http://tc.eserver.org/publisher/IEEE_PCS A listing of works published by IEEE PCS in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/IEEE_PCS http://tc.eserver.org/34041.html http://tc.eserver.org/34041.html Eleanor McElwee was one of the founders of the IRE Professional Group on Engineering Writing and Speech (now IEEE PCS). http://tc.eserver.org/33661.html http://tc.eserver.org/33661.html Profile of John M. Kinn, a charter member of the IRE Professional Group on Engineering Writing and Speech (now IEEE-PCS) and the first editor of the Transactions on Engineering Writing and Speech (now IEEE T-PC). Includes a table of T-EWS and T-PC editors from 1958 to 2008. http://tc.eserver.org/33570.html http://tc.eserver.org/33570.html This nation does not effectively transfer expensively acquired knowledge into cost-effective, labor-saving tools and processes. http://tc.eserver.org/33302.html http://tc.eserver.org/33302.html A profile of Stan Higgins, one of the first editors of STC's journal. Based on archival research and an interview with Higgins. Includes a table of journal titles (e.g., TWE Journal, STWE Review) and names of editors. http://tc.eserver.org/31761.html http://tc.eserver.org/31761.html The key methods you can employ to create effective presentation slides. http://tc.eserver.org/31759.html http://tc.eserver.org/31759.html What’s the best way to handle questions from the audience when presenting? This podcast examines key things you can do to deal proactively with audience questions. http://tc.eserver.org/31762.html http://tc.eserver.org/31762.html Who to target with your email, how long it should be, and what should and shouldn't go in it so that it can be an effective means of communication for you. http://tc.eserver.org/31760.html http://tc.eserver.org/31760.html This training podcast provides examples as well as explanations and tips for dealing with a few grammar or usage problems that occur for many engineering and technical professionals who have to communicate in a hurry, via, for example, email. Listen for ways to know when to use can or may, affect or effect, it's or its, and also me, myself, or I. http://tc.eserver.org/31763.html http://tc.eserver.org/31763.html Brenda Huettner provides us with the basics for making our web sites accessible in this training podcast. http://tc.eserver.org/31672.html http://tc.eserver.org/31672.html More importantly, most lists of ten principles of clear writing are not really principles at all, but rather tips and technique. Understanding why you are doing something, i.e., the benefit you will gain, helps ensure that you will actually do it and do it consistently. Too often, when we are told only what to do, we follow the instruction half-heartedly, inconsistently, or not at all. http://tc.eserver.org/31671.html http://tc.eserver.org/31671.html Preparing a winning book proposal is very similar to bidding on many other freelance documentation projects. This article will show you how to create a book proposal that will give you the best chance of selling your book idea to the publisher you want. http://tc.eserver.org/31668.html http://tc.eserver.org/31668.html A collection of posts about current opportunities for professional and technical communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/31670.html http://tc.eserver.org/31670.html High-value goods and services are not impulse purchases. Both the purchaser and vendor may need to invest significant time in the purchasing process. When I first started working for myself, I wasted much time. Now I make the process as efficient as possible, both for myself, and for enquirers. http://tc.eserver.org/31667.html http://tc.eserver.org/31667.html Technical communicators employ a wide range of strategies to make scientific and technical information accessible to as wide an audience as possible. This glossary introduces some of these strategies by defining some terms commonly used to discuss them. The aim of the glossary is to help students in technical and professional communication successfully enter this rapidly expanding profession. http://tc.eserver.org/31669.html http://tc.eserver.org/31669.html The question, what do we gain by assessment, is one that has been asked more and more often by engineering educators. They ask the question even as the changes in accreditation brought on by ABET, Inc. and the Engineering Criteria have been cemented in programs both in the United States and abroad. http://tc.eserver.org/31644.html http://tc.eserver.org/31644.html Technical communication is often misunderstood by those outside the profession or the academic field. These outside perceptions of our work, generally based on extremely limited and narrow notions of the field, can influence the opportunities available to technical communicators. In this paper, three faculty members from the University of Washington's Department of Technical Communication describe their academic assumptions and research activities that range far beyond traditional areas from technical writing such as writing, editing and production. They describe projects that represent the expanding boundaries of the field of technical communication, spanning domains (including medicine, corporate, and public service), methods (including contextual inquiry, content analysis, case