Cruel Theory? The Struggle for Prestige and Its Consequences in Academic Technical Communication    

Some struggles for prestige in academic technical communication are self-defeating and wasteful because of the clash between the material (or positive-sum) economy of the workplace and the positional (or zero-sum) economy of the academy. Some professors of technical communication create disrespect for themselves and their specialities because they create degrading representations of working people and their artifacts, they promote impossible standards, and they advance discredited or misleading theories. More profitable approaches to gaining prestige for academic technical communication include recognizing that not everyone can be the top person in the positional economy, studying works on the economics of prestige, and promoting the genuinely good works that already exist in academic technical communication.

Moore, Patrick. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>TC>Research

Cultural Differences And Research  

Before conducting research beyond your own country’s borders, it’s important to consider a number of cultural differences that have significant implications for the success of the research. Angela Sinickas outlines some potential issues to consider.

Sinickas, Angela D. Sinickas Communications (2005). Articles>Research>International>Cultural Theory

Current Research: An International Perspective  

Research provides the basis for technical communication practices. Such research, conducted in the United States, is readily available to STC members through the Proceedings, Technical Communication, and other technical communication journals. However, research being performed in other countries is not so readily available to those in this country who may need it.

Warren, Thomas L. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Research>International

Current Research: STC's Research Program  

This interim report shows that the research program sponsored by STC in its publications is becoming more annecdotal each year, relying less and less on research for support of its generalizations.

Warren, Thomas L. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Research>STC

Data Mining and Predictive Analytics, Part 1

The cluster analysis process looks for groups of visitors in the data, where the people within the groups have something in common but the commonality is different from group to group.

Mason, Neil. ClickZ (2007). Articles>Web Design>Research>Log Analysis

Data Mining and Predictive Analytics, Part 2

In part one of this series, I examined visitor segmentation, a data-mining technique. Now, let's look at how data mining can be used to understand important visitor behavior over time.

Mason, Neil. ClickZ (2007). Articles>Web Design>Research>Log Analysis

The Deep Niche  

The deep niche--the rolling 'interest tribe' comprised of that day's enthusiastic, new audience--is something that publishers must acknowledge, and accommodate in our business plans, if we are to sustain ourselves. The Web is not merely a threat to publishers--it can also be the means to connect to the people we most want to reach: the interested reader.

Jensen, Michael. Journal of Electronic Publishing (2007). Articles>Publishing>Research>Online

Design in Observational Research on the Discourse of Medicine: Toward Disciplined Interdisciplinarity    

This article turns to the concept of interdisciplinarity as a framework for the design and development of observational studies investigating the discourse of medicine in language-based fields such as linguistics, rhetoric, composition, and professional communication. It argues that observational studies be designed as disciplined interdisciplinary studies, defined as research that makes an acknowledged contribution to both medicine and language studies. It proposes two guiding principles for the design of observational studies in medicine, both of which focus on issues of prospective design.

Barton, Ellen. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>Research>Biomedical

Designing and Implementing Technical Communication Research  

Designing and implementing successful research in technical communication involves an ongoing, circular process consisting of four parts: (1) planning the project and identifying funding needs, (2) matching research needs with funding sources, (3) writing and submitting a focused proposal, and (4) responding to the reviews of the proposal. This same approach can be adapted to fit the unique needs of any research situation.

Zimmerman, Beverly B. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Research>TC

Developing a Continuum to Describe Technical Communication  

The more integrated a discipline is, the greater the likelihood that the researchers are sharing ideas and the greater the chances are for developing theories and models to support the knowledge base. A fragmented discipline offers few connections between discussions and research. This study of technical communication literature reports and reflects upon the dialogue established among practitioners, researchers, and scholars as theories are built. A continuum--fragmented to integrated--places areas of study in technical communication and offers an interpretation of the field.

