#28179
Twenty-Five Years of Technical Communication
What hasn't changed in twenty-five years? There are a couple of things--things that aren't likely to change in the next twenty-five years either. Technical communicators will always have to prove the value of what they do. We'll discover new ways in which to contribute, but the need to prove our value will persist.
Kunz, Lawrence D. Carolina Communique (2004). Articles>TC>History
#29160
Two Centuries of Progress in Technical Communication 
A common aphorism in the halls of education is that the writing skills of Americans decline over time. Compared to the "golden age of letters," so the argument goes, each subsequent generation of writers is worse than the last. Although contemporary readers and educators commiserate over encounters with bad writing, a fair comparison of 18th century American exemplars to modern American exemplars reveals a significant advance in clarity, an advance that technical communicators can be proud of. To demonstrate the advances in expository writing over the past two centuries, the author compares what the authors of the U.S. Constitution did with their limited resources to what modern professional communicators do with their abundance of resources. Many of the communication problems that were pervasive when the U.S. Constitution was created have since been remedied by insights emerging from the fields of linguistics, human factors, and cognitive psychology, among others.
Connatser, Bradford R. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>TC>History>United States
#29145
#31846
Two Views on STC Certification 
The ongoing discussion of certification continues with these concurrent articles, each arguing a different side of the coin.
Rosenberg, Nad and Geoffrey J.S. Hart. Intercom (2008). Articles>Certification>TC>STC
#15218
Ukraine: A Technical Communication Perspective
Discusses Ukrainian communication practices and explains why the country could become an important region in the world economy.
St. Amant, Kirk R. Intercom (2002). Articles>TC>Regional>Ukraine
#19876
Understanding Capital Equipment
The purpose of this presentation is to explain capital equipment costs, budgeting and capital equipment purchase.
Caernarven-Smith, Patricia. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>TC>Technology
#23094
Urban Legends of the Technical Communication Field
Examines three widely held beliefs regarding technical communication and shows how they distort reality.
Statt, Ronald A. Intercom (2004). Articles>TC
#28581
Usability and its Significance in the Content World
Usability is more than just a means to achieve a certain percent satisfaction with the user. It is a 'common sense' approach to impart good quality methodologies to the system, be it related to design, placement of icons, navigation, content, or structure, that will eventually improve the product quality. Vikas discusses how usability relates to other facets of technology, and how Technical Writers can play a vital role in improving the product, while balancing usability and content.
Wadhwa, Vikas. International Journal for Technical Communication (2007). Articles>TC>Usability
#31834
Both technical communicators and usability professionals share an interest in how easily someone can use technical information. How efficiently does the writer help the reader glean the meaning of technical text? Is the experience of acquiring information satisfying or difficult?
Harvey, Michael. Usability Interface (2008). Articles>Usability>TC
#22195
Usability Metrics: Drawing Borders Ourselves
Two borders that are very important in a primarily undergraduate Technical Communication program are the theory/practice borders we face vis-à-vis our students, and vis-à-vis the practitioners who hire our students.
Benninghoff, Steve. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>TC>Usability>Theory
#20637
Usability: Lighting the Path to the Future of Technical Communication
The future of Technical Communication is something that we are all, as either practitioners, academics or students, keenly interested in. What is the future of our chosen discipline? What exactly is it that a practitioner in the field does today? This paper will explain that through examining one sub-discipline of Technical Communication, Usability, we may see an example of the beginnings of a pattern of professional development.
Torrence, Anthony. Orange Journal, The (2003). Articles>TC>Professionalism>Usability
#31086
The Use of Playing Cards to Communicate Technical and Scientific Information
This article analyzes several decks of playing cards designed to communicate technical or scientific information ranging from military topics to the domestic arts to medical subjects. It places each deck in its historical context, describes the appearance and organization of the cards, and speculates about intended audience and purpose, drawing upon relevant secondary literature. It then extrapolates the conventions of this unusual genre. Finally, it argues that technical communicators can profit from this study because it raises questions and offers insights about such important topics as audience adaptation, organizational patterns, and ethical practices. Ultimately, this study may encourage reflection about these and other issues and perhaps lead to discovery and innovation.
Malone, Edward A. Technical Communication Online (2008). Articles>Scientific Communication>TC>Genre
#24278
Use Your Fog Lights: Ten Values for Technical Communicators
Ten values that can be applied to technical communication are honesty, legality, privacy, quality, teamwork, loyalty, fairness (avoiding conjlict of interest), cultural sensitivity, social responsibilip,professional development, and advancing the profession. This article provides an operational definition of each value and a capsule-size real-world scenario that spotlights the value in an imbroglio of ethical conflict.
