Participatory Design and Technical Communication: Challenges and Opportunities in Programmatic Assessment and Evaluation  

Technical Communication pedagogies that are informed by theories of Participatory Design offer new challenges and opportunities for both the assessment of student work and group projects, and in the evaluation of programmatic goals.

Moore, Michael R. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Education>TC>Participatory Design

Participatory Team Process in Information Design  

Information Design often focuses on product over process and ignores the valuable role that technical communicators can play in facilitating a true team design activity. In this paper, authors argue for a definition of information design that focuses on process and offer a proven methodology called Participatory Team Process in recognition of its roots in Participatory Design. Authors discuss tenets of methodology; spell out the technical communicator’s role as facilitator, information manager, writer, and editor; and offer three examples of products created with the process: a computer interface, safety rule book, and curriculum guide.

Racine, Sam J., Carol S. Hoeniges and Christina R. Schulz. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Information Design>TC>Participatory Design

Patients, Medicines, and Information  

Van der Waarde summarizes the reasons why medicinal information provided to patients is often confusing and describes a method for evaluating its effectiveness.

van der Waarde, Karel. Intercom (2004). Articles>TC>Biomedical>Scientific Communication

Peek Into the Past: 90 Years of Technical Communication    

Take a look at your bookshelf: what is the copyright date of your earliest book on technical communication? I doubt whether you will find anything much earlier than 1965. I describe and comment briefly on several well-reputed technical writing books published between 1908 and 1965. Then I lead into the changes that have been occurring in the technical writing scene, and the impact these changes have had on us as professional technical communicators.

Blicq, Ronald S. IEEE PCS (2000). Articles>TC>History

A Peep into the Toolbox

What is the current scenario for applications and systems in the area of technical communication? Who is using which editor? And how many companies are using a Content-Management-System? To answer these and other questions, tekom conducted a survey from July to November 2006, which was conceived as an online questionnaire and made available via the tekom web site. 547 participants took part in the survey.

Straub, Daniela and Wolfgang Ziegler. tekom (2007). Articles>Content Management>TC>Surveys

Perceptions of Technical Communication: A New Study  

O'Briant analyzes the responses to a new survey conducted by STC on perceptions of technical communication. She includes comments by several leaders in the field.

O'Briant, Sally M. Intercom (2000). Articles>TC

Personal Values and Professional Ethics  

We consider the effects of personal values systems on codes of ethics and how community and professional standards of behavior may reinforce professional codes. We suggest that a professional code of ethics is strengthened and reinforced as it more closely follows this rich history.

Stoner, Russell B. and Ann Marie LaBara. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Ethics>Professionalism

Personas and the Technical Communicator

What's the problem with personas? They're a new concept to many communicators, and thus sufficiently unfamiliar to make them difficult to use. To help solve this problem, I developed a couple of personas to show you how it's done, and illustrate their implications for documentation.

Hart, Geoffrey J.S. Usability Interface (2006). Articles>TC>User Centered Design>Personas

Persuasion in Technical Communication: Applying the Information-Integration Theory  

Technical communicators are skilled rhetoricians whose persuasive documents include letters, reports, and proposals, and with these documents, technical communicators persuade their audience to accept their ideas. Persuasion is the method of supplying new information about a subject to change people’s attitude about that subject. According to the Information-Integration Theory people form their initial attitude about a subject when they first learn about it. As people receive new information about that subject, they adjust their attitude in relation to the new information.

Jeansonne, Jerold. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Rhetoric

Persuasion In Technical Communication: Not Necessarily Just Another Academic Exercise  

Four graduate students' papers on communication theory can contribute to the field of technical communication, specifically in two ways: increase our understanding of message production and reception; provide a context in which to develop a theory of technical communication. Several human communication theories have practical and theoretical applications to technical communication. Applying these human communication theories can increase our understanding of how a message is produced and received. Understanding the message, its sender, and its receiver in technical communication can help us to become more effective technical communicators as well as researchers and teachers of technical communication.

Kim, H. Young, Eric J. Ray, Cathy A. Shuffield and Jing Xu. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>TC>Rhetoric

Pith and Vinegar: What Do You Do for a Living?

Rather than authoring printed manuals and on-line help panels, technical communicators should be involved in or leading projects that make them unnecessary.

Harvey, Michael. Carolina Communique (2006). Articles>TC

Plasma Screens: The Dynamic New Wave in Internal Communications  

Informing an organization's employees about key messages is essential to creating and maintaining an efficient and effective work force. To help your employees stay informed, consider broadcasting your organization’s news on plasma screens that are accessible to all employees.

Sacharen, Chani H. and Ettie Gilead. Intercom (2006). Articles>TC>Workplace>Workflow

Podcasting and Vidcasting: The Future of Tech Comm

Advancing technology allows us to use the new technologies of podcasts (audio recordings delivered as .mp3 files) and vidcasts, or more properly, broadcast video to convey technical information. Effective audience analysis will determine whether multimedia is right for our users. We use the same correct rhetorical principles to communicate information aurally and visually as we do when creating text.

Agnew, Beth. Seneca College (2006). Articles>TC>Multimedia>Podcasting

Practical Tips for Aspiring Authors  

Three research projects provide a foundation for ten tips for authors aspiring to publish in technical communication journals. The research indicates that cognitive dissonance stimulates successful topics. Collaboration facilitates the research and writing processes. Responses of authors published in six technical communication journals in 1990 provide a positive view of publishing opportunities for authors who polish their prose and follow up on their submissions.

