maintainer-Orange Journal, The http://tc.eserver.org/publisher/Orange_Journal,_The A listing of works published by Orange Journal, The 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/Orange_Journal,_The http://tc.eserver.org/26692.html http://tc.eserver.org/26692.html Suggests that the interrelated skills of understanding and representing (re-presenting) the abductive inference (often neglected in technical and professional communication pedagogy) are critical for the scientific communicator vis-a -vis kairos, and that science communication instructors ought to develop a pedagogy that includes the instruction of this skill. http://tc.eserver.org/26691.html http://tc.eserver.org/26691.html If a single course is to be an effective representation of the discipline it should hope to include rhetoric, critical thinking, formalism, service learning, and civic rhetoric to, depending on how effectively so much can be managed within a semester. http://tc.eserver.org/26688.html http://tc.eserver.org/26688.html In a broad sense that the weblog can be beneficial to the business world as a whole. More specifically, however, it provides technical communicators with unprecedented opportunites at innovation and leadership. http://tc.eserver.org/26680.html http://tc.eserver.org/26680.html We seem to be constantly chasing the latest and greatest technology, eternally one step behind. Our continual struggle to establish the field of technical communication yet assert dominance over new technological domains seem to be in direct conflict with each other. How can we possibly establish our dominance over a moving target? Instead of trying to peer into future, perhaps we need to look toward the past. http://tc.eserver.org/26703.html http://tc.eserver.org/26703.html Women can be either encouraged or discouraged to take on the role of engineer through communication. Encouraging women to take on the role of engineer is imperative because of the lack of women currently in engineering. http://tc.eserver.org/26685.html http://tc.eserver.org/26685.html Gives a brief overview about how RFID tags work and examines the threat RFID tags pose to consumers and privacy in general. http://tc.eserver.org/26687.html http://tc.eserver.org/26687.html Examines the application of the World Wide Web in class education and research and the ways in which the Internet has enabled cheating and given educators ways to fight plagiarism. http://tc.eserver.org/26693.html http://tc.eserver.org/26693.html Explores some possible approaches to understanding typeface 'personality,' including empirical research and scholarly discussion, in the hopes of generating more discussion about how we can understand and use typeface personality when creating organizational identity packages. http://tc.eserver.org/26682.html http://tc.eserver.org/26682.html Online publishing technologies is an ever-changing, morphing animal that cannot necessarily be predicted, but perhaps we can work to harness it. As publishing technologies change, so too will the style in which the readability of those documents change as they are shaped and designed to meet new formulas and needs. Likewise, as the readability and accessibility of documents change, so too must the interaction and intervention of the technical communicator change to ensure readable, articulate, navigable documentation, as well as preserve an author-reader relationship and also to preserve the role of the technical communicator. http://tc.eserver.org/26684.html http://tc.eserver.org/26684.html Argues that employees' misunderstanding of email in the workplace has in part stemmed from employers not being direct about the need to monitor it. By being clear and direct, employers can possibly reduce misuse and ultimately the need for such intrusive email monitoring. http://tc.eserver.org/26686.html http://tc.eserver.org/26686.html This paper is a multidimensional exploration of email overload, incorporating a mixture of studies and opinions presented by various experts. http://tc.eserver.org/26702.html http://tc.eserver.org/26702.html Argues that it is crucial that technical writing courses raise the awareness of the implications of intercultural communication, and specifically, how to include the translator as the target audience. http://tc.eserver.org/26699.html http://tc.eserver.org/26699.html The philosophy behind the Orange Journal requires that the editors take several practical, theoretical, and technical elements into careful consideration in order to provide the best knowledge-building community possible. http://tc.eserver.org/26701.html http://tc.eserver.org/26701.html Our rejection of language as a system necessitates the rejection of pedagogical methods that seek to cultivate 'linguistic competence' or seek to develop 'intercultural competence' on top of the 'regular' work of technical communication instruction. http://tc.eserver.org/26698.html http://tc.eserver.org/26698.html Argues that the Orange Journal can provide a way to help graduate student scholars create a map for those inherent contradictions of being a graduate student, providing a space that serves our needs and that can give us