#13729
Publishing Futures Within (or Without) the Humanities
Humanities disciplines have attributed enormous importance to scholarly publishing, but have not yet sufficiently examined the changes of circumstance which have re-formed the nature and interests of the publishing industry in recent decades.
Sauer, Geoffrey. Society for Critical Exchange (1999). Articles>Publishing>Assessment>History
#21368
Ranganathan for Information Architects
S.R. Ranganathan was the greatest librarian of the 20th Century. His ideas influenced every aspect of library science, yet, as impressive as his accomplishments were, Ranganathan didn't start out with the intention of becoming a librarian at all.
Steckel, Mike. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Information Design>History
#29034
Augustus is often described as the emperor who transformed Rome from a city of brick to a city of marble. When he returned victorious to Rome in BCE 29, Augustus embarked on a project to rebuild Rome with the splendor its new imperial status demanded. Despite the tranquility and prosperity enjoyed by most Romans during the Early Empire, many also felt a sense of loss. Much had changed in their social order at the end of the Republic. The nobility and the lower classes began to share more interests and Roman society took on a more egalitarian and commercial nature. Under Emperor Augustus, the function of rhetoric was stripped from legislative arenas and confined mainly to legal courts and ceremonial competitions. In the spirit of renewed patriotism and pragmatism, principles of rhetoric were also applied to writing about technical subjects, such as engineering and architecture. Both Vitruvius and Cicero used his writing to persuade Roman citizens to reclaim their heritage: of building arts in Vitruvius case; of philosophy and meaningful public oratory in Cicero s case.
Longo, Bernadette. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2000). Articles>Rhetoric>History>Italy
#21978
Reading Darwin, Reading Nature; or, On the Ethos of Historical Science 
Darwin must be read and reread, interpreted and reinterpreted. We find this attention to a body of work that is well over a hundred years old to be highly unusual and worth investigating.
Miller, Carolyn R. and S. Michael Halloran. North Carolina State University (1993). Articles>Scientific Communication>History>Rhetoric
#29210
Reflections on Technical Communication Quarterly, 1991-2003: The Manuscript Review Process 
This article traces the development of Technical Communication Quarterly (TCQ), beginning with the first issue in the winter of 1991, through the 2003 issues. As co-editor of TCQ, charged with the manuscript review process, I shepherded more than 350 manuscripts through evaluation and about one-fourth of those through publication. In this article, I explain that process and how it changed when The Technical Writing Teacher became TCQ and what features our reviewers now believe make a successful TCQ article.
Lay, Mary M. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Research>Publishing>History
#13908
Report of the Technical Writer, 2014: A Possible Future 
My task here is to ponder the next twenty years of technical communication as a way of stimulating discussion about our current values. Since I'm an historical scholar and not a futurologist, I'm going to prevail upon you to join me in a thought experiment. Instead of looking forward in the usual manner of labor department reports and trend-searching popular prophets, let's follow the practice of science fiction writers-I apologize in advance to William Gibson and other masters-and place ourselves ahead in the year 2014, then look back, beginning with our own time in 1994, writing, as it were, the history of the present.
Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. CPTSC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>TC>History
#13232
Researching the History of Technical Communication: Accessing and Analyzing Corporate Archives
The historical roots of technical communication are just beginning to be identified and researched. Although many of the theoretical foundations of the field may be understood by focusing on the history of technical communication, several current interests and needs of practicing professionals may also be addressed through the study of the field’s history. With knowledge of the different kinds of corporate archival materials, of their typical locations, and of the techniques for using them, practitioners can begin to study and apply information from the past to their current work. Historical research also provides knowledge of corporate cultures and enhances the identity and professional status of technical communicators.
Shirk, Henrietta Nickels. STC Proceedings (2000). Presentations>TC>History
#22104
Review: Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century
Ever wonder about the relationship between academia and the corporate world? Or if you are on the corporate side (as I am), have you wondered why academia operates as it does? (And vice versa.) If so, Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century offers great insights that may help you gain an understanding of how each world operates, why they operate as they do, and how the two worlds influence and can alter the future of technical communication.
Staples, Jeff. Technical Communication Online (2002). Articles>Reviews>TC>History
#30222
This report goes to great lengths to explore the origins, history, and maturity of software-based office suites and Microsoft Office for the Mac.
McLean, Prince. AppleInsider (2007). Articles>Software>History
#10369
The Roots of SGML: A Personal Recollection
One of the inventors of the markup language that evolved into Standard Generalized Markup Language describes the origins of SGML and provides an anecdotal history of markup language development from the late 1960s to the 1980s.
Goldfarb, Charles F. Technical Communication Online (1999). Articles>Information Design>SGML>History
#29682
Same Methods, Different Disciplines: The Historian and Linguist as Technical Communicators
Can a liberal arts degree be parlayed into a career in technical communication? The presenters explain how they did precisely that, applying the overarching principle: 'Same method, different discipline.' This paper provides examples of how a history major (lead author Maureen Hogg) and an English major (co-author Dan Voss) drew upon the skills they honed as undergraduates in their respective majors to advance their careers as technical communicators at Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corporation in Boulder, CO, and Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control in Orlando, FL, respectively. In Part 1, Hogg takes several principles of historiography and shows how she applied them in developing a series of information products on Ball Aerospace's landmark Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) program. In Part 2, Voss shows how principles of rhetorical analysis he learned in a course on linguistics became the linchpin in a year-long integrated strategic communication campaign that helped Lockheed Martin land a major contract to build the next-generation air-to-ground missile system for the U.S. Army, Navy, and Marine Corps.
