Administering Teacher Technology Training  

The collection of materials included here are designed to assist those, who for the first time, find themselves administering and developing an ongoing program for training teachers to use technology in the composition classroom.

Carnegie, Teena A.M., Amy C. Kimme Hea, Melinda Turley and David Menchaca. Kairos (2003). Articles>Education>Technology>Writing

Communication in Technology Transfer and Diffusion: Defining the Field    

Provides an introduction to our field’s connections with technology transfer and diffusion. Technology transfer, the complex social process that moves technology from bench to market, drives global economic growth; technology diffusion, the market-driven process by which innovations are adopted and implemented, follows similar patterns. Indeed, technology transfer and diffusion may be considered synonymous with the phenomenon of growth in a global economy.

Coppola, Nancy W. Technical Communication Quarterly (2006). Articles>Communication>Technology>Technical Writing

The Golden Rules  

Sometimes we focus so much on tools and technologies that we forget the underlying theory of basic, good technical writing. Yes, there are basic laws of technical writing which remain intact despite the constant changes in the way we produce documentation or the way users access it. Whether you are writing a printed user guide, an online reference manual, or context-sensitive online help, these same basic laws apply. I call these basic laws my 'golden rules' for producing effective user documentation and eliminating sloppy habits. This workshop covers each rule in detail, plus provides practical tips for applying them.

Guren, Leah. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Writing>Technology>Technical Writing

Infoneering: Beauty and the Beast

As someone who has been working as a writer in the high-technology field for better than a dozen years now, I have been watching with interest and enthusiasm the slow convergence of the disciplines of writing, interface design, and engineering. In the design of integrated help systems particularly, the traditional boundaries for developing content, interfaces, and features have blurred—resulting in a collaborative enterprise that I refer to as infoneering.

Sesnovich, Bruce A. Boston Broadside (2001). Articles>Writing>Technology

It's Not the Tool, It's the Writer

This blog post ponders whether or not technical communicators are sometimes too enamoured with the tools, and because of that lose sight of what's best for the reader.

DMN Communications (2008). Articles>TC>Technical Writing>Technology

Learning the Hard Way: How I Learned to K.I.S.S. (Keep It Simple, Stupid)

I used to believe that if you knew a subject well enough and were passionate about it, you could pen a masterpiece. But it was two years of working as an IT journalist (and never really understanding or liking it!) that actually taught me how to write.

Dower, Sophia. Communication World Bulletin (2005). Articles>Writing>Journalism>Technology

On the Relationship Between Old and New Technologies  

The author argues for complicating current views of writing technology, specifically views of the relationship between old and new literacy technologies. Using a Vygotskian theory and a grounded theory methodology, the author explores the uses of old and new technologies of three contemporary work sites to ground claims that a) competing visions of what technology is and what it can do are operative in contemporary workplaces, b) multiple literacy technologies are copresent in the conduct of work, and c) more advanced literacy technologies are not necessarily the most powerful within work cultures. The case studies are also interpreted through the lens of Bijker's theory of sociotechnical change.

Haas, Christina. Computers and Composition (1999). Articles>Technology>Writing

The Writing Process and Writing Technology: A Pre-Study for the Scribani Project  

One of the most common interdisciplinary feature in modern education seems to be an increasing interest in writing. While studies on this topic have already been carried out for a long time, only in the last decades the continuous technological changes have provided the means to develop more and more advanced tools to support writing (word processors are just a small example of such tools). Therefore, many research efforts have been made in order to design and develop computer writing environments.

Rossitto, Chiara. Royal Institute of Technology (2004). Articles>Writing>Technology>Scandinavia

Writing Technical Articles

The notes below apply to technical papers in computer science and electrical engineering, with emphasis on papers in systems and networks. Papers can be divided roughly into two categories, namely original research papers and survey papers. There are papers that combine the two elements, but most publication venues either only accept one or the other type or require the author to identify whether the paper should be evaluated as a research contribution or a survey paper.

Kaiser, Gail, Craig Partridge, Sumit Roy, Eric Siegel, Sal Stolfo, Luca Trevisan, Yechiam Yemini and Erez Zadok. Columbia University (2001). Articles>Writing>Technology

A Curmudgeon's Guide to Computer Documentation

Is documentation a bad word? It is if you’re the Curmudgeon, a character I invented, who some say bears an amazing resemblance to … me.

West, Mike. MBWest.com. Articles>Documentation>Technology>Technical Writing

Tech Terms to Avoid

Why tech writers use so much jargon, I don't know. Maybe it's self-aggrandizement; they want to lord their knowledge over everybody else. Maybe it's laziness; they can't be bothered to fish for a plain-English word. Maybe it's just habit; they spend all day talking shop with other nerds, so they slip into technospeak when they write for larger audiences. In any case, I'm making available to all, for the first time, my list of pretentious pet-peeve words to avoid.

Pogue, David. New York Times, The (2008). Articles>Technology>Writing

Technology Transfer: An Unparalleled Opportunity for Technical Writing Professionals    

This nation does not effectively transfer expensively acquired knowledge into cost-effective, labor-saving tools and processes.

Roberts, Suzanne S. IEEE PCS (1991). Articles>Knowledge Management>Technical Writing>Technology Transfer

David Pogue's Secret Weapon: Patience

New York Times gadget guy David Pogue, a former Broadway orchestra conductor and MacWorld back-page columnist, is probably the world's most widely read and watched tech product reviewer. As a fellow contributor to the Times, I can confirm that anything Pogue writes pulls down several times as many page views as my most popular work. How does he do it?

Boutin, Paul. Industry Standard (2009). Articles>Technology>Writing>Technical Writing

My Journey to Writing With a Wiki

Wikis aren’t just tools for techies. They're also also for writers. In this article, one writer describes how he uses a wiki for his work.

Nesbitt, Scott. ScottNesbitt.net (2009). Articles>Writing>Technology>Wikis

Writing Technical Articles

Some advice on writing articles about technology (and other topics) for a mass audience.

Nesbitt, Scott. ScottNesbitt.net (2008). Articles>Writing>Technology>Technical Writing

Writing Technically: Bad Docs Rarely Mean Bad Sales

Technical writing is a cost activity, not a revenue or a profit activity.

Basu, Anindita. Writing Technically (2009). Articles>Documentation>Technical Writing>Technology

Thoughts on Creating a Backup Strategy

Far too many writers have been in a situation where something goes wrong with their computer and their work is wiped out. They have to scramble to recover or (usually) redo that work, all for want of a good backup strategy.

Nesbitt, Scott. ScottNesbitt.net (2009). Articles>Technology>Writing

Must-Follow Trends for Tech Writers

Changes are so massive, so fast, and coming from so many directions that it is impossible to keep up. Still, it’s important to try. For anything that applies to IT applies to tech writing. Writers must be know something about everything and be ready for it. We’re going to have to specialize and collaborate more than ever before.

2moro Docs (2009). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Technology