Tune Your Voice

What is voice, and how does the writer tune it?

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

Twelve Exercises for Improving Dialogue

Dialogue is one of the most difficult aspects of writing to master. There are many pitfalls you must try to avoid, such as: Stilted language Dialogue that does not sound like natural speech. Filler Dialogue that does not further the scene and does not deepen your understanding of the characters. Exposition Dialogue that has the character explain the plot or repeat information for the benefit of the audience. Naming Having one character use another character’s name to establish identity. People almost never say other people’s names back to them, and if they do it is a character trait typical of a used car salesman. Overuse of Modifiers Too many dialogue modifiers such as shouted, exclaimed, cried, whispered, stammered, opined, insinuated, hedged and a million others. Modifiers such as this can sometimes be useful, but are often annoying and used as a crutch for poorly designed dialogue.

Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Screenwriting

Twenty-Two Tips for Writing Software Documentation Users Will Actually Read

How do you go about writing technical manuals for software without going insane? Here are some guidelines you can follow to maintain your sanity when writing software documentation.

HelpScribe (2008). Articles>Documentation>Rhetoric>Software

typographic

An interactive experience informed by type and typography, which aims to illustrate the depth and import of type, and to raise relevant questions about how typography is treated in the digital media, specifically online.

typographic. Design>Typography>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Typographical Design, Modernist Aesthetics, and Professional Communication    

The technology of in-house publishing is radically shifting the responsibility for document design from the graphic specialist to the individual writer. To apply the new technology, professional communicators need to understand the principles underpinning typographical design and their origin in the functionalist aesthetics of modernism, particularly as articulated by the Bauhaus. While some of the key concepts of modernism--strict economy, universal objectivity, intuitive perception, and the unity of form and purpose--are well-suited to business and technical documents, these concepts are bound to an historical and intellectual milieu. By understanding the influence of modernism on typographical design, professional communicators equipped with the new technology can adapt design principles to the rhetorical context of specific documents.

Kostelnick, Charles. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (1990). Design>Typography>Graphic Design>Visual Rhetoric

Uncertainties and Resistance to Change  

This paper aims to fill a gap between knowledge and practice about the effectiveness of rhetorical strategies in the communication of change inside large private organizations.

Modena, Ivana. Association for Business Communication (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Rhetoric

Uncovering Organizational Culture: Making Sense of the Corporate World  

Understanding an organization's corporate culture can help explain how to get things done in an organization: communicate, advanced up the corporate ladder, and get project ideas accepted and completed. We can understand culture by identifying values, norms, and assumptions underlying the corporate 'world..' Cultures can he better understood by looking at such things as how an organization responds to crisis, how the intentions of group leaders come to be shared, and how an organization perceives itself. For example, a study of culture at one organization revealed such differing values between two groups, scientists and engineers, that cross-cultural mediation was necessary.

Kahn, Russell L. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Workplace>Rhetoric>Organizational Communication

Understand Film Language: An Introduction for Technical Communicators  

The techniques of film language areas important to video and multimedia presentations as the techniques of written language are to technical documentation. Film language consists of such components as shot content, frame composition, camera movement, color (or shade), lighting, and film transitions. Film transitions are the way in which shots and sequences are connected and carry specific semantic weight for the viewer. However for many technical video-makers, the meanings of film transitions are overlooked in favor of flashy presentations or are abused to cover a problem. In developing videos for training or informational purposes, we should respect and understand the significance of film transitions and other aspects of film language.

Tillman, Michael A. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Multimedia>Visual Rhetoric>Technical Writing

Understanding and Reducing the Knowledge Effect: Implications for Writers    

To be effective, writers must understand what knowledge they share with the audience and what they do not. Achieving this understanding is made difficult by the knowledge effect--a tendency of individuals to assume that their own knowledge is shared by others. Understanding the knowledge effect and methods for reducing it is potentially useful for understanding and teaching writing. In Study 1, we explored the impact of an individual's knowledge of technical terms on that person's ability to estimate other people's understanding of those terms. We assessed how individuals' familiarity with technical terms influenced their predictions that college freshmen and college graduates would understand those terms. Results indicate that familiarity with the meaning of technical terms leads to substantial overestimation of others' knowledge. In Study 2, we evaluated an online tutor designed to improve writers' predictions of other's word knowledge by providing them with feedback on the accuracy of their judgments.

Hayes, John R. and Diana Bajzek. Written Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Rhetoric>Writing

Understanding Metaphors for Writing: In Defense of the Conduit Metaphor    

The Conduit Metaphor has been roundly condemned by language scholars, including scholars in rhetoric and composition, but it is time to reevaluate its import and value. Rather than simply asserting a mistaken view of linguistic communication, the Conduit Metaphor combines with the metaphor Language Is Power to form a prudentially applied ethical measure of discourses, genres, and texts.

Eubanks, Philip. CCC (2001). Articles>Rhetoric>Theory>Tropes

Understanding Visual Rhetoric in Digital Writing Environments      

This essay illustrates key features of visual rhetoric as they operate in two professional academic hypertexts and student work designed for the World Wide Web. By looking at features like audience stance, transparency, and hybridity, writing teachers can teach visual rhetoric as a transformative process of design. Critiquing and producing writing in digital environments offers a welcome return to rhetorical principles and an important pedagogy of writing as design.

Hocks, Mary E. CCC (2003). Articles>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric>Writing

Understanding Writing: The Rhetorical Situation  

A presentation designed to introduce students to a variety of factors that contribute to strong, well-organized writing. This presentation is suitable for the beginning of a composition course or the assignment of a writing project in any class.

