Visuals When You Have No Visuals

You have just been asked to to give a 30-45 minute speech at a conference and there is absolutely no time to put visuals together for it. You're panicked at the thought of boring these people to death. What can you do? Use Word pictures.

Miller, Anne. Presenters University (2003). Articles>Presentations>Rhetoric>Microsoft PowerPoint

Want to Talk About...: A Rhetorical Analysis of the Introductions of 40 Speeches About Engineering    

This article investigates the introductions of 40 professional speeches from a rhetorical perspective to address the problems audiences seem to have with presentations about engineering. The authors use an exordial model that they derived from classical manuals on rhetoric. This model enumerates and groups rhetorical exordial techniques into 3 main functions: attentum, benevolum, and docilem . The study shows that rhetorically complete introductions are rare. Most of the speakers seemed to prefer a content-oriented, direct approach (docilem) in their introductions and seldom used techniques to garner the audience's attention (attentum) or sympathy (benevolum). The article concludes with an evaluation of the exordial model and a discussion of the study's pedagogical implications.

Van De Mieroop, Dorien, Jaap de Jong and Bas Andeweg. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Rhetoric>Engineering

Welcome to the Third Dimension: Spatial Elements in Exhibit Design  

Modern exhibit design and conventional technical communication are both concerned with verbal and visual presentation of information. Another aspect, not relevant to written technical communication but fundamental to exhibit design is the use of 3dimensional space. This paper examines two spatial elements in exhibit design: Visitor circulation patterns and the scale of displays. Circulation patterns are the paths taken by visitors through the exhibit area. Scale refers to the size of exhibits and architectural features in relation to the size of the average visitor. By comparing two visitor center exhibits that take very different approaches, I will argue that these spacial elements carry meaning and, like any other message, they can influence the thoughts, feelings, and actions of spectators.

Jackson, Patricia. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Presentations>Visual Rhetoric

What Counts as Writing? An Argument From Engineers' Practice  

My argument attempts to add to the kinds of documents seen as worth studying in the discipline loosely known as English. Over the last twenty years, we have moved from thinking that only literature is worth studying to including student writing, business writing, technical writing, and so on as part of our field of study. I think we have to extend our attention to documents which are even less literature-like. Calling these documents 'writing' has consequences for our understanding of both writing and the various fields in which it occurs. As Lisa Ede and Andrea Lunsford point out, 'We name in order to know, but that naming inevitably limits our knowing. . . . Definitions of writing, of course, reflect a set of ideological assumptions that we ignore only at our peril' (15). The ideological assumptions we ignore here have to do with how knowledge is created and how much control individuals have over their own knowing. Ideology leads both us and engineers to deny that writing has occurred in much engineering practice.

Winsor, Dorothy A. JAC (1992). Articles>Rhetoric>Engineering

What Good Writers and Editors Know About Design  

Words seldom exist in a visual vacuum. With the exception of audio tapes and speeches, words are designed to be read-on book and magazine pages, on computer screens, even on product boxes. And how well those words are designed can greatly influence how often and closely they are read. To communicate effectively, good writers and editors must combine their words with good designs.

Gustafson, Jolene. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Writing>Visual Rhetoric

What Historical Rhetoric Concepts Can Tell Us about Contemporary Professional and Technical Writing Practices  

A study of how three historical rhetorical concepts (kairos, memoria, and mestiza consciousness) are relevant to professional communication practices today, and productive historical concepts for contemporary practitioners.

Haas, Angela. Michigan State University (2004). Articles>Rhetoric>History>Technical Writing

What is Plain English?

Over the last two decades, a ‘culture of clarity’ has been gaining ground in many large organisations around the English-speaking world. In the United Kingdom, government departments, banks, insurance companies, local councils and others have come to realise that clear communication is actually a good idea. Instead of writing to impress or confuse, they are now writing to inform and explain. They are using plain English to do this.

Word Centre. Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Minimalism

What is Rhetoric?