legitimacy. http://tc.eserver.org/26696.html http://tc.eserver.org/26696.html If knowledge management is an appropriate framework for technical communication, how should technical communicators define their roles in knowledge management systems? Perhaps more importantly, how do technical communicators want others in their organizations to perceive them? http://tc.eserver.org/26689.html http://tc.eserver.org/26689.html Argues that technical communicators need to evaluate our dependence on electricity so that we are prepared for the possibility of a future without traditional sources of electricity. In order to evaluate our energy dependence, we need to consider the sustainability of new technologies before introducing them to our society. http://tc.eserver.org/26681.html http://tc.eserver.org/26681.html Technical communicators can gain knowledge and expertise in web technology including developing intranet sites, usability engineering, and knowledge management. http://tc.eserver.org/26695.html http://tc.eserver.org/26695.html There is a certain need to define the field of technical communication: a definition that we as practicioners and scholars can adapt for different audiences in order to create a clear image. The reasons to create a definition are stronger than the reasoning behind letting our field remain perpetually undefined. http://tc.eserver.org/26694.html http://tc.eserver.org/26694.html This article traces the ongoing debate surrounding instrumental discourse in technical communication scholarship and identifies steps that scholars should take to increase the efficacy of this debate. http://tc.eserver.org/26679.html http://tc.eserver.org/26679.html As computers become more complex and pervasive in modern society, humans also become more dependent on the systems and services supporting the computer. The ability to efficiently deal with problems when there is a break in the technical system will be more critical as society heads down this technological path. http://tc.eserver.org/26700.html http://tc.eserver.org/26700.html Explores the intersection between peer-reviewed print journals and online publications, and then examines two hybrid publications, one outside the discipline of professional communication and one inside, to determine whether a middle ground is attainable, and whether it can provide the same enculturating experience without hampering the development of professional ethos. http://tc.eserver.org/26690.html http://tc.eserver.org/26690.html Examines the ways in which electronic communication has affected interaction of coworkers in the workplace and the responsibility of technical communicators to ensure positive interactions with coworkers. http://tc.eserver.org/26697.html http://tc.eserver.org/26697.html Traces the experiences of a new entrant in the field of technical communication, and examines the competitive and cooperative nature of that field. http://tc.eserver.org/26683.html http://tc.eserver.org/26683.html Perhaps unfortunately, the field of tech comm has few, if any, well-known examples of what happens to those who don’t pay attention to copyright issues. One of the most interesting areas in which to explore the perils of copyright violation is in the world of American hip-hop music. I will explore the similarities between the copyright issues faced by hip-hop artists, and those faced by technical communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/20636.html http://tc.eserver.org/20636.html We decided to explore alternative methods for incorporating discussion into a distance-learning course in an attempt to facilitate the sense of community found in more traditional classrooms. Our goal through this study was to uncover factors that enable and hinder discussion between students in online learning environments and to determine whether the level of class discussion leads to an increased sense of community. http://tc.eserver.org/20638.html http://tc.eserver.org/20638.html Although technical communication documents cannot possibly be tailored to exactly match the interest, reading level and many-faceted influences of a reader, they can I believe, take measures to engage the reader to believe that the information he or she is receiving from the document is valuable to their experience in some way. http://tc.eserver.org/20639.html http://tc.eserver.org/20639.html One important aspect of technical writing is the production and use of procedures. Though technical writing serves a variety of purposes, teaching, informing, persuading, and even questioning, one of its primary and most common purposes is the 'how-to' function of providing procedures. There is a great deal of information available on writing procedures, the vast majority of it focusing on software documentation and product documentation. http://tc.eserver.org/20637.html http://tc.eserver.org/20637.html The future of Technical Communication is something that we are all, as either practitioners, academics or students, keenly interested in. What is the future of our chosen discipline? What exactly is it that a practitioner in the field does today? This paper will explain that through examining one sub-discipline