Liethen, Jennifer Kunka. Purdue University. Presentations>Slideshows>Rhetoric

Untangling the Law: Verbal Design in Legal Argument  

“The law is a seamless web,” law professors are fond of reminding their students. The lightest touch on any strand will send vibrations through the entire intricate structure. Every legal issue, rule, and theory is integrally connected; thus attention to any part affects the whole. Ironically, the metaphor’s appropriateness extends beyond this initial image since the slightest vibrations running through even the most beautiful web will alert the waiting spider—the beauty disguises a deadly trap.

Woolever, Kristin R. JAC (1986). Articles>Rhetoric>Legal

The Untapped Potential of Voice

Think back a few years, to a time when most enewsletters were text-only, packed with useful information and carrying the unmistakable voice of the writer.

Usborne, Nick. Excess Voice (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Use Metaphors to Communicate, Not Decorate

Good metaphors emerge from the writer's experience and observation. They connect the readers' knowledge to new ideas or information through concrete images.

Writing that Works (2003). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Tropes

The Use of Pathos in Charity Letters: Some Notes Toward a Theory and Analysis    

Americans contribute $240 billion dollars to charities each year, raised in part by writing letters to potential donors. While it is debatable what the reasons are for donors to give so much money, most donors seem to be moved to contribute by pathos, particularly pity. The concept of pathos as a rhetorical appeal has become more complex over the years, growing from a simple strategy to a complicated set of parameters requiring careful delineation. Beginning with the Greeks, particularly Aristotle, pathos was defined with greater clarity (especially the concept of enargia), with Aristotle's formal definitions of the emotions, and with the use of an image upon which to direct the audience's pity. Cicero adds to the theory by calling for the use of pathos in the peroration and reinforcing Aristotle's emphasis on careful audience analysis. St. Augustine and those who follow, including Renaissance, 18thcentury rhetoricians, and 20th-century scholars like Kenneth Burke, argue that style can also be an effective persuasive strategy for a pathetic appeal. Accordingly, the charity letters examined illustrate not only Aristotle's and Cicero's tenets but also show that elements of style, particularly rhetorical figures and schemes, are common rhetorical strategies used in these charity letters. While at first the rhetoric of charity letters seems simple and straightforward, to raise billions of dollars every year charity letters use sophisticated appeals to pity that have a long and interesting history.

Myers, Marshall. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Correspondence>Rhetoric

Use Strong Verbs

Use verbs in their strongest form, the simple present or past. Strong verbs create action, save words, and reveal the players.

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

User-Friendly Usability Reports: The Effect of Praise on Product-Improvement Efforts By Teams  

A largely uncharted issue in usability is the effect that a particular style of usability report has on the motivation of the team whose work the report addresses. Recent work in cognitive science and social psychology offers evidence of an intimate interconnection among thought, emotion and motivation, with implications for usability reports as well as other forms of technical communication. In this preliminary study, fifteen triads of adult workers arranged materials on a prototype Web site for forty-five minutes. They were then subjected to negative, positive-and-negative, or neutral feedback conditions. Measures for motivation were post-treatment time on task, as well as individual self-reports on attitudes.

Missimer, Constance A. University of Washington-Seattle (2002). Books>Usability>Reports>Rhetoric

Users' Guide to the Promotional Literature

The group 'No Free Lunch' is composed of health professionals trying to avoid the excesses of pharmaceutical marketers. This is their guide to interpreting pharmaceutical promotional materials. Other sections of this website are also of interest.

Lack of Evidence Based Medicine Working Group, The. nofreelunch.org (1999). Resources>Publishing>Biomedical>Rhetoric

Using a Problem Focus to Quickly Aid Users in Trouble  

Users are encountering more and more situations where task dotumentation separates topics too much for the interconnected nature of the task. These complex processes require an approach that takes into account the effect of strategy on the outcome of the task. Users have to know what factors affect the quality and type of output, and the stages where branching will depend upon these choices. This paper deals with the methodology required to help users in trouble in complex tasks. It also presents the types of situations where this approach is most useful.

Hallgren, Chris. STC Proceedings (1997). Presentations>Writing>Rhetoric

Using a Writing Method to Design Applications  

Arguing that technical writers have the skills to do more than write documentation, Van Mansom demonstrates how technical writers can apply writing methods to the creation of software.

Van Mansom, Kees. Intercom (2001). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Using Color in Your Documents

People often use colors in their documents in the wrong ways. Many students think that bright colors should be used in a document when they want to attract someone’s eye to a place on the page. Colors alone, however, should be used in synch with white space, font size, type and placement of whatever it is you want someone to be attracted to. Furthermore, just because something is filled with a bright color does not mean that it is eye-catching or attractive. True, bright colors will quickly draw the eye there, but use colors in a way that will make the eye stay there, not glance away in disgust.

Lanier, Clinton R. sense and usability (2008). Articles>Document Design>Visual Rhetoric>Color

Using Emulation to Teach Nonverbal Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century  

Although nonverbal technical communication played a key role in the nineteenth century introduction of varied technologies, verbal communication has been emphasized in most technical communication textbooks and classes. Recognizing that nonverbal communication is substantively different than verbal communication, this paper offers a heuristic table to be used to teach nonverbal technical communication.

Brockmann, R. John. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Rhetoric>TC

Using Photographs to Increase Trust in a Website

Exposure to photographs prior to an interaction does seem to increase trusting behavior.

Bailey, Robert. Web Usability (2003). Design>Web Design>Rhetoric>Visual Rhetoric