Smith, Elizabeth Overman 'Betsy'. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>TC>Research>Professionalism

A Discussion and Annotated Bibliography of Research on the Use of Style Checkers in the Computer-Assisted Writing Classroom  

Style checkers are software programs designed as writing tools. Despite their popularity in both academic and industrial settings, the effectiveness and advisability of using the technology is still unproven. A main issue is the ability of users to determine whether the program's suggestions are useful and to ignore inappropriate advice. Freshmen composition students, beginning technical writing students, and advanced technical writing students were asked to mark all suggestions made by RightWriter 4.0 as 'useful,' 'wrong,' or 'ignored.' Results show that all students ignored approximately 50% of the suggestions; however, freshman writers perceived a larger percentage of the suggestions that they ignored to be wrong rather than just not useful.

Moosally, Michelle J. and Roland D. Nerd. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Research>Education>Software

Do A Presentation At The STC 42nd Annual Conference!  

Both old hands and newcomers can create a plan to do a presentation at the next STC Annual Conference. Simply follow this 5-step process: (1) Understand the call for proposals. (2) Discover possible topics to develop. (3) Identify gifts--something of value--to give your audience in your presentation and in your paper (if you do one). (4) Think of appealing gift wraps to attract your hearers and readers. (5) Prepare a thorough proposal for the Program Committee. This process works best in a workshop where the participants can form a critical mass for creative excitement, help one another generate ideas--and have fun!

Dean, Morris. STC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>TC>Research>STC

Documenting Electronic Sources

The Internet is a widely used tool for research, but unfortunately, style manuals contain little information on how to document electronic sources. This page contains links to sources which will help students, teachers, and anybody doing research on the Internet to cite such sources using different styles. Some links come from 'Cyber Citations,' an article by Michael A. Arnzen, which appeared in Internet World in September 1996. Some of the addresses were no longer current and are updated here, and many more have been added.

Purdue University. Reference>Style Guides>Research

E-Learning in the Library: Developing an Online Library Research Tutorial

The instruction librarian at GustavuAn examination of this draft tutorial serves to illustrate some of the issues concerning 'e-learning' in the context of online library research tutorials.s Adolphus College (GAC) in St. Peter, Minnesota has created a draft online library tutorial: 'Doing Research at the Folke Bernadotte Memorial Library – and Beyond,' available at http://www.gustavus.edu/oncampus/academics/library/tutorial.An examination of this draft tutorial serves to illustrate some of the issues concerning 'e-learning' in the context of online library research tutorials.

Hulseberg, Anna. Techniques (2003). Articles>Research>Online

Education and Research Professional Interest Committee Focus Group on Technical Communication Research  

The 1995 E and R PIC Focus Group on Technical Communication Research will continue the dialogue begun at STC annual conferences in 1993 and 1994. The 1993 Focus Group discussed partnerships between the Society, industry, and the academy, while the 1994 one discussed planning initiatives for technical communication education.

Batorsky, Barry J., Saul A. Carliner, John James Conklin, Jeffrey L. Hibbard, Kenneth T. Rainey, Stuart A. Selber, Sherry G. Southard and Katherine E. Staples. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Research

Education, Training, and Research Stem Overview  

Whether we are new or experienced technical communicators, formal and continuing education and training are vital for our careers. And the basis for much of our education and training is developed from research.

Armbruster, David L. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Research

Effect of E-Printing on Citation Rates in Astronomy and Physics

In this report we examine the change in citation behavior since the introduction of the arXiv e-print repository. It has been observed that papers that initially appear as arXiv e-prints get cited more than papers that do not. Using the citation statistics from the NASA-Smithsonian Astrophysics Data System, we confirm the findings from other studies, we examine the average citation rate to e-printed papers in the Astrophysical Journal, and we show that for a number of major astronomy and physics journals the most important papers are submitted to the arXiv e-print repository first.

Henneken, Edwin A., Michael J. Kurtz, Guenther Eichhorn, Alberto Accomazzi, Carolyn Grant, Donna Thompson and Stephen S. Murray. Journal of Electronic Publishing (2006). Articles>Publishing>Research>Online

Effective Risk Communication Starts with Solid Research

The terms risk communication, crisis communication and risk management are often used interchangeably. Crisis communication we understand to mean communicating once the crisis has hit. Risk management entails ensuring as far as possible that risks do not become a reality. Risk communication is part of risk management—informing responsibly on the extent of risk.

Macleod, Sandra. Communication World Bulletin (2006). Articles>Risk Communication>Research>Crisis Communication

The Emergence and Evolution of a Research Project  

Research never goes exactly according to plan; nor should we expect it to because research is a rhetorically situated activity. This paper illustrates this truism by providing a brief summary of the author’s experiences in designing, proposing, re-designing, and carrying out an investigation into electronic editing using both quantitative survey and qualitative methods.

Dayton, David. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Research>Rhetoric

Emergent Genres in Young Disciplines: The Case of Ethnological Science    

Although the rhetoric of relatively stable scientific disciplines has been studied extensively, less attention has been paid to discourse formation in young disciplines. The author extends recent theories of genre and disciplinary discourse in a close rhetorical analysis of early papers in ethnological science. Practitioners apply extant rhetorical resources to new disciplinary problems as they learn to identify themselves as participants in a collective project. The young discipline 'learns' its discourse from its practitioners.

Henze, Brent R. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Research>Scientific Communication>Ethnicity

Evaluating E-Contents Beyond Impact Factor - A Pilot Study Selected Open Access Journals In Library And Information Science  

Scholarly communication through Open Access (OA) journals has become a global phenomenon. This article reports on a study that measures the value of OA journals based on citation counts (ISI's Journal Impact Factor). It compares three highly ranked commercial electronic journals to five OA electronic journals. The non-OA journals are MIS Quarterly, Journal of American Medication Informatics Association, and Annual Review of Information Science and Technology; the five OA journals are Ariadne, D-Lib Magazine, First Monday, Information Research, and Information Technology and Disabilities. The criteria are established by ten major databases: Thompson's ISI, American Psychological Association's PsycInfo, Latin American and Canadian Health Science's LILCS, National Medical Library's MEDLINE, Scientific Electronic Library's SciELO, The IOWA Guide, CSA's LISA, EBSCO's LISTA, H.W. Wilson's Library Literature and Information Science, and R.R. Bowker's Ulrich International Periodical Directory. These basic criteria are categorized under 11 broad issues: availability, authority and review policy, scope and coverage, exhaustiveness of articles, page format, availability of hyperlinks, currency, updating policy, search facility, and other miscellaneous issues. Ten years' growth of Library and Information Science (LIS) OA journals has been measured by counting articles manually. During the last ten years the highest number of articles was published by First Monday, followed by D-Lib Magazine and Ariadne; the average number of articles per issue reported in Ariadne ranks first.

Mukherjee, Bhaskar. Journal of Electronic Publishing (2007). Articles>Publishing>Research>Assessment

Evaluating Online Sources: A Tutorial by Roger Munger

This tutorial presents a brief overview of the reasons to evaluate information you find on the Internet, offers guidelines to assist you in the process, and helps you assess the information found on sample Web pages. Although the principles presented here apply to all kinds of information found on the Internet, the primary focus is on sites from organizations and companies-sites that you will likely visit while conducting research-rather than on personal Web sites.

Munger, Roger H. Bedford-St. Martin's (2007). Articles>Research>Online>Assessment

Evaluating Sources of Information

We live in an information age. The quantity of information available is so staggeringly huge that we cannot know everything about a subject. For example, it's estimated that anyone attempting to research what's known about depression would have to read over 100,000 studies on the subject. And there's the problem of trying to decide which studies have produced reliable results.

Purdue University. Academic>Research>Assessment

Expanding the Words

Technical writers enhance their career development and move faster through career transitions when they expand beyond the writing of didactic text to publish in journals and magazines. Additional attempts to write and publish creative and nonfiction pieces further develop their careers in any genre of communications.

Ball, Valerie M. STC Region 7 Proceedings (2002). Articles>Publishing>Research

Extracting Pearls from Other People's Brains: The Art of Interviewing

Perhaps one of the bigger challenges faced by white paper writers is coming up with good content. The default course of action is to do a Google search. While this approach can yield valuable information, the best pearls reside inside someone else's head.

Stelzner, Michael A. WhitePaperSource (2006). Articles>Interviewing>Research>White Papers