Allen, Lori A. and Daniel W. Voss. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>TC>Ethics
#30609
Uses for Virtual Reality in the Workplace and Classroom
Virtual reality and game technology can be used in the technical communication classrooms and the workplace as well as the laboratory. Because our communication into the 21st century will take many "technical" forms, the technology, creativity, degree of interaction, and multimedia designs of virtual reality simulations should become part of our communication technology in the 1990s. Although hypertext, hypermedia, computer-aided design (CAD), and multimedia, multisensory training applications are becoming more common in the workplace, the concept of virtual reality has seldom been translated into practical applications that require business and technical communicators to have special skills. As well, advances in holographic information create exciting new educational designs for the future.
Porter, Lynnette R. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>User Interface>3D
#31850
Using Constant Contact to Communicate with Your Members 
Using Constant Contact helped us distribute mass emails to (the former Region 4) STC members to promote a regional conference that we held in October 2007. This was a successful and professional-looking campaign. We signed up for a 60 day trial account to evaluate the Constant Contact service. The trial was so successful that our board voted to purchase an account for the NEO STC Community.
Spayer, Tricia. Tieline (2008). Articles>TC>Community Building>STC
#31883
Using Documentation Out of Sequence
User documentation is rarely, if ever, read like an ordinary book. Readers jump around, finding the information that they need to perform a particular task and pretty much ignore the rest. Until they need that information, of course.
DMN Communications (2008). Articles>TC>Writing
#23031
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
#29906
Using Handhelds in the Technical Communication Classroom
A report on the use of pocket PCs in a document design course and a graduate course researching the emerging technology of handhelds.
Smith, Elizabeth Overman 'Betsy'. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>TC>PDA
#28926
Using Technical Communication Skills in User Experience
Sometimes User Experience Design is chosen; sometimes it is thrust upon us. Putkey explains how technical communications was a natural path to a career in design.
Putkey, Theresa. Boxes and Arrows (2007). Articles>TC>User Experience
#30639
Using Technical Communication Skills in User Experience
User experience professionals can also learn some lessons from and find potential recruits in technical communicators as they have skills that can be applied directly to the design process.
Putkey, Theresa. Usability Interface (2007). Articles>TC>User Experience
#30305
The Value of Research in Technical Communication
Over the years, there has been much debate and discussion in the Society as to whether technical communication is a field, an endeavour, a profession or a discipline, none of the above or all of the above. The topics of professionalism, certification and accreditation have often appeared in the pages of Technical Communication and Intercom. I would like to take the opportunity to review the status of technical communication and to highlight the role of research in technical communication.
Hosier, William J. Boston Broadside (1991). Articles>TC>Research>Body of Knowledge
#24924
Virtual Communities: Weaving the Human Web
Muses on the increasing importance of communities in the technical communication profession.
Quesenbery, Whitney. Intercom (2005). Articles>TC>Community Building>Social Networking
#24271
Most technical communication programs are housed within departments that may not respect our field's separate identity nor share interdisciplinary concerns. An alternative is program independence. Although currently not the norm, and entailing potential practical and political drawbacks for some programs, such independence may be most appropriate for programs aiming to prepare students for technical communication careers. The benefits of independence can include: focusing the curriculum more adaptively; improving faculty status and teaching by balancing traditional academic norms with workplace standards and methods; and creating more powerful and effective identities for both our programs and our profession.
Rehling, Louise. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Education>TC
#23570
Vision Model: Where We Are Going
STC will be a vital, growing, and global 'community of communities' involved with the communication of technical information and the use of technology to communicate information.
STC Transformation (2004). Articles>TC>Planning
#29119
Visual Metonymy and Synecdoche: Rhetoric For Stage-Setting Images
The recent trend of incorporating more visuals into communication challenges technical communicators, who must now possess both verbal and visual literacy. Despite all the recent scholarship on visual aspects of technical communication, technical communicators lack thorough guidelines for selecting and composing effective images that convey thematic and conceptual information, or what Schriver calls "stage-setting" images. This article reviews existing literature in visual communication and reports results of a study that assessed readers' opinions of themes conveyed by specific example images. It then suggests that the rhetorical tropes of metonymy and synecdoche can be used to identify images for conveying certain themes, and that successful stage-setting images will show intrinsic, not extrinsic, relationships to their thematic subject matter.
Willerton, Russell. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2005). Articles>TC>Visual Rhetoric>Tropes
