Siting a Hazardous Waste Facility: The Tangled Web of Risk Communication

Risk communication is a relatively new field of study which has been concerned with the problems arising from the communication of scientific and technical assessments of risk to various sections of the public. These problems have largely been construed as technical ones: how to transfer difficult material from 'experts' to 'people' with the maximum effectiveness and the minimum loss of accuracy and content. Perhaps because technical or practical concerns have dominated, debates which have occurred in the literature of risk analysis have apparently had little impact on the field of risk communication.

Beder, Sharon and Michael Shortland. University of Wollongong (1992). Articles>Risk Communication>Government>Policies and Procedures

Standard Operating Procedures and the Technical Writer  

Standard operating procedures (SOPs) are sequences of steps for workers to follow to complete tasks. Owing to industry standards and government regulations, SOPs are increasingly in demand. The pharmaceutical sector is a case in point: Companies are expected to conform to GxP (good practices in manufacturing, testing, and other areas). A big part of GxP is the standardization and documentation of production tasks. The ISO 9000 conventions used in other industries have similar requirements. SOPs are typically required for activities such as operating or calibrating a machine, backing up data, testing samples, and requesting approvals of changes in systems.

Edelman, Mark. Intercom (2003). Careers>Workplace>Policies and Procedures>ISO 9000

Tackling IS0 9000 Documentation  

The IS0 9000 series of Quality Standards redefines how business will be conducted into the next century. The series is designed to measure the effectiveness of the Quality System in place, thereby ensuring both customer and company needs are always satisfied. The foundation of a robust Quality System is its documentation: problems in this area represent the largest single cause of registration failures. Quality System documentation also forms the basis upon which the 3rd party registrar builds the audit plan for your company.

Robinson, Ralph E. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Documentation>Standards>Policies and Procedures

TCeurope Helps to Develop European Guideline

TCeurope, the umbrella organization of European associations for technical communication, is helping with the development of a European guideline on user education for mobile terminals and e-services. The European Telecommunications Standards Institute invited TCeurope to a joint workshop in French Sophia Antipolis, where the draft was discussed intensely.

Ritter, Corinna. tekom (2006). Articles>Documentation>Policies and Procedures

Transition To Process-Based Policies and Procedures  

From mega-mergers to dwindling defense contracts, companies are dealing with a very different business environment than of decades past. To remain competitive, companies are implementing process improvement programs that encompass the ‘big picture’, and are not focusing on just one segment of company operations. This trend toward mega-process improvements has resulted in companies developing policies and procedures that reflect a flexible, process oriented approach, instead of the traditional, organizationally oriented procedures.

Houciayer, Jerri L. STC Proceedings (1997). Presentations>Management>Policies and Procedures

University Web Accessibility Policies: A Bridge Not Quite Far Enough

Most university Web accessibility policies fall short of achieving their purpose. The Web sites of these universities often fail to meet minimum Web accessibility standards. Part of the problem lies with the policies themselves. Many of them fail to delineate a specific technical standard, fail to indicate whether compliance with the policy is required, fail to indicate a timeline or deadline for compliance, fail to define a system for evaluating or monitoring compliance, and fail to enumerate any consequences for failure to comply.

Bohman, Paul. WebAIM (2003). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Policies and Procedures

Web Accessibility Policies (and Pseudo Policies) in Postsecondary Institutions

More accurately described as suggestions than policies, since many institutions do not have any binding formal policy. Where multiple documents were found on the institution's Web site, multiple links were included in this list.

WebAIM (2005). Design>Web Design>Accessibility>Policies and Procedures

Web Delivery of Corporate Policies and Procedures  

Moving policies and procedures to a corporate web site can improve an ineffective and inefficient delivery system of paper in a three-ring binder. The advantages of online delivery outweigh the disadvantages. Using a general problem solving process, the team that produced this output included customer surveys to determine that a web site was the best way to solve existing delivery problems. The team continues to evaluate the end result, attempting to improve the delivery method.

Evans, Jeanette P. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Documentation>Policies and Procedures

Why Do You Need To Write Procedures?

Your organization needs procedures. While development and implementation can be a challenging project, there are dividends and returns on your investment if you understand why you are writing them and what you expect to achieve by documenting your processes.

Bizmanualz (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Documentation>Policies and Procedures

Writing Clear Policies and Procedures with Playscript  

The Playscript procedure writing style is widely known for its plain language, content organization, readability and usability for all kinds of audiences. Developed by Leslie Matthies over 40 years ago, Playscript has been used by hundreds of leading (and other) organizations worldwide as their procedure standard. Major consulting firms have trained their professional staff in its use as a primary work process documentation technique. Extending several of Playscript’s design elements to policy writing provides an organization with policies and procedures that have a uniform look and feel. A leading publisher recently did this, using Playscript as the style model for their commercially produced Controller's Policies and Procedures Manual.

Fleming, J. Richard. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Business Communication>Policies and Procedures

Writing Government Policies and Procedures in Plain Language    

Ask ordinary citizens for an example of unreadable prose, and half of them will show you a government document; the other half will point to something written by a lawyer. As a government lawyer for more than 30 years, I wrote and reviewed safety regulations and technical policies and procedures for a major federal agency and eventually supervised other lawyers who did the same. Although I never met a technical document I didn't have the urge to rewrite, I always thought that what my fellow lawyers wrote was pretty clear. Then the plain-language movement came along, and I found I had a lot of room for improvement.