of Technical Communication, Usability, we may see an example of the beginnings of a pattern of professional development. http://tc.eserver.org/18302.html http://tc.eserver.org/18302.html This article explores the implications of choosing to work as a cog in the field of technical communication. The author includes perspectives from cog-colleagues and manager/cogs, and touches on concepts of ownership, recognition, and egoless communication. She recommends exercises in discipline-specific poetry and editing in a workshop setting as practical ways to work toward detachment. http://tc.eserver.org/14913.html http://tc.eserver.org/14913.html In the information age it is widely understood that there is now too much information. Some of this newly created information will most certainly be valuable, but despite marked improvement in search tools, finding the valuable information is a slow panhandle. Perhaps in light of this situation, the W3C under the direction of Berners-Lee has begun to build the foundation for the next phase of the web. This phase, called the Semantic Web, will make information stored with this technology much more processible by machines. http://tc.eserver.org/14909.html http://tc.eserver.org/14909.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/14914.html http://tc.eserver.org/14914.html Defining the field of technical communication is a potentially impossible task. In some respects, the process of defining this profession is similar to Sisyphus' eternally futile task: Just as one theory is proposed within the technical communication discourse community, another article is published and the previous theory suddenly collapses. Unlike Sisyphus, however, the members of the discourse community should be able to successfully create a definition of the field based upon the best ideas from previous theories and writings. http://tc.eserver.org/14911.html http://tc.eserver.org/14911.html To the ongoing question over whether the status or role of the technical communicator is to be considered as that of a 'professional' versus a 'practitioner'. If the answer to this question is an unequivocal 'yes' then how do we as aspiring technical communicators position ourselves in the field to overcome this kind of prejudice and narrow-mindedness? Are there skills and theories that are important to learn or at least be aware of that will not only help foster respect for the field of technical communication as a recognized profession but also aid in distancing ourselves from being labeled mere practitioners? http://tc.eserver.org/14908.html http://tc.eserver.org/14908.html According to the technical writing textbook used in the Introductory to Technical Writing class I teach, there are two purposes and at least five audiences of technical documents. Yet students are taught only one style of writing to satisfy all writing situations: the plain style. This essay examines the history and current state of plain style's role in technical writing. It further discusses plain style's relation to rhetorical and instrumental approaches to technical communication, and finally offers writing teachers a new approach to plain style and instrumental language in technical writing. http://tc.eserver.org/14910.html http://tc.eserver.org/14910.html To meet the challenge of addressing the needs of subject matter experts (SME) and non-experts, alleviating fears, and keeping the public informed requires knowledge of communication theory, subject-matter expertise, and adherence to a code of ethics. A model illustrating the professional technical communicator's knowledge base and relationship with the SME and non-expert is presented. http://tc.eserver.org/14915.html http://tc.eserver.org/14915.html Many articles from recent decades begin with the assumption that technical communicators do not have much power to make ethical decisions about their work. We need to start with a basic understanding of the relationships that technical communicators build with that audience in their work and identify ways in which those relationships might have ethical implications. http://tc.eserver.org/14798.html http://tc.eserver.org/14798.html You should know what appeals to and motivates your audience before you approach them with a suggestion for action. The same point is also true for writers. The writer must have a good idea of who the audience is and what motivates them in order to create arguments that will convince his or her audience to not only to read the text, but also to behave in the desired fashion after they have read the text. http://tc.eserver.org/14800.html http://tc.eserver.org/14800.html There is a vast assortment of schools of thought concerning how it is possible to communicate.  Empiricism, romanticism, materialism, psychoanalysis, and cognitive psychology all have been used as rationale for, and to describe the genesis of, the simple and natural activity of communication.  How is it possible that we are able to communicate successfully?  Much scholarly work has been generated documenting our interpretation of written discourse in an attempt to describe how we successfully convey meaning from within to without.  