all 'speaking' at once in the same 'place' and 'speaking' in fragments rather than complete discourses.
Zappen, James P., Laura J. Gurak and Stephen Doheny-Farina. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Articles>Cyberculture>Rhetoric>Online
#30565
Rhetorical Analysis of a Quick Reference Aid
The need for timely and relevant computer documentation is a constant challenge. Sometimes there is a need to redesign such documentation to make it more useful. Rhetorical analysis is a useful aid for technical communicators in redesigning such documentation. Using Kenneth Burke’s notion of terministic screens, a quick reference aid for the users of a machine-aided translation system is examined from the perspective of graphic communication. Although rhetorical analysis cannot replace accepted principles of good design, it allows the technical communicator to examine design decisions from another perspective, giving one a very different set of questions to consider and some principles of explanation to justify design decisions.
Brooksbank, Patricia L. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Methods>Rhetoric
#13986
Rhetorical Community: The Cultural Basis of Genre
Our understanding of genre as social action afflicts the typical first-year college writing program in the United States. It turns what should be a practical art of achieving social ends into a productive art of making texts that fit certain formal requirements.
Miller, Carolyn R. North Carolina State University (1994). Articles>Education>Writing>Rhetoric