Most of us are used to hearing the word 'rhetoric' used with an exclusively pejorative meaning. This article provides a brief overview of the nature and scope of rhetoric as a legitimate and practical field of academic study.

MacLennan, Jennifer. University of Saskatchewan (2002). Articles>Rhetoric

What Technical Writers Can Learn from Christopher Alexander's Pattern Language

In a series of books, Christopher Alexander, an urban planner and architect, has inspired object-oriented programmers with his idea of a pattern language-originally, a catalog of solutions to common problems faced by any community or individual creating a livable structure such as a town or a house. His approach might also help technical communicators polish and perfect our own standard rhetorical structures (such as the procedure, user guide, or reference), viewed as common ways of answering frequent, if virtual, questions from our users . Alexander's way of describing age-old patterns such as neighborhoods, streets, paths, and homes may give us a model for creating our own set of patterns in technical communication, whether or not we adopt some of the eager elaborations offered by folks in the object-oriented design world. What's a pattern? For Alexander, a pattern is a practical guide to resolving any problem that occurs over and over, such as how to lay out common ground for a town square, or punch a hole in a wall for a door.

Price, Jonathan R. Communication Circle, The (2001). Articles>Information Design>Rhetoric

What We Can Learn About Document Design From A Study of the Visual Convergence of the News Media  

Information presentation trends that traverse media boundaries point to a visual convergence among print, television, and the web. Examination of how this process takes place through “remediation” in the news media provides insight into the broader media and cultural context in which technical documentation resides. Creating new knowledge for technical communicators who are beyond an elementary understanding of document design requires interdisciplinary research that investigates how usability is redefined in an age of visual convergence.

Cooke, Lynne. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric

What's Civic About Technical Communication? Technical Communication and the Rhetoric of 'Community'    

Although the concept of community has been advanced in technical communication as a moral reference point for civic rhetorical action, this concept is typically used in romantic, redemptive, and essentializing ways. This article argues for a radical and symbolic/rhetorical view of community, regarding it a discursive construct purposefully invoked by technical writers for strategic reasons.

Ornatowski, Cezar M. and Linn K. Bekins. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>TC>Community Building>Rhetoric

Where the Visual Meets the Verbal: Collaboration as Conversation  

If words follow pictures, as when a poet creates a poem in response to a work of art, then words become a way of seeing. Collaborations between verbal and visual artists produce such insights, regardless of whether the poet responds to the painter or the painter to the poet, since each is speaking in turn in the artistic dialogue which collaboration produces. Yet "Artistic practice and art history have not always looked favorably upon collaborations.

Miltner, Robert. Enculturation (2001). Articles>Collaboration>Visual Rhetoric

Whose Ideas?: The Technical Writer's Expertise In Inventio      

Compelling arguments from researchers studying the rhetoric of science have convinced both scientists and humanists that technical writing involves invention, or discovery of the available means of argument. If we agree that inventio is crucial to technical writing, however, we encounter a problem: namely, that the rhetor engaged in invention as part of a technical writing process does not necessarily have expertise in the subject matter of the composition. What, then, is the expertise that the technical writer contributes to the invention process? Working from the notion that knowledge is an activity rather than a commodity, I argue that a technical writer's expertise in invention lies in an ability to adapt rhetorical heuristics to situations of interdisciplinary collaboration. This focus expands our understanding of how invention works when the goal of communication is producing knowledge across disciplinary boundaries, rather than winning an argument with persuasive techniques.

Harkness Regli, Susan. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (1999). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Rhetoric

Why a Good Title Makes a White Paper

The title is your white paper's absolute first impression. In it rests success or failure for the words that lie beyond, waiting for a reader. If the title does not encourage someone to read further, the ink that coats your white paper will never be seen.

Stelzner, Michael A. WhitePaperSource (2006). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>White Papers

Why Do Business Cases Fail? What Can You Do About It?

A business case may predict excellent results yet still fail to 'make the case.' We see project managers, IT directors, sales people, and others who have just had the painful experience: they predicted great cash flow, high ROI, and short payback - and still got a thumbs down from top management.

Solution Matrix (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Rhetoric>Business Case

Why Write Instructions That No One is Going to Read?

I know that a lot of people never read instruction manuals or online help. But you know what? Some people do.

HelpScribe (2008). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric>Technical Writing

Wi-Fi Rhetoric: Driving Mobile Technologies   

I argue that the wi-fi industry promises mobility, security, and entertainment not by emphasizing the open-spectrum technologies upon which they are based but through strategies that anticipate and recycle generic consumer values. These values—obtained by quantifying and interpretting consumer behaviors or "choices"—are represented by a universal product image that obfuscates difference, contradiction, and conflict in order to distribute products efficiently to a mass audience.

Moeller, Ryan. Kairos (2004). Articles>Rhetoric>Wireless Web

Winning Content Persuades, Not Manipulates

Elements of persuasion are important to creating winning content. To help safeguard content from becoming manipulation, we need to understand its distinction from persuasion. As a step toward that understanding, this article: provides basic definitions of persuasion and manipulation; explores the key differences between them; and describes some consequences for UX content.

Jones, Colleen. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Web Design>Writing>Rhetoric

The Wonder of Writing Across the Curriculum    

The main reason I got involved with writing across the curriculum fifteen years ago was administrative and related to campus politics. The main reason I have stayed actively involved in writing across the curriculum for fifteen years is personal and related to my teaching. Quite simply, I am a better teacher because of writing across the curriculum. So while motivations and intentions are messy things to characterize, for me the combination of administrative and teaching responsibilities and personal and public desires have led to most of my professorial life being engaged in writing across the curriculum — in my own classroom and on my college campuses — first at Michigan Tech, and now for six years at Clemson University.

Young, Art. LLAD (1994). Articles>Rhetoric>Writing Across the Curriculum

Words into Pictures: Applying Visual Thinking to Online Documentation  

How can writers enhance their visual literacy in order to create effective online documentation? By partnering multimedia production expertise with technical writing expertise, DVS Communications and Bell-Northern Research (BNR) have co-developed an introductory course 'Words into Pictures' that stimulates visual thinking capabilities. This paper describes the main components of the course and illustrates its contribution to the success of BNR's online information system CADHELP.

Couse, Mary M., Malcolm W.J.F. Graham and Louis W. Stokes. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Documentation>Online>Visual Rhetoric

Write a Strong Close

If the average business letter starts poorly, then it invariably finishes poorly. Your closing paragraph should bring your letter to a polite, businesslike close. Typical final paragraphs in business letters invite the reader to write again or use overused and meaningless phrases that detract from the impact of the letter.

Newman, Judith M. LupinWorks. Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Rhetoric

Write Endings to Lock the Box

All writers have a license to end, and there are many ways to do so.

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

Writers and Their Maps: The Construction of a GAO Report on Sexual Harassment      

This article examines a 1994 General Accounting Office (GAO) report on sexual harassment at U.S. service academies to determine how power structures affected the report writers’ rhetorical choices. Employing postmodern mapping theories, the article identifies what is valued and devalued in the report’s contents. Then it describes Congress’s reaction to the report and speculates on the report’s impact on public discourse and subsequent social action. It offers postmapping theory as a way of understanding the relationship between discourse and power in policy reports.

Cargile Cook, Kelli. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Rhetoric>Reports>Sexual Harassment

Writers Who Love Words Too Much  

Cautions writers against a variety of linguistic sins.

Belding, Janet R. Intercom (2002). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Writing a Successful Speech

At some point in your career, you will find it necessary to do a speech or presentation. Sound scary? Something you're not sure you can do? Let's take a look at how to write a successful speech that will get the results you want.

Turner, Gordon. STC Williamette Valley (2002). Articles>Rhetoric>Presentations