A Cross-Cultural Perspective on Visual Literacy Challenges for Technical Communicators  

Many emerging nations have pre-technological cultures. These nations are striving to develop a new technological literacy that is heavily dependent on visual literacy, or the ability to 'read' images. This paper discusses some challenges for technical communicators in presenting technical graphics to users who are not fully functional in learned Western conventions and skills of pictorial representation, pictorial literacy, and pictorial perception aspects such as conceptualization, perspective and depth, scale, and analysis of component details.

Ausburn, Floyd B. and Lynna J. Ausburn. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Communication>Visual Rhetoric

A Cubist Approach to Analyzing Interpretive Communities

Stanley Fish's theory of interpretive communities has been highly regarded for the past two decades. This paper deals with the idea of multiple interpretive communities as they relate to technical communicators. Technical communicators have a duty to use rhetorical devices and embedded structural cues to help readers identify the correct interpretive framework.

Connolly, Brianne. Orange Journal, The (2002). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory

Cultural Differences in the Appreciation of Introductions of Presentations    

On the basis of both established theories of the differences between cultures and recommendations in advice literature from different cultures, we believe that it is likely that cultures will differ in what they consider to be an effective introduction to a presentation. In this article, we report on an exploratory experimental study with 300 respondents in the Netherlands, France, and Senegal regarding their appreciation of and response to three introductions to a presentation about a mobile phone. The results show that the cultures differ with respect to the introduction they prefer. The Dutch respondents appreciated the overview most, while the French respondents preferred the ethical appeal, and research participants from Senegal preferred the anecdote. It is likely that the introduction that gains greatest attention and that best increases the ability to listen in a culture will be most appreciated in that culture.

Gerritsen, Marinel and Evelyn Wannet. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Presentations>Cultural Theory>Rhetoric

Cut Big, Then Small

Precise and concise writing comes from disciplined cutting.

Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Dabbling in Document Design

One of the advantages that print journalists have is that they learn document design on the job. Today, thanks to computers and design packages, design awareness is very high. Even the novice computer user becomes proficient in designing documents within a few days, if not weeks. Usually, templates are available for brochures, reports, books, etc. All you need to do is fill in the contents in the readymade template.

Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Document Design>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric

Dam Visuals: The Changing Visual Argument for the Glen Canyon Dam    

Arguments manifest in scientific visuals through graphic representation, content placement, and overall document structure. These arguments, designed to influence public perception, change over time in relation to sociopolitical climate. Analysis of a series of documents constructed deliberately to influence perception can help to determine patterns of argumentation and perceived exigencies. In this article, four self-guided tour brochures produced for distribution to visitors to the Glen Canyon Dam in 1977, 1984, 1990, and 1993 are analyzed in order to identify rhetorical strategies designed to influence public perceptions of the dam site, and examine how public perception of the dam, and related argumentation, is structured by sociopolitical climate.

Ross, Derek. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Scientific Communication>Technical Illustration>Visual Rhetoric

The Data Artist

Tufte shares Orwell's impatience with doublethink and humbuggery, his insight that bad thinking and bad expression travel in a pair, and his awareness that they are usually deployed in the service of some brand of propaganda.

Rosenberg, Scott. Salon (1997). Articles>Interviews>Visual Rhetoric>Charts and Graphs

Declarative Information in Software Manuals: What's the Use?    

Declarative information is often considered to be of little value to software manual users, for two reasons: some research results state that it is consistently skipped by users, and other research results show that declarative information does not enhance task performance. This study puts these conclusions to the test, because the research underlying them does not support such general conclusions. Two experiments are conducted to collect quantitative data about the selection and use of procedural and declarative information and to investigate whether or not the use of declarative information affects task performance and knowledge. A new technique for measuring information selection was developed for this purpose: the click and read method.

Ummelen, Nicole. ACM SIGDOC (2000). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric

Decorative Color as a Rhetorical Enhancement on the World Wide Web    

Professional communication scholars have defined the decorative narrowly and subordinated it to informational text. Yet, current psychological research indicates that decorative elements elicit emotion-laden reactions that may precede cognitive awareness and influence interpretation of images. We conceive the decorative in design, and specifically color, as a complex rhetorical phenomenon. Applying decorative and color theory and analyzing design examples illustrating aesthetic, ethical, and logical appeals, we present a range of potential uses for color in electronic media.

Richards, Anne R. and Carol David. Technical Communication Quarterly (2005). Design>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric>Color

Definitional Techniques

In the course of developing a report, essay, memo, etc. writers are often called upon to define their terms. Some of the more common definitional techniques used in professional and academic writing are described below.

Whitburn, Merrill. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Articles>Rhetoric

A Derridean Approach to Critical Reading: A MONSTER!

Hearing the term 'critical reading' provokes my composition students to lemon-pucker grimace and nervously shift in their seats as if a monster had suddenly appeared. They often gasp at the prospects of the composition course's planned future critical reading unit. They identify with theorist Jacques Derrida's poststructural (deconstruction) notion that 'the future is necessarily monstrous: the figure of the future, that is, that which can only be surprising, that for which [they] are not prepared, you see, is heralded by a species of monsters'. I do not try convincing students that texts are un-intimidating and that critical reading is an unthreatening process of merely examining specific dominant codes within texts that allow for predisposed meanings to occur. I rather tell students that texts are indeed monstrous and the process of critical reading is undeniably what Derrida terms 'a monster.' Considering then that a monster rears its head in the composition classroom, it is necessary to learn one possible way students may approach the wide-ranging process of critical reading. In this brief article, I attempt to discuss Jacques Derrida's definition of the 'monster' and how this definition may be applied to a practice of critically reading texts, appropriately expressed by the memorable acronym, 'A MONSTER.'

May, Talitha. Lore (2002). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory

Design and Impressions

Design is subjective: You can't please all of the people all of the time.

Will-Harris, Daniel. eFuse (2000). Design>Web Design>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric

Design is Function  

Good design, like good writing or editing, cart make or break a technical publication. Even if you know little about design us a discipline, as a technical communicator you employ it in every publication you produce. If technical communicstion is indeed the art that bridges the gap between people and technology, then understanding the function of design us an inherent element of communication is paramount. Design seeks 10 translate perceptions, goals, and desires through the manipulation of images and language. Design inspires understanding, is both an art and a science, and is good business. Design matters! The purpose of our presentation is to explore the relationship between design until technical communication and heighten the level of consciousness of the function of design.

DuBose, Mary E. and Deborah L. Baxley. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

The Design of World Wide Web Home Pages: Using Visuals to Establish Organizational Ethos  

The World Wide Web presents information developers with the task of designing texts that will be accessed by multiple, global audiences. At the same time, Web technology presents developers with new design constraints. Therefore, Web text development warrants new design considerations. This paper presents an approach based on the rhetorical concept of ethos. Four visual design considerations—page grid, graphic files, icons, and text structure—are reviewed based on how decisions about each convey the ethos of the organization.

Hunt, Kevin. STC Proceedings (1995). Design>Web Design>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Design Principles for Multi-Window Online Information Systems: Conclusions from Research, Applications, and Experience    

This article discusses how the use of multiple windows affects online information design by examining key concepts and presenting a set of design principles based on research and the authors' experience designing online information.

Corbin Nichols, Michelle and Robert R. Berry. Technical Communication Online (1996). Design>Information Design>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric

Designing Documents

The aim of this tutorial is to provide an introduction to typography. Typography is defined as: the art of designing printed matter; the appearance of printed matter. There are many different types of printed matter, books, brochures, newsletters and many more. This tutorial focuses on technical documents. Typography is relevant for user interface designers from two perspectives. Firstly, user interface design often includes the presentation of text on a display. Although typography is mainly concerned with printed matter, it provides valuable guidance for these situations. Secondly, user interface design involves to a large degree documenting and communicating designs, usually on paper. Knowledge of typography can aid this process.

HCIRN (2003). Design>Typography>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric

Designing for Lifeworlds: Genre and Activity in Information Systems Design and Evaluation  

Increasingly, professional communicators design and evaluate information systems. Yet the dominant theoretical frameworks and research methodologies are limited in important ways.

Spinuzzi, Clay. University of Texas (1999). Books>Rhetoric>Technology

Designing (for) Ourselves and (for) Others

This presentation, by one of the best-known professors of technical communication in the U.S., traces how readers have been paid increasing attention, especially as they have become more active in text-making, rather than just text-reading. In particular, it talks about the rhetorical roles that readers assume in Web documents, and how those roles contribute to the success or failure of communication.

Coney, Mary B. EServer (2000). Presentations>Rhetoric>Streaming>Audio

Designing to Sell Online: Persuasive Power in Action  

Electronic commerce promises to radically transform business. To remain competitive, businesses must address many issues before success can be realized. Key to the success of ecommerce will be the effectiveness of the web design interface interacting with consumers. Our user-centered case study, which received an STC Research Grant last July, evaluates consumer attitudes to the on-line shopping experience by observing this interaction. We measure the rhetorical power of design elements on an e-commerce site by using classical rhetoric as the theoretical framework for analyzing our results. This paper reports the preliminary findings of this research.

Winn, Wendy and Kati Beck. STC Proceedings (2000). Design>Web Design>E Commerce>Rhetoric

Designing Visual Aids for a Presentation  

In addition to preparing and reading documents, professionals spend much of their time communicating their ideas orally. These oral exchanges take many forms—from informal telephone conversations to speeches in front of large audiences. During their careers, most professionals are required to give formal presentations—often they must give presentations on a regular basis.

Burnett, Rebecca E. Thomson (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Presentations>Visual Rhetoric

Developing Products and Their Rhetoric from a Single Hierarchical Model  

Goal hierarchies are models that represent a set of problems or goals. Goal hierarchies can also represent the goals of a product, and the information that should be provided to explain the product. A single goal hierarchy can direct the design of both the product and all rhetoric about the product. Goal hierarchies can direct the design and ordering of the tasks required to build the product. They can also define the structure and order of its accompanying text, online help, hypertext, training, and customer support heuristic. Goal hierarchies were used to enhance development of a specific Department of Veterans Affairs information product and its accompanying rhetoric.

White, Basil J. STC Proceedings (1996). Presentations>Rhetoric>TC

The Development of Transitional Writers: The Role of Identification Strategies in Workplace Writing Competence  

Studies of transitional writers (between the classroom and workplace) in nonacademic settings.

Wegner, Diana. Rhetor (2004). Articles>Business Communication>Rhetoric

Digital Photography: Communication, Identity, Memory    

Taking photographs seems no longer primarily an act of memory intended to safeguard a family's pictorial heritage, but is increasingly becoming a tool for an individual's identity formation and communication. Digital cameras, cameraphones, photoblogs and other multipurpose devices are used to promote the use of images as the preferred idiom of a new generation of users. The aim of this article is to explore how technical changes (digitization) combined with growing insights in cognitive science and socio-cultural transformations have affected personal photography. The increased manipulation of photographic images may suit the individual's need for continuous self-remodelling and instant communication and bonding. However, that same manipulability may also lessen our grip on our images' future repurposing and reframing. Memory is not eradicated from digital multipurpose tools. Instead, the function of memory reappears in the networked, distributed nature of digital photographs, as most images are sent over the internet and stored in virtual space.

van Dijck, Jose. Visual Communication (2008). Articles>Graphic Design>Photography>Visual Rhetoric

The Divorce of Probabalistic Mathematics from Forensic Rhetoric (and Why This Matters to Technical Communication)

This paper discusses some of the founding work in the field of probabalistic mathematics (that of Jakob Bernoulli, the seventeenth-century Swiss scientist). By discussing similarities between Bernoulli's formulation of the mathematics to evaluate the probability of any given event and the forensic (or courtroom) rhetorics which Bernoulli had studied in school, this paper suggests that the foundations of probabilistic mathematics might well be rooted in part in forensic rhetoric. This is important to technical communication because it historicizes the origin of positivism in mathematical technical discourses.

Palmer, Terri. EServer (2001). Presentations>Lectures>Rhetoric>History