Hogg, Maureen and Daniel W. Voss. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>TC>Linguistics>History
#24444
Explains how rhetoric is related to modes of inquiry and to the social community in classical rhetoric and in scientific rhetoric in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
Zappen, James P. WAC Clearinghouse (1991). Articles>History>Scientific Communication
#15191
September 1, 1999, through November 30, 1999
This report covers specifications, standards, and amendments received from September 1, 1999, through November 30, 1999. Special emphasis has been placed on documentation in the category Technical Manual Specification & Standards (TMSS); however, other documents with widespread appeal are also included.
Bach, Claudia. Intercom (2000). Articles>History>TC
#15192
September 1, 2000 through November 30, 2000
This report covers specifications, standards, and amendments received from September 1, 2000, through November 30, 2000.
Bach, Claudia. Intercom (2001). Articles>History>TC
#24555
Finding a method to determine terrestrial longitude was critical in the early seventeenth century as countries attempted to establish territorial boundaries. The magistrate and natural philosopher Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc (1580-1637) spent much of his life working on a solution to this problem. As an early technical communicator, he was concerned with the criteria of acceptable observations, the standardization of materials and methods, and the communication of results. He refined a variety of strategies to obtain these observations and ensure their accuracy. He persuaded missionary priests to make observations throughout the Levant by promising patronage and gifts or stressing practical applications in the solution to the problem of longitude and church calendar reform. Although Peiresc did not resolve the issue of determining longitude, his efforts did provide the basis for work by later astronomers.
Tolbert, Jane T. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>TC>History
#22907
By the time I stopped being President in 1993, the sense of computer documentation as a unified whole had ended. When one has such competent folks as Bill Horton writing entire books just on icons, you know that the days of single book coverage…or single SIG coverage were gone forever. Moreover, when the 20,000 member STC decides that it will focus on computers and writing, then the tiny 1200 member SIGDOC gets lost in the welter of talks, papers, presentations, and conventions. So it goes…
Brockmann, R. John. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Documentation>History
#22908
In the few short years that I have been connected with SIGDOC, the world of the technical communicator has changed quite a bit. These changes are visible in several major areas: in the work itself, in the technology and tools that the communicator uses, in the technologies about which they create information, in the work environment, and in the culture in which they operate.
Haramundanis, Kathy. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Documentation>History
#22905
In the mid 1970's, technical writers documented weapons of mass destruction for the military and its contractors. There were few computer-related jobs outside IBM and the other manufacturers. Corporate systems development managers did not know that people existed who were interested in such work.
Rigo, Joe. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Documentation>Collaboration>History
#22906
Back in these ancient days SIGDOC was a very relaxed organisation full of personal opinion, and hominess. To give you the flavour of that far off time, I shall present this report as a personal anecdote rather than a proper technical document. Please forgive me, those of you with more formal and well balanced notions of history.
Patterson, Diana. Journal of Computer Documentation (2001). Articles>Documentation>History
#14775
In this article, two original members of the Association of Technical Writers and Editors (TWE), a parent organization of the Society for Technical Communication, discuss how the profession and the Society have changed since TWE's inception.
Rutkowski, Ed. Intercom (2002). Articles>TC>History
#29096
Studying past examples of successful technical communication may offer insight into strategies that worked with technologies and audiences in an earlier time. This article examines the texts documenting a controversy before and during the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Ellen Swallow Richards, chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bertha Honore Palmer, president of the Fair's Board of Lady Managers, had distinctly different visions of how cooking technology should be presented. Palmer invited Richards to create a Model Kitchen in the Woman's Building, but Richards wanted to avoid gendering the new knowledge of nutrition and she fought to control her exhibit. The multimedia Richards used in her resulting Rumford Kitchen exhibit reminds us that sometimes an entertaining but familiar atmosphere might be the best way to introduce threatening new knowledge and technology, particularly to our increasingly international and intergenerational audiences.
Lippincott, Gail. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>TC>History>Rhetoric
#14689
This article discusses the impact of STC's annual conference on the professional development of technical communicators.
#19387
STC@50: STC Members Share Their Stories
In commemoration of STC's 50th anniversary, several Society members share anecdotes about their experiences in STC and the technical communication profession.
Babcock, Elizabeth. Intercom (2003). Articles>TC>History>STC
#29163
The Steel Bible: A Case Study of 20th Century Technical Communication
The "steel bible" emerged in 1919 and went through 11 editions in 80 years. In its evolution we can see the shift from individual to group authorship, an increasing use of visual elements, and a physical change from a small, hand-held volume to a weighty desktop reference. In a textual analysis, we can see that it was essentially static, changing only by additions and deletions, as the industry evolved. The eventual closing of hundreds of plants and the migration of the industry to other countries can be seen in the change of publisher, the sudden absence of photography, and the international references. Originally, the steel bible came from the factory floor and the words of the plant managers, but by the 1990s, it was a highly-abstracted representation of knowledge. In the steel bible, we can see the history of the industry and the maturing of technical communication in the 20th century.
Johnson, Carol Siri. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Documentation>History>Engineering
#21290
The Story Behind Usability.gov
The seeds for Usability.gov were sown in early 1999 when the popular CancerNet web site came up for a redesign. As usual, we began by seeking input for the new design from technical professionals: web designers, content writers, engineers. Our 'kitchen cabinet' also included users. But the opinions from this broad group of professionals and laymen were as diverse as their backgrounds. Whose ideas were right?
Koyani, Sanjay. Boxes and Arrows (2002). Articles>Usability>History