Byrne, Don. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Policies and Procedures>Minimalism

Writing Policies and Procedures    

Over the years, I have had several enlightening and eventful encounters as I helped to develop organization policies and procedures. Most recently, when we voted to approve the revised mission statement for our business school, faculty members cheered and uttered sighs of relief. For months, we had debated every word, phrase, sentence, and paragraph in the many drafts we created. We were often reminded that the statement should conform to the mission of the larger university and that it should be readily understood by the average reader. The most contentious issue was how we could articulate the historical legacy of the minority-serving institution yet focus on its future as a full-fledged member of a highly regarded university system. We sought the advice of the chancellor, provost, advisory board, students, community members, and business owners, among others.

Muir, Clive. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Policies and Procedures

Writing Policies and Procedures in a U.S./South American Context      

This study explores two cases of professional communication among U.S. and South American personnel in one multinational organizaton in Quito, Ecuador.  The results suggest that implicit in U.S. rhetorics of professional communication are valorizations of writing as a mechanism of regulating behavior; of universalism and individual reference points as rhetorical strategies; and of common-law or precedent-setting logic as compositional and interpretive strategies.  However, many South American personnel seem predisposed to think of personal interactions as a mechanism of regulating behavior; of particular and collective reference points as rhetorical strategies; and of civil law logic as compositional and interpretive strategies.  Thus, widespread claims about the roles of writing to construct, mediate, or regulate organizational behavior need to be contextualized in the predominant rhetorical values of the organizational context.

Thatcher, Barry L. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Writing>Policies and Procedures>Ecuador

Writing Public Policy: A Practicum      

Practical experience teaches the difficulty and the messiness of democratic public policy processes. A discourse analytic perspective on rhetorical action in the institutional settings of policy work reveals the dynamics of effective agency. By simulating practical experience and by developing a discourse analytic perspective, academic instruction in professional and technical communication can show students what elected officials, governmental staff, and non-profit non-governmental organizations (NGOs) do to make or to implement policy.

Smith, Catherine F. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Writing>Policies and Procedures>Government

Your Next Assignment: Computer Security Policy  

The recent rash of high-profile computer viruses and attacks has further exposed troubling weaknesses in computer security. The media and even some computer security experts would have us believe that hackers are the primary culprits against whom individuals and organizations must protect themselves. This article provides guidance for technical communicators tasked with planning, creating, and implementing computer security policy for their organizations.

Still, Brian. Intercom (2004). Articles>Writing>Policies and Procedures>Security

Information Policies: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow    

This article presents a brief history of the development of ideas about national and organizational information policies, from the first establishment of a UK Ministry of Information in the First World War to the present day. The issues and tensions that have characterized attempts to develop and implement policies on the national and organizational scale are discussed, with particular reference to: the power relations between the parties to them; the relative significance accorded to information technology and information content; the transition from formulating policy to acting on it; and the threats to the survival of those policies that get as far as implementation. In conclusion, the contribution to date of information science to the theory and practice of information policies is assessed, and suggestions are offered on directions for future efforts, in the light of the past of this interesting field.

Orna, Elizabeth. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Information Design>Policies and Procedures>History

Documenting User-Centered Design Best Practices

When initiating or expanding the role of user-centered design (UCD) in an organization, consider documenting UCD best practices as they fit within existing processes and the best practice of other areas. Such documentation communicates the role and value of UCD throughout the organization in terms familiar to your organization. Because what best practices means varies from company to company, there is no single way to do this. Here are some questions to consider.

Bachmann, Karen L. STC Proceedings (2008). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design>Policies and Procedures

Quick, Quality Indexing for Environmental, Safety, and Health

Indexing for environmental, safety, and health texts, you provide sure, quick access to critical information in times of need.

Wyman, Pilar. STC Proceedings (2008). Articles>Editing>Indexing>Policies and Procedures

Five Key Intranet Policies

Most intranets have some form of policies and procedures, typically focusing on authoring guidelines and standards. The question is: are these the right policies to have? In many cases, intranet teams have established policies that they find difficult to enforce, while missing the opportunity to develop policies that will be much more beneficial for both the intranet team and the site itself. This briefing takes a different look at the role of intranet policies, and outlines five policies that all intranet teams should develop.

Robertson, James. Step Two (2006). Articles>Web Design>Intranets>Policies and Procedures

eDiscovery: A Company's Worst Nightmare

EDiscovery: You don't want it to happen. Borne of the term discovery, used by lawyers to describe collecting evidence, electronic discovery comes about because of a possible violation in regulatory compliance. Whatis.com defines it as "to any process in which electronic data is sought, located, secured, and searched with the intent of using it as evidence in a civil or criminal legal case."

Tim Rosa Associates (2008). Articles>Legal>Policies and Procedures

How to Write a Disaster Recovery Plan

Tragic events are a part of life. While we can't predict them, we can prepare for them. Here are some tips on how to write a disaster recovery plan that will keep your organization operating during and after such events.

HelpScribe (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Crisis Communication>Policies and Procedures

Sun Guidelines on Public Discourse

Sun Microsystems' policies about employee blogging: "You are encouraged to tell the world about your work, without asking permission first, but we expect you to read and follow the advice in this note."

Sun Microsystems (2008). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Policies and Procedures

Corporate Blogging Policies

I wrote in a recent report, that companies should have a blogging policy to provide guidelines for employees who want to have blogs. This primarily relates to employee's personal blogs and lays out the guidelines of what the company expects. As expected, policies will vary greatly depending on company circumstance. Here are a few examples and also, my variation.

Li, Charlene. Socialtext (2006). Articles>Business Communication>Blogging>Policies and Procedures

Are Accessibility Statements Useful?

An accessibility statement provides website visitors with information on how to utilize any accessibility features implemented, together with known barriers and how to overcome them. This information is usually presented on a dedicated page within the website. This article will look at the benefits of providing an accessibility statement together with common problems, before evaluating whether accessibility statements are useful.

Tomlinson, Leona. Digital Web Magazine (2008). Articles>Web Design>Accessibility>Policies and Procedures