#34588
STC International Technical Communication: Resources
Includes articles contributed by STC members, some of whom have worked with translators extensively. Other contributors are affiliated with translation agencies.
STC International TC SIG. Resources>Directories>TC>International
#34816
Teaching Professional Writing to American Students in a Study Abroad Program 
Studying abroad enhances the intercultural competencies of American students, but that enhancement strategy may be seen as an obstacle to those in business and technical fields who follow a tight curriculum and work to cover expenses. To meet their needs, U.S. professional communication faculty are designing short courses that can be delivered abroad during between-term periods and that foster an understanding of the situations and genres of the field within a context of cultural dislocation. Based on the courses described in this article, the best approach is to settle students in one location rather than touring; keep student numbers low by an entrepreneurial approach to keeping costs low; encourage students to live as the locals do, in apartments rather than hotels; explicitly plan appropriate access to technology; use class time to provide structure and reflection, but allow free time for collateral learning; and make sure the course grows local roots.
Andrews, Deborah C. and Brent Henze. Business Communication Quarterly (2009). Articles>Education>Business Communication>International
#34873
International Standards for Usability Should Be More Widely Used
Despite the authoritative nature of international standards for usability, many of them are not widely used. This paper explains both the benefits and some of the potential problems in using usability standards in areas including user interface design, usability assurance, software quality, and usability process improvement.
Bevan, Nigel. Journal of Usability Studies (2009). Articles>Usability>Standards>International
#34876
A study of how 23 Taiwanese and North American subjects use a consumer electronic product shows that culture strongly affects the usability of the product. Survey data shows that North American users had much lower levels of user satisfaction and perceptions of effectiveness and efficiency than Taiwanese users. On the other hand, results on performance were unclear, indicating similar levels of effectiveness for both cultural groups and conflicting results on levels of efficiency.
Wallace, Steve and Hsiao-Cheng Yu. Journal of Usability Studies (2009). Articles>Usability>Assessment>International
#34883
Business Communication Needs: A Multicultural Perspective
How should we teach international business communication? What role can multiculturalism play in the business communication classroom? Can we identify a set of business communication requirements that are valid across different cultures? This article enters this discussion by presenting a small empirical study of the business communication needs expressed by postgraduate students in a North Cyprus university and comparing it to similar studies conducted in the United States and Singapore. The findings reveal some interesting correspondences between the needs expressed by students in these different countries. In addition, the multicultural environment of the North Cyprus university studied suggests that multicultural interaction increases students' sensitivity to the need for a nonethnocentric approach to international communication. The findings also indicate that respondents in multicultural settings may be more inclined to engage in groupthink because of their heightened awareness of cultural differences and their wish to avoid conflict.
Goby, Valerie Priscilla. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2007). Articles>Education>Business Communication>International
#35004
A significant problem for practitioners of technical communication is to gain the skills to compete in a global, multicultural work environment. Instructors of technical communication can provide future practitioners with the tools to compete and excel in this global environment by introducing heuristics of cultural dimensions into the service-level classroom. By practicing how to use these heuristics in "real-world" contexts, instructors can prepare students to function as both information architects and symbolic-analytic operators within this global work environment. In this article, I first examine common cultural heuristics as they pertain to business communication. Next, I articulate how technical communicators can benefit from incorporating these heuristics into the classroom. Finally, I offer a pedagogical approach to introducing heuristics of cultural dimensions into the service-level technical communication classroom.
Schafer, Robert. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2009). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>International
#35069
conneXions: International Professional Communication Journal
The journal is dedicated to promoting and developing efficient and effective single and multimedia communication and its constituent communities in local, national, international, and global worksite and civic settings. The publication's major topics lie at the intersection of International Professional Communication.
conneXions. Journals>Business Communication>TC>International
#35180
Genre studies and genre approaches to literacy instruction continue to develop in many regions and from a widening variety of approaches. Genre has provided a key to understanding the varying literacy cultures of regions, disciplines, professions and educational settings. Genre in a Changing World provides a wide-ranging sampler of the remarkable variety of current work. The twenty-four chapters in this volume, reflecting the work of scholars in Europe, Australasia, North and South America, were selected from the over 400 presentations at SIGET IV (the Fourth International Symposium on Genre Studies) held on the campus of UNISUL in Tubarão, Santa Catarina, Brazil in August 2007 — the largest gathering on genre to that date. The chapters also represent a wide variety of approaches including rhetoric, Systemic Functional Linguistics, media and critical cultural studies, sociology, phenomenology, enunciation theory, the Geneva school of educational sequences, cognitive psychology, relevance theory, sociocultural psychology, activity theory, Gestalt psychology, and schema theory. Sections are devoted to theoretical issues, studies of genres in the professions, studies of genre and media, teaching and learning genre, and writing across the curriculum. The broad selection of material in this volume displays the full range of contemporary genre studies and sets the ground for a next generation of work.
Bazerman, Charles and Adair Biondi. WAC Clearinghouse (2009). Books>Rhetoric>Genre>International
#35283
Global Visions: Promoting Excellence in the Education of Professional Communicators and Translators
Despite the increasingly unified and multicultural consciousness of the world today, and the tendency of authors such as Hoft or Weiss, on the side of professional communication, and Nord or Risku, on the side of translation, to bridge the gap between professional communication and translation, these activities are still viewed as separate, requiring different competencies and educations. At most, one finds professional communicators being asked to be aware of the involvement of translators in their work processes and of the characteristics of translation, and translators being asked to be aware of localization and of the potential need to adapt their work to the characteristics of the receiving culture. This distinction corresponds greatly to the geographical divide between the United States and Europe, being actively promoted by the definition of translation, translation process, and translator competencies stated out in documents such as the recently adopted EN 15038 standard.
Durao, Rosario. IPCC 2009 (2009). Articles>Education>Undergraduate>International
#35636
Managing International Assignments 
The traditional concept of an ‘international assignment’ is rapidly becoming a misnomer. Certainly the situation whereby an individual (with or without accompanying family) is sent to an overseas location for two or three years still occurs – despite the recent downturn in business. However, today there are all sorts of permutations of business activities that can result in business people working with international colleagues and clients. It may be that people are on short-term assignments (e.g. one to six months) in another country or that they are frequent business travelers visiting subsidiaries and clients or even that they are managers of long-distance teams working on developing new products for third country markets.
Cook, Richard. TC World (2009). Articles>Project Management>Collaboration>International
#35637
The last half century has seen enormous change impacting the way we work. The world is shrinking with advances in information technology playing a crucial role in facilitating the global expansion of organizations. International teams are now a common phenomenon with many large organizations structuring their workforce according to function rather than geography. Successful organizations do not hesitate to move their talents around the world to ensure that they have the right skills and knowledge in the right location when necessary. But what does it take to manage such a culturally diversified and geographically dispersed team?
Wellings, Cathy. TC World (2009). Careers>Management>Collaboration>International
#35660
Intercultural Management at Škoda Auto
The merger of Škoda Auto and Volkswagen AG in 1991 compelled the tradition-bound Czech company for the first time to face the challenges of internationalization. Today Škoda is the largest industrial undertaking in the Czech Republic as the company sells its products in 100 countries worldwide. The Joint Venture with VW is regarded by the company as a successful marriage between the systematic, methodical and dependable approach of the Germans and the creative, improvising and proficient disposition of the Czechs.
Bila, Lenka. TC World (2008). Articles>Management>International>Case Studies
#35665
Internationalizing Your Content: Authoring with Localization in Mind
Localization is the process of adapting a product or service to a particular language and culture. Internationalization is the precursor to localization and involves the process of planning, designing and implementing a culturally and technically neutral product, which can easily be localized. Internationalization helps decrease translation cost and speeds up time-to-market by addressing crucial technical, aesthetic, cultural, and linguistic issues at project start-up. It also has the unique advantage of streamlining not only the localization of your content but authoring in general.
Pietrangeli, Lisa. TC World (2009). Articles>Language>Localization>International
#35687
The Multiculturalist: Beyond One Single Perspective
Cross-cultural encounters are experienced on different levels: While some managers head home from a business trip feeling that the world is small and essentially the same everywhere, others have the ability to sense the hidden differences. These "multiculturalists" see the deep culture that lies behind the curtains of globalization.
Shaules, Joseph. TC World (2009). Articles>Business Communication>International>Globalization
#35690
East Meets West: Negotiating Interculturally
Along with the prospects of success and benefits, negotiations in any business environment bear definite risks. They require thorough preparation, patience, time, and flexibility. Negotiating with people from different cultures might sometimes feel like sitting at a poker table, with all participants following their own rules, which remain mysterious for the rest. The result of this game is obvious: Pretty soon, both parties will be frustrated and confused.
Groznaya, Elena. TC World (2008). Articles>Business Communication>International
#35693
At the time I’m writing this column, it’s that “happy” time in the United States between the Thanksgiving holiday in late November (the fourth Thursday of the month) and the impending Hanukkah, Christmas and New Year’s holidays. Well, the “happy” part is debatable, as this period has become characterized by the absolute chaos of shopping, the challenges of winter travel and the “holiday crunch” in the workplace to complete as much as possible before most everyone disappears for a week or two.
Edwards, Tom. TC World (2008). Articles>Collaboration>International
#35695
Sharing Knowledge Across Borders
As companies have their offices spread across more and more geographic locations and a large scale of employees working in different countries, it becomes even harder to represent a single organization as one unique entity. The key lies in raising awareness for the company’s vision and mission as well as equipping staff in all locations with the latest technologies. Advancements in communication technology have led to a deeper focus on knowledge management activities – benefiting both the organization and the individual.
Ramamurthy, Ramesh. TC World (2009). Articles>Knowledge Management>International>Organizational Communication
