Toward Consistency in Visual Information: Standardized Icons Based on Task    

Argues for continued work on developing standards for icon design. Suggests that icons should be standardized not just within products, but across applications. Suggests that icons be standardized based on the complexity of the task represented.

Gurak, Laura J. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Tracing Visual Narratives: User-Testing Methodology for Developing a Multimedia Museum Show    

As a cognitive framework for making meaning of the world, the narrative provides a powerful form for structuring information, and has been adopted as a useful design framework for many communicative forms, including interactive media. This paper reports on the use of visual narrative for user-testing an interactive museum show. The viewers’ perceived narratives of a sequence of graphics from a show on brain science were compared to the designers’ intended narrative. Mapping the audience’s reading of the visual arguments proved a useful testing structure in developing the show, with color and pattern tracking proving especially critical when viewers experienced novel or abstract information.

Kim, Loel. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Usability>Testing>Visual Rhetoric

Transferable and Local Writing Skills  

One indication of the state of our profession is the discriminations that we are just getting around to making: useful, even essential, 'sortings out' that, when then, are made, seem embarrassingly obvious. One such 'sorting out' or discrimination is essential for an understanding of what any composition class can do, whether advanced composition, technical writing, feature writing, or whatever. In the writer’s repertoire, there are local and transferable skills. Local skills have to do with a given genre and involve such matters as special forms (e. g., the scientific report), footnoting, vocabularies, special styles, and even the 'tones' that particular fields demand. Transferable skills are the 'basics' of writing: syntactic fluency, control of diction, sense of audience, organizational ability, 'mechanics' such as punctuation and spelling.

Winterowd, W. Ross. JAC (1980). Articles>TC>Writing>Rhetoric

A Transformative Typology of Pragmatic and Ethical Responses to Common Corporate Crises: Interaction of Rhetorical Strategies, Situational Contingencies, and Influential Stakeholders  

Scandals, accidents, product problems, criminal activity, deception or fraud, misconduct, harassment, discrimination, financial or regulatory improprieties, malfeasance, misappropriations, or ethical breaches can not only damage the reputation of corporate executives but can reek financial havoc on the value of a company’s brand 'assets.' When companies face these types of crises they are compelled to act quickly and decisively in order to limit their brand and image losses and seek to repair the 'black eye' to their corporate 'face' as effectively as possible. Although companies will attempt a wide range of actions and messages as symbolic appeals to that organization’s constituent publics, there is little certainty about what types of actions and messages are persuasive.

Wallace, J.D., Denise P. Ferguson and Robert C. Chandler. Association for Business Communication (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Rhetoric

Treating Professional Writing as Social Praxis  

To explore how professional communications are shaped by the worlds of work, scholars have drawn on several different ways of thinking about the relationship between texts and contexts--literary theories, sociolinguistics, organizational theory, ethnography, and theories of composition. I would like to draw on classical rhetoric to develop a philosophical justification for stressing the social and ethical dimensions of business and technical writing. I am not specifically interested here in how we can apply the techniques of classical rhetoric to professional writing, but in how we can revitalize classical rhetoric's general emphasis on ethical and political values. While classical rhetoric assumed ethical and political values that need to be questioned, it does provide a context in which to ask questions about values, questions that are too often ignored in professional writing classes. Classical rhetoric is particularly useful in talking about technical and business writing because Aristotle's three-part conceptualization of theoria, proxis, and techne undercuts the dichotomy of theory and practice that often limits instruction in 'practical' writing to the mere techniques of the craft. Classical rhetoric can also help us develop a broader social perspective on practical writing, a perspective that includes not just the social context of the company or profession but the larger public context as well.

Miller, Thomas P. JAC (1991). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Rhetoric

Trust by Design

Studies regarding how people evaluate a web site's credibility show the critical importance of information design and structure. Users trust sites that are well-designed and well-organized. Poor navigation is the key element that decreases earned web credibility.

Semantic Studios (2004). Articles>Web Design>Usability>Rhetoric

Tune Your Voice

What is voice, and how does the writer tune it?

Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Twelve Exercises for Improving Dialogue

Dialogue is one of the most difficult aspects of writing to master. There are many pitfalls you must try to avoid, such as: Stilted language Dialogue that does not sound like natural speech. Filler Dialogue that does not further the scene and does not deepen your understanding of the characters. Exposition Dialogue that has the character explain the plot or repeat information for the benefit of the audience. Naming Having one character use another character’s name to establish identity. People almost never say other people’s names back to them, and if they do it is a character trait typical of a used car salesman. Overuse of Modifiers Too many dialogue modifiers such as shouted, exclaimed, cried, whispered, stammered, opined, insinuated, hedged and a million others. Modifiers such as this can sometimes be useful, but are often annoying and used as a crutch for poorly designed dialogue.

Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Screenwriting

Twenty-Two Tips for Writing Software Documentation Users Will Actually Read

How do you go about writing technical manuals for software without going insane? Here are some guidelines you can follow to maintain your sanity when writing software documentation.

HelpScribe (2008). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric>Software

Uncertainties and Resistance to Change  

This paper aims to fill a gap between knowledge and practice about the effectiveness of rhetorical strategies in the communication of change inside large private organizations.

Modena, Ivana. Association for Business Communication (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Rhetoric

Uncovering Organizational Culture: Making Sense of the Corporate World  

Understanding an organization's corporate culture can help explain how to get things done in an organization: communicate, advanced up the corporate ladder, and get project ideas accepted and completed. We can understand culture by identifying values, norms, and assumptions underlying the corporate 'world..' Cultures can he better understood by looking at such things as how an organization responds to crisis, how the intentions of group leaders come to be shared, and how an organization perceives itself. For example, a study of culture at one organization revealed such differing values between two groups, scientists and engineers, that cross-cultural mediation was necessary.

Kahn, Russell L. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Workplace>Rhetoric>Organizational Communication

Understand Film Language: An Introduction for Technical Communicators  

The techniques of film language areas important to video and multimedia presentations as the techniques of written language are to technical documentation. Film language consists of such components as shot content, frame composition, camera movement, color (or shade), lighting, and film transitions. Film transitions are the way in which shots and sequences are connected and carry specific semantic weight for the viewer. However for many technical video-makers, the meanings of film transitions are overlooked in favor of flashy presentations or are abused to cover a problem. In developing videos for training or informational purposes, we should respect and understand the significance of film transitions and other aspects of film language.

Tillman, Michael A. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Multimedia>Visual Rhetoric>Technical Writing

Understanding and Reducing the Knowledge Effect: Implications for Writers    

To be effective, writers must understand what knowledge they share with the audience and what they do not. Achieving this understanding is made difficult by the knowledge effect--a tendency of individuals to assume that their own knowledge is shared by others. Understanding the knowledge effect and methods for reducing it is potentially useful for understanding and teaching writing. In Study 1, we explored the impact of an individual's knowledge of technical terms on that person's ability to estimate other people's understanding of those terms. We assessed how individuals' familiarity with technical terms influenced their predictions that college freshmen and college graduates would understand those terms. Results indicate that familiarity with the meaning of technical terms leads to substantial overestimation of others' knowledge. In Study 2, we evaluated an online tutor designed to improve writers' predictions of other's word knowledge by providing them with feedback on the accuracy of their judgments.

Hayes, John R. and Diana Bajzek. Written Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Rhetoric>Writing

Understanding Metaphors for Writing: In Defense of the Conduit Metaphor    

The Conduit Metaphor has been roundly condemned by language scholars, including scholars in rhetoric and composition, but it is time to reevaluate its import and value. Rather than simply asserting a mistaken view of linguistic communication, the Conduit Metaphor combines with the metaphor Language Is Power to form a prudentially applied ethical measure of discourses, genres, and texts.

Eubanks, Philip. CCC (2001). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory>Tropes

Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments      

This essay illustrates key features of visual rhetoric as they operate in two professional academic hypertexts and student work designed for the World Wide Web. By looking at features like audience stance, transparency, and hybridity, writing teachers can teach visual rhetoric as a transformative process of design. Critiquing and producing writing in digital environments offers a welcome return to rhetorical principles and an important pedagogy of writing as design.

Hocks, Mary E. CCC (2003). Articles>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric>Writing

Untangling the Law: Verbal Design in Legal Argument  

“The law is a seamless web,” law professors are fond of reminding their students. The lightest touch on any strand will send vibrations through the entire intricate structure. Every legal issue, rule, and theory is integrally connected; thus attention to any part affects the whole. Ironically, the metaphor’s appropriateness extends beyond this initial image since the slightest vibrations running through even the most beautiful web will alert the waiting spider—the beauty disguises a deadly trap.

Woolever, Kristin R. JAC (1986). Articles>Rhetoric>Legal

The Untapped Potential of Voice

Think back a few years, to a time when most enewsletters were text-only, packed with useful information and carrying the unmistakable voice of the writer.

Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Use Metaphors to Communicate, Not Decorate

Good metaphors emerge from the writer's experience and observation. They connect the readers' knowledge to new ideas or information through concrete images.

Writing that Works (2003). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Tropes

The Use of Pathos in Charity Letters: Some Notes Toward a Theory and Analysis    

Americans contribute $240 billion dollars to charities each year, raised in part by writing letters to potential donors. While it is debatable what the reasons are for donors to give so much money, most donors seem to be moved to contribute by pathos, particularly pity. The concept of pathos as a rhetorical appeal has become more complex over the years, growing from a simple strategy to a complicated set of parameters requiring careful delineation. Beginning with the Greeks, particularly Aristotle, pathos was defined with greater clarity (especially the concept of enargia), with Aristotle's formal definitions of the emotions, and with the use of an image upon which to direct the audience's pity. Cicero adds to the theory by calling for the use of pathos in the peroration and reinforcing Aristotle's emphasis on careful audience analysis. St. Augustine and those who follow, including Renaissance, 18thcentury rhetoricians, and 20th-century scholars like Kenneth Burke, argue that style can also be an effective persuasive strategy for a pathetic appeal. Accordingly, the charity letters examined illustrate not only Aristotle's and Cicero's tenets but also show that elements of style, particularly rhetorical figures and schemes, are common rhetorical strategies used in these charity letters. While at first the rhetoric of charity letters seems simple and straightforward, to raise billions of dollars every year charity letters use sophisticated appeals to pity that have a long and interesting history.

Myers, Marshall. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Rhetoric

Use Strong Verbs

Use verbs in their strongest form, the simple present or past. Strong verbs create action, save words, and reveal the players.

Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Diction>Rhetoric

Using a Writing Method to Design Applications  

Arguing that technical writers have the skills to do more than write documentation, Van Mansom demonstrates how technical writers can apply writing methods to the creation of software.

Van Mansom, Kees. Intercom (2001). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Using Color in Your Documents

People often use colors in their documents in the wrong ways. Many students think that bright colors should be used in a document when they want to attract someone’s eye to a place on the page. Colors alone, however, should be used in synch with white space, font size, type and placement of whatever it is you want someone to be attracted to. Furthermore, just because something is filled with a bright color does not mean that it is eye-catching or attractive. True, bright colors will quickly draw the eye there, but use colors in a way that will make the eye stay there, not glance away in disgust.

Lanier, Clinton R. sense and usability (2008). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric>Color

Using Emulation to Teach Nonverbal Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century  

Although nonverbal technical communication played a key role in the nineteenth century introduction of varied technologies, verbal communication has been emphasized in most technical communication textbooks and classes. Recognizing that nonverbal communication is substantively different than verbal communication, this paper offers a heuristic table to be used to teach nonverbal technical communication.

Brockmann, R. John. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Rhetoric>TC

Using Text Organizers  

Many technical documents are rich in text and poor in graphics. Not all documents have photographs and illustrations to provide the reader with visual cues. Text organizers can be used as a method for relieving the visual grayness that happens when a document is all text. Headlines, kickers, subheads, headers, footers, pull quotes, and bulleted lists are all text organizers that can be used throughout a technical document to promote a better flow of information.

Sadowski, Mary A. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric>Technical Illustration

Using the Enthymeme as a Heuristic in Professional Writing Courses  

In the following pages, I will offer a methodology for letter and memoranda writing which exchanges an emphasis on forms for one on rhetorical analysis. Ultimately, training in rhetorical analysis helps students exercise and refine the analytical and analogical thinking needed for any discipline; that is, a professional writing course can serve, as Carolyn Miller says, to 'present mechanical rules and skills against a broad understanding of why and how to adjust or violate the rules, of the social implications of the roles a writer casts for himself or herself, and for the reader, and of the ethical repercussions of one’s words—effects which emphasize the fundamental nature of the humanities' (617). But before addressing how a professional writing course advances a liberal education, or even why to adopt a new methodology, it would be instructive to look at the causes for a letter such as the one which opens this article. Certainly, cost is a consideration, it being cheaper to mail form letters than have secretaries research and write personalized letters; for a mail order business, though, especially one whose clientele pay substantial prices, this strategy may be penny-wise and pound-foolish. However, the two causes I want to discuss pertain more to the concerns of a writing class: the writer’s reliance on forms, and the lack of analysis of context and audience.

Jacobi, Martin. JAC (1987). Articles>Rhetoric>Writing>Business Communication