Whether a theorist is an advocate of New Criticism, Reader Response, Phenomenology, Social Constructionism, rhetoric, or plain style, the basic question remains the same: How are we able to convey concepts successfully and accurately from one source to another? http://tc.eserver.org/14799.html http://tc.eserver.org/14799.html Can we achieve a true convergence among fields, with science and the humanities working in tandem to produce knowledge? This paper attempts eight rhetorical and two political strategies in a 'gedanken experiment' to assess which among them might meet with greatest success in achieving that congruence.  Some of the strategies will be adaptations of prominent writers, including theorists in Technical Communication.  The question whether science and the humanities should, in fact, operate from the same attitudes and assumptions will be addressed in a final section. http://tc.eserver.org/13386.html http://tc.eserver.org/13386.html This paper is an attempt to explore how reader-response criticism and the overall approach to using rhetoric in technical communication may be impacted by the large amount of technical documentation moving to the Web. The discussion focuses on three main areas: moving from the “reader” to the “user” in online documentation; the value of plain language style in this medium; and how Web delivery seems to be bridging the gap between user interface (UI) text and help documentation. I shall explore these areas in an attempt to clarify whether the publication of technical documentation on the Internet negates the rhetorical approach to technical communication and how or if Web delivery impacts the reader-response view that users play a significant role in creating the meaning of a text. http://tc.eserver.org/13379.html http://tc.eserver.org/13379.html By discussing the modern technical communicator's audience with the presumption that they are individuals reading text, many technical communication theorists vastly limit and underestimate the role of the technical communicator. Indeed, Billie J. Wahlstrom writes that as new technologies have been developed over the years, '[technical communicators] have adopted an ahistorical approach . . . largely ignoring . . . luminal eras when changes in communications technologies caused profound cultural transformations' (Walstrom 131).[1] Moreover, arguments in technical communication theory frequently miss the fact that even though they can become wildly divergent, they may all seem appropriate to certain audiences and in certain situations. For example, Claude E. Shannon and Warren Weaver's The Mathematical Theory of Communication outlines a theory of communication in seeming contradiction to Carolyn R. Miller's in 'A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing.' But despite this conflict, we still find value in both of these theories. How is this possible? Are there any unifying theories that allow for such divergent theories to coexist? Indeed there are, but they require us to look at technical communication in a different way than what is presently assumed in technical communication discourse. http://tc.eserver.org/13378.html http://tc.eserver.org/13378.html The media, in confronting the challenge of presenting heartrending information and the overwhelming amount of bereavement on 9/11, relied on a quantifiable approach to designing such statistics for mass consumption. Evidently, production inserts keyed in on the bottom of television screens displayed scrolling numbers, sound-byte tracks of seemingly instantaneous gratification in coping with the economy of airtime and awesome amount of news. One could imagine information “tickers” of human tragedy—where numbers surmount, anxiety and anticipation cultivates. Quantitative virtues portrayed in these information graphics argued for numerical clarity in its message; whereby in the days following, the world could have been changed forever, and these momentary glances at numbers assuage how humanity stood frozen at that very moment in time. Nonetheless, today the tickers are gone; numbers are no longer news; families are left bereft; and a war is well underway. The media has retreated to capture screen shots of “Ground-Zero” as it stands in recovery, and the news, while still overpopulated with information, may perhaps be apologetic for the dispassionate exhibit it proposed soon after the catastrophe. http://tc.eserver.org/13384.html http://tc.eserver.org/13384.html Audience analysis frameworks do not address an important aspect of communication in writer/audience relationships. This element is the humanistic aspect of cognitive processing, which encompasses emotional and cultural aspects. These elements exist on behalf of the writer as well as the reader, which without taking either into account lead us to a less than full understanding of how we can progress in our studies around this issue. We continue to study and theorize about how to improve interactions between writer and audience. Although current theories seem to add considerations important in the audience analysis process and the writer/audience relationship, there remains a need to find ