Planning Ahead in Technical Communication

Describes the course of study that new students in the field of technical communication should consider. Describes what high-tech companies in the Northwest are looking for in prospective employees, and provides information about how to employ particular TC skills to cope with an unsettled job market.

Jacobson, Peggy. EServer (2001). Presentations>TC>Streaming>Video

The Prison That Was a Highway: The National Information Infrastructure

This paper explores two metaphors accompanying the birth of the Internet as a mass communication medium: Al Gore's Information Superhighway and Jeremy Bentham's Panopticon, a prison ruled with convert surveillance.

Eliot, Matthew J. EServer (2001). Articles>Internet>History

A Quick Guide: Converting Print to Online  

A Quick Guide: Converting Print to Online tells you how to convert print-based documents to an online format. This is a task that many writers do in their real-world work lives on a daily basis. However, there is not enough information available for how to handle the various conversions, so I wrote this brief guide. The document is saved as a Portable Document File (PDF). To view it, you need to have a copy of Adobe® Acrobat® Reader™ 3.0 or later software installed on your PC.

Keller, Nancy L. EServer (2001). Design>Web Design>Writing>Adobe Acrobat

Site Structure

A site's structure defines how users find content and functions. In this section of the Edgar Web Design Guide, we examine how to design a site's structure, including developing an information hierarchy and designing transactional flows.

Atkisson, Heidi. EServer (2001). Design>Information Design

Software Environments for Technical Writing

Starting with the development of Caterpillar Fundamental English in the 1970's, industry has made several attempts to formalize and standardize the writing process, both to promote consistency and quality for the reader and to improve the possibilities for automatic text processing (e.g. translation to other languages). In this presentation, I will review the work we have done at the Language Technologies Institute on a software environment for automatic document checking, specifically to address the issue of how such environments can be productive (and hence useful) for the technical writer.

Nyberg, Eric. EServer (1998). Presentations>Lectures>Streaming>Audio

Strategies and Roadblocks to the Inclusion of Community Expertise in Academic Research

This talk presents a case study which followed a graduate course in public policy. This course attempted to construct knowledge around a community based problem in collaboration with community members. The talk covers both the successes and difficulties of this research project.

Swan, Susan. EServer (2000). Presentations>Lectures>Streaming>Video

Style Sheets: Solid Presence, Expanding Future

With the release of Netscape 6.0 earlier this year, we finally have comprehensive support for the original Cascading Style Sheets specification (CSS1) from the two major browsers. Millions of people will continue to use older browsers, and designing for the Web may always be a complex and thorny proposition. But the gradual acceptance of CSS1, and the innovations promised by CSS2 and the still-unfinished CSS3, should motivate designers to add style sheets to their Web palettes.

Burner, Dell. EServer (2001). Design>Web Design>CSS

Surveying the City of Bits: Community, Commerce and the Virtual University

In contemporary business texts corporate sponsored on-line communities are described as central to the commercial development of the Internet, and to the imagined future of narrowcasting and mass customization in the wider world of marketing and advertising. My paper outlines a history of how on-line community has been represented within models of e-commerce. It critically examines the arguments, narratives and rhetorical strategies drawn on within contemporary business texts to represent on-line community. The paper also examines some of the connections that are emerging between commercial on-line community development, and commercial models of on-line education. My paper explores how many of the same organizations, strategies, and ways of representing on-line communities and community resources associated with corporate sponsored on-line communities are being reproduced in models of on-line education. I argue that strategic alliances ought to be made between academics and various community groups.

Werry, Chris. EServer (1999). Articles>Education>Online

TradeOff Cube: A Graphical User Interface Device

Decision support systems for multicriteria problems aim to help users understand the tradeoffs between their priorities (i.e., criteria weights) and their impact on the leading alternatives. Assignment of weights in existing systems requires multiple interface screens, so does analysis of the relationship between criteria weights and outcomes. A single-screen user interface device is proposed - a tradeoff cube - for declaration and viewing of all criteria weights - even if the hierarchy is multi-level and for examining the relationships between criteria weights and performance of alternatives. The tradeoff cube displays the entire hierarchy in a single base square subdivided into rectangles, each of which corresponds to a criterion. Criteria weights are adjusted by modifying the area of the rectangle. Valuations of alternatives are dynamically displayed in an adjacent stack bar chart, where stacks represent the lowest level criteria nodes. The dynamic interactive fluid process dramatically speeds up visualiz

Kirshner, Michael. EServer (2001). Design>User Interface>Visual>Visual Rhetoric

Under, Over and Around the Net: Interrupting the Uptopian Subect of the Internet

I would like to examine the claims that pure subjectivity, free of outside 'political' associations such as gender or nationality, can be achieved in electronic communication.

Palmer, Terri. EServer (1994). Articles>Cyberculture>Theory

Vannevar Bush and the WWW

Early Internet visionary Vannevar Bush is brought back to life for a fictional interview. Bush discusses how his early vision of the 'memex' might provide examples for today's information designers as they attempt to organize information and make it available to users.

Holstrom, Christopher Ryan. EServer (2001). Design>Information Design

Videotaping Student Presentations: A Quick Start Guide

A guide to using MiniDV digital camcorders to record student presentations, then to review them on a computer and copy them to DVD for later review.

Johnson, Rachel. EServer (2006). Academic>Course Materials>Multimedia>Video

Visual Perception and Its Impact on Technical Communication

Past studies of visual perception have produced a wide library of information on what forms of information can be most easily absorbed by the user. In this paper, we consolidate the literature to provide guidelines on the most effective steps in text engineering, with applications in both printed documentation and website design.

Kaltenbach, Susan. EServer (2001). Articles>Human Computer Interaction>Visual>Cognitive Psychology

'Where The Hell Did I Put It?': Users in Heterogeneous Communications Environments Negotiating the Production, Distribution and Archiving of Knowledge Objects

A qualitative glance at how people in contemporary, heterogeneous communications environments--especially those involved in collaborative enterprises--were handling multiple communication events and the incoming and outgoing products of their communications, for example, texts, files, e-texts parked on shared file servers, e-texts parked on a user's hard-disk, web pages and useful http addresses, all of those sorts of things.

Wilkes, Gilbert Vanburen IV. EServer (1998). Presentations>Lectures>Streaming>Audio

Working Day: 9 to 5

A video documentary about the appropriate use of computer technologies in the workplace, which may be useful in talking about workplace ethics.

Johnson, Rachel. EServer (2006). Academic>Course Materials>Ethics>Workplace

Multimedia Content Management  

Strategies for developing and delivering multimodal content via digital media. Focus on the principles on database design, interface development, usability testing, and collaborative content management within technical communication settings. Projects include training modules, online documentation, dynamic interfaces, and document management systems.

Sauer, Geoffrey. EServer (2009). Academic>Courses>Content Management>Multimedia

Using the EServer TC Library for Course "Outside Readings"

Almost two years ago, I posted a rough note here about teaching my intro to technical communication course using the TC Library as a supplement to the textbook. Here's a more detailed essay on the method, which is working quite well so far.

Sauer, Geoffrey. EServer (2009). Articles>Education>Research>Online

Screencasting for Dummies (and Smarties)

With so much training being done on computers (along with other tasks being done while training is taking place on that same computer), it’s important to know some best practices for developing training and other modules with screencasts. Amy Tehan demonstrates tips and tricks for making an effective screencast that will hold the viewer’s attention and get the message across.

Tehan, Amy. EServer (2009). Presentations>Multimedia>Video>Screencasting