studies, and log file analysis), and solution types (including content management, user driven content, computer mediated communication, and strategic management of systems). What these projects share is abroad vision of the field of technical communication and a broad vision of the contributions that technical communication professionals have to offer. http://tc.eserver.org/31652.html http://tc.eserver.org/31652.html This paper focuses on the interaction between test participants and test facilitator in two variants of the think-aloud method. In a first, explorative study, we analyzed think-aloud transcripts from two usability tests: a concurrent think-aloud test and a constructive interaction test. The results of our analysis show that while the participants in both studies never explicitly addressed the facilitator, the think-aloud participants showed more signs of awareness of the facilitator than the participants in the constructive interaction test. This finding may have practical implications for the validity of the two methods. http://tc.eserver.org/31643.html http://tc.eserver.org/31643.html Professionalism is a recurrent topic of discussion—formally and informally—among technical communication scholars and practitioners. In the diversity among our programs and approaches to technical communication, the difficult issues surrounding certification in technical communication is a professional goal that major stakeholders have typically considered too complex to be addressed. Increasingly, however, many of these stakeholders agree that we can no longer continue to ignore these complex issues. In an earlier article, I have described twelve issues that must be addressed and tasks that must be undertaken to move the profession towards meaningful certification. In that discussion, I also suggest approaches to begin the work on each of these steps. In this present discussion, I address the first of these steps—codification of the bodies of knowledge through the development of an encyclopedia of technical and professional communication. In order to accomplish this, I describe the categories of knowledge in the field and the editorial and organizational structure of the project. http://tc.eserver.org/31649.html http://tc.eserver.org/31649.html Translation of documentation has traditionally been a major expense in the globalization process, especially if translations are required for multiple languages. The Darwin Information Typing Architecture (DITA) is an XML-based architecture for creating topic-based and information-typed content. It provides a number of features that, in addition to supporting high-quality information delivery, allows for more efficient and reliable localization of information. This article provides both an introduction to DITA and a discussion of DITA features that enhance document globalization. http://tc.eserver.org/31647.html http://tc.eserver.org/31647.html A-dec Inc. is a dental equipment manufacturer headquartered in Newberg, Oregon. A 40-year leader in the dental products industry, A-dec/spl trade/ has targeted the international market as their growth market. The change in scope has brought with it the recognition that the A-dec Technical Communications team must address how to align their content to support an international audience, as well as clearly communicate the company's core values. The process has been ongoing and dynamic as new discoveries occur. They faced the challenge of understanding the differences between translation and localization, which started their education in the area of necessary requirements for competing in the international marketplace. This case study discusses their journey towards creating a globalized product. http://tc.eserver.org/31645.html http://tc.eserver.org/31645.html This presentation reports on an intercultural virtual team project conducted by students in two management communication courses, one at the University of Delaware (USA) and one at McGill University (Canada). The goal of the partnership between the two classes was to enhance students' ability to collaborate across cultures using a variety of technologies for collaboration, a skill they need in order to succeed in the increasingly global and technologically mediated environment of work. Each team, which included students from both universities, compared communication practices in a company or type of business that exists both in the United States and in Canada. Their task was to analyze how the practices reflect and shape the particular environments in which the businesses operate. During the project they advanced and monitored their work through different technologies, including blogs, email, and a designated collaborative Web-based workspace, and they produced several genres of documents reporting their achievements. This presentation first analyzes the advantages, vulnerabilities, and faultlines of virtual intercultural teamwork as students experienced them. We then describe conditions that help teams overcome the risks of virtual work and assess how well we were able to create these conditions in the courses. http://tc.eserver.org/31646.html http://tc.eserver.org/31646.html Teaching writing to engineering students representing Indian, Middle Eastern, Asian, and American cultures can be daunting as their cultural perceptions of time, gender, source of authority, individualism and risk taking, affect learning styles. However, despite cultural differences, many International students have no difficulty with much of American instruction and, in some cases, perform better than American students. Their ability to adapt to American instruction appears to depend primarily on the educational goals of their cultures. http://tc.eserver.org/31653.html http://tc.eserver.org/31653.html When Monsanto attempted to release transgenic wheat in the upper Midwest of the US, localization efforts to accommodate stakeholders were unsuccessful. This paper explores this case briefly and suggests a new role for technical communicators as negotiators of technology. http://tc.eserver.org/31648.html http://tc.eserver.org/31648.html As global online access grows, Web site designers find themselves creating materials for an increasingly international audience. Cultural groups, however, can have different expectations of what constitutes acceptable Web site design. This article examines how prototype theory can serve as a methodology for analyzing Web sites designed for users from different cultures. Such analyses, in turn, can help individuals create more effective online materials for international audiences. http://tc.eserver.org/31650.html http://tc.eserver.org/31650.html This paper presents TCeurope, the European umbrella organization for technical communicators and its activities in the past, including lobbying for technical communication at the European Parliament, formulating a European guideline for usable and safe operating manuals for consumer goods, and formulating a European guidelines for professional education and training of technical communicators in Europe. http://tc.eserver.org/31651.html http://tc.eserver.org/31651.html Criticisms that Tufte and others have leveled against PowerPoint are not insurmountable defects of the programs themselves. These defects are generally due to an orientation, shared by program designers and users alike, and toward images rather than diagrams, toward perceptual decoration and object indication rather than toward visually mediated, iconic representations of verbal information. Using Peirce's theories of visual rhetoric, we show that improvements in visual communication generally - and PowerPoint slides in particular - depend on shifting our orientation away from image-driven thinking and toward diagrammatic modes of presentation. http://tc.eserver.org/31201.html http://tc.eserver.org/31201.html Presents a biography of Dorothy ("Dolly") Dahle, a successful businesswoman in the 1950s. http://tc.eserver.org/31200.html http://tc.eserver.org/31200.html Presents a biography of Joseph D. Chapline, noting his role in the founding of IRE-PGEWS. http://tc.eserver.org/30223.html http://tc.eserver.org/30223.html Take a look at your bookshelf: what is the copyright date of your earliest book on technical communication? I doubt whether you will find anything much earlier than 1965. I describe and comment briefly on several well-reputed technical writing books published between 1908 and 1965. Then I lead into the changes that have been occurring in the technical writing scene, and the impact these changes have had on us as professional technical communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/28874.html http://tc.eserver.org/28874.html Writing is a culturally situated activity. When writing is outsourced to other cultures, because of a lack of knowledge of the users' culture and also because of influences from the writer's local culture, those doing the writing and designing, despite various strategies adopted for overcoming the disadvantage of not knowing the users' culture, may not know how to culturally situate writing. It is, therefore, important that bicultural people, who know the users' culture, as well as the culture of those doing the outsourced work, give writing teams feedback about the users' culture. Doing so can make outsourced writing more culturally situated. http://tc.eserver.org/26501.html http://tc.eserver.org/26501.html How could four letters strike such fear in the hearts of normally stalwart faculty? Why would administrators loathe the mere mention of the word 'accreditation'? The source of their fear and frustration is a cycle of evaluation, assessment, and reporting that constitutes a six-year accreditation period. http://tc.eserver.org/26497.html http://tc.eserver.org/26497.html Open source software content management systems (CMS) offer affordability, flexibility, and in many cases outstanding performance. http://tc.eserver.org/26498.html http://tc.eserver.org/26498.html If usability is part of technical communication, language – the building block of technical communication – is an important part of the usability of a web site or software application. The better a product communicates, the more helpful it is, the easier it is to use. http://tc.eserver.org/26502.html http://tc.eserver.org/26502.html The suffix -able can be very useful in the English language because it helps us to express capability or worthiness. However, it's often bad form to pick any verb, slap -able on the end of it, and try to make a valid adjective. http://tc.eserver.org/26500.html http://tc.eserver.org/26500.html here are advantages to being a bad development manager. For one thing, you don’t stand out from the crowd; most development managers are pretty bad. For another thing, bad development managers have a knack for getting promoted in the face of all evidence to the contrary. With mediocrity as the norm, bad development managers have an edge: nobody expects much of them. Perhaps best of all, bad development managers don’t have to do a lot of original thinking. This article identifies the 10 most common things that bad development managers know in their bones. If you follow all 10 of these rules, you’ll be able to hold your head up as the baddest of the bad. http://tc.eserver.org/26499.html http://tc.eserver.org/26499.html With a small budget to create a website, many small businesses bypass usability testing. While it is not always possible to do a full-blown usability test on a small website, there are steps that website developers can take to help make sure users are not ignored during the process. http://tc.eserver.org/21544.html http://tc.eserver.org/21544.html Internet-based distance learning programs make it possible for technical communicators located anywhere in the world to participate in graduate courses in their field. But are these graduate programs as rigorous as those offered through traditional educational venues? Do they provide opportunities for participants to learn from professors and their fellow students that are as rewarding as those provided in traditional graduate seminars? This paper reports the responses of students in two such classes to a series of questions probing these issues, and offers conclusions and recommendations that may help others who plan such courses to structure them more effectively. http://tc.eserver.org/21524.html http://tc.eserver.org/21524.html Usability testing can make a difference in the product and and the documentation. Seeing is believing. http://tc.eserver.org/20876.html http://tc.eserver.org/20876.html The IEEE PCS Virtual Community has been established to provide you with a more robust environment to facilitate your online collaborative efforts. Enhanced capabilities not featured in static web pages or email listservs include: calendar function; polling function; file sharing; enhanced search function; and im (chat). http://tc.eserver.org/14062.html http://tc.eserver.org/14062.html Preferred editorial style for the preparation of proposed IEEE standards is established. Many of the frequently asked questions about writing drafts are answered. The optional and required contents of drafts are described, and instructions on submitting drafts for IEEE-SA Standards Board approval and publication are provided. This manual is not intended to be a guide to the procedural development of standards. http://tc.eserver.org/13395.html http://tc.eserver.org/13395.html The journal publishes five types of content: (1) research articles (representing the full range of workplace communication issues and all research methods), (2) interface articles (shorter pieces providing a 'translation' of theory and application to workplace communication practice), (3) tutorials (creative training/educational approaches), (4) commentary, and (5) book reviews. Users can search abstracts for research articles published from 1988 to date. http://tc.eserver.org/10219.html http://tc.eserver.org/10219.html We have discussed the advantages of attacking tough situations not all at once but in four phases: (1) minimal immediate response, aimed at buying time; (2) realistic preparation based on a complete scenario; (3) problem-solving discussion focused on reaching an agreement; and (4) follow-through to ensure that agreements are carried out. The main argument for this approach is simple: to be persuasive, you need good arguments; when you are surprised and upset, you can't think of your best arguments; therefore, whenever possible, give yourself time to calm down, think, and prepare properly. http://tc.eserver.org/10220.html http://tc.eserver.org/10220.html We discussed how to buy time when you are assaulted by an unpleasant surprise. Our argument was that few people respond well to challenging situations unless they have some time to prepare. Therefore, whenever you can, you should divide the task into four distinct phases: (1) minimal immediate response, (2) preparation, (3) problem-solving discussion, and (4) follow-through. Unfortunately, some situations don't let you postpone a full discussion. For such cases, you need the 'short method,' which condenses phases 1-3. http://tc.eserver.org/10223.html http://tc.eserver.org/10223.html The real secret to powerful delivery is a strong, positive, uninterrupted connection with the audience. To build that connection, you first of all need the right attitude. This is a combination of appreciation and respect for your listeners and enthusiasm about getting your message across to them. Now let's look at ways to express that attitude with your body and face. http://tc.eserver.org/10221.html http://tc.eserver.org/10221.html Do you wish you were a powerful, persuasive presenter? Do you envy people who can address a large audience with casual ease and charm, as though conversing with a few good friends? In this series, I will show you how to turn wish into reality and become one of that select group of exceptional presenters. It's surprisingly simple, as you'll see - and you don't need any special 'natural talent.' http://tc.eserver.org/10222.html http://tc.eserver.org/10222.html As we saw last time, the master key that opens the door to powerful delivery is honest connection with your audience. Outstanding speakers know that they must at every moment be connected with the real people in the audience, for a real purpose that matters to those people, and without hiding behind any slick stage personality. This is what generates the trust essential for persuasion. You may object that in most of your presentations, you're only selling technical information, with persuasion rooted entirely in objective criteria. But our experience with many organizations strongly suggests that this is the wrong view. You're always selling a package: people want the facts, but they also want to know that you are trustworthy and committed to helping them or to seeing a project through. And they get this essential information about trustworthiness and commitment not from the numbers and charts you present but from the way you connect with your listeners. http://tc.eserver.org/10225.html http://tc.eserver.org/10225.html We've seen that an attitude of appreciation, respect, and enthusiasm is the key to achieving the all-important connection with your listeners. In the last column, we examined ways to express that attitude with your body and face, through appropriate position, movement, gestures, and smile. This time, we'll consider the contribution your voice can make. Briefly, you must be heard and understood; you must talk at the right speed that invites the audience to stay with you; and you must maintain an emotional bond by expressing appropriate emotions. http://tc.eserver.org/10217.html http://tc.eserver.org/10217.html Our bimonthly newsletter provides pre- and post-event news of PCS activities along with short, practical articles, tutorials, and book reviews. The frequent publication provides quick turnaround and the opportunity to develop dialogs in letters to the editor. Examples of the regular features of the Newsletter include Message from the President, Tools of the Trade from Cheryl Reimold, and Net Notes from Beth Weise Moeller. http://tc.eserver.org/10227.html http://tc.eserver.org/10227.html Good visuals can strengthen your presentation tremendously - but unfortunately, they're rare. Here are their four key attributes: few, big, simple, and (occasionally) memorable. How many visuals per minute? People often ask me how many visuals they should use per minute of speech. I think they hope I will say expansively, 'As many as you like!' Instead, I tell them the opposite: 'Use no more than you really need.' The key is this: Use a visual only if it has a clear purpose. http://tc.eserver.org/10228.html http://tc.eserver.org/10228.html We saw how to create clean visuals that support your points. In essence, this involves 1) keeping text big (at least 18-point) so it can be read easily from the back of the room and 2) minimizing clutter (grids,numbers, legends, and unnecessary details). If you do that, your visuals will work for you rather than compete against you. This time, we will discuss how to make some of your visuals not just effective but memorable. http://tc.eserver.org/10229.html http://tc.eserver.org/10229.html Last time, I showed you that answering three questions will give you the right main message and key points for a strong presentation: 1. Who are my listeners? 2. What do I want them to do or believe? 3. What are their main needs and interests? Once you have the message and key points, you need to fit them into a structure that will produce the response you want. There is one structure that works uniformly well for all presentations technical or non-technical, informative or persuasive. It consists of three parts, which I will discuss more fully in upcoming columns. Here, I want to show you what the structure is and why it will always work for you. http://tc.eserver.org/10230.html http://tc.eserver.org/10230.html In this series, I have described a universal presentation structure consisting of introduction, body, and summary. Parts 3 and 4 discussed the introduction and the body in detail. This time, we'll see how to close the presentation with an effective summary. http://tc.eserver.org/10226.html http://tc.eserver.org/10226.html A presentation is a great chance to further your career. The reason is simple: most presentations are ill conceived and poorly delivered. So, if you can become one of the few who do it right, you'll stand out like a shining beacon in a dark wasteland. People will pick you for key projects because they can count on you to sell the work at presentation time. In this series, we look at the principles that enable you to prepare outstanding, career-boosting presentations. http://tc.eserver.org/10056.html http://tc.eserver.org/10056.html Formed in 1957, the IEEE Professional Communication Society was concerned with the art of clear writing and speaking. Now our interests extend to distance learning, web design and hypertext, document usability, video, team writing, visual communication, information design, communication and publication management and production, user interface design, and information dissemination, retrieval, and use.