MacNealy, Mary Sue. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Publishing>TC

Practice What You Preach!

No matter how simple a task may first appear, you're better off to thoroughly read through the documentation, especially if the equipment you're using is borrowed. I've also learned that perhaps department stores really don't charge a fortune in comparison to my home project.

Davies, Beth. Boston Broadside (1991). Articles>Documentation>TC

Practitioners: What Research Should STC Fund to Help You at Work?  

This panel discussion is an open forum moderated by the STC Research Grants Committee; its goal is to elicit and discuss suggestions from STC members for research areas and topics the STC should sponsor. The input will help guide the members of the Research Grants Committee as they decide which research proposals to approve during the next year.

Rosenbaum, Stephanie L. and Janice C. 'Ginny' Redish. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Research>TC

Preparing Students to Work with Technical Staff  

Technical communication programs should help students prepare to work with technical staff as well as develop writing, analysis, and communication skills. This presentation identifies assignments faculty can use to help students prepare to work effectively with technical staff: learning about what the writing technical staff do; learning about working in technical settings; interviewing faculty and staff; writing about science and technology for different audiences; editing a research article manuscript; learning about data networking; shadowing a technical professional; publishing a newsletter incorporating graduates’ observations and suggestions; having technical staff as well as technical communicators as guest speakers; and participating in STC.

Samson, Donald C., Jr. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>TC>Collaboration

Professional Development Stem Overview  

The Professional Development stem provides opportunities to enhance your growth — as an individual in the technical communication profession, as a member of work teams, and as an active participant in STC. Through a variety of presentations, you’ll gain information that will assist in the evolution of your career plans, contribute to your personal enrichment, and improve your contributions as an STC leader within your chapter and the Society.

Ecker, Pamela S. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>TC>Education

Professional Identities: What Is Professional about Professional Communication?    

Professional communication is a growing component of English departments and other communication programs. Yet, in most cases, the term professional communication is used as a catchall term for various types of workplace and occupational writing. As such,professional communication, as it is currently framed, seems to have little to do with professionalsor the process of professionalization. This article calls for a more thoroughexamination of the concept of professional communication by reviewing (1) the ways inwhich researchers have used this term to describe the rhetoric of professionals who communicate,(2) the democratic and knowledge-based contradictions between rhetoricalscholarship and professional powers, and (3) the current challenges facing professionalworkers, including deprofessionalization and proletarianization. The author argues thatif professional communication research and teaching are to remain prominent parts ofacademic programs, researchers, theorists, teachers, and students must become moreaware of conceptual issues that inform and define professional work.

Faber, Brenton D. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>TC>Professionalism

Professional versus Practitioner: Making the Case for Theory

To the ongoing question over whether the status or role of the technical communicator is to be considered as that of a 'professional' versus a 'practitioner'. If the answer to this question is an unequivocal 'yes' then how do we as aspiring technical communicators position ourselves in the field to overcome this kind of prejudice and narrow-mindedness? Are there skills and theories that are important to learn or at least be aware of that will not only help foster respect for the field of technical communication as a recognized profession but also aid in distancing ourselves from being labeled mere practitioners?

Hubbard, Susan. Orange Journal, The (2002). Articles>TC>Professionalism

The Profile of Japanese Technical Communicators  

The profile of Japanese technical communicators was surveyed in December 1994. The most typical Japanese technical communicator is a 41-year-old man with an engineering degree; he works as a techncial writer/editor with management responsibility for a large-sized high-tech company and lives in Tokyo. In Japan, the profession of technical communication is very new, unknown, and low in its professional status in industry with virtually no formal education or research support from higher education.

Yotsuyanagi, Noriko and Earl E. McDowell. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>TC>Regional>Japan

Program/Professional Management/Identity    

Technical communication faces the same identity crisis in 2001 that it did in 1991, 1981, 1971,and 1901. It seems that no matter how much energy technical communicators invest in the development and promotion of their expertise in their social and economic marketplaces, there are always morepeople who do not know what they do or why than there are people who understand what technical communication is. Certainly, this forces program administrators to recycle old arguments while relivingold battles and working to maintain their own institutional and professional integrity. Here, years after the emergence of technical communication as a viable academic pursuit and career choice, people stillwonder if technical communication is a profession or not. There are two sources of identity crisis here: 1) mismatched standards for judging technical communication as a profession, and 2) ill-suited language for framing the qualities of technical communication professionals.

Williamson, William J. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>TC

Project Management for the Technical Communicator

Tasks need to be managed to be completed on time, with available resources to achieve the required result.

Bhatt, Sita Chandrakant. Indus (2005). Articles>Project Management>TC

Project Management in a Home-Based Environment  

Acxiom Corporation provides a wide spectrum of data products, data integration services, and mailing list services, as well as data warehousing and decision support services to major firms in the United States and United Kingdom. Effectively supporting the company¡¯s documentation needs requires a project process that keeps work flowing. The Documentation team developed a process consisting of four phases: planning, design, validation, and delivery. This triedand- true process contributes to the success of our home-based team.

McKee, Kimberly and Deborah Lovell. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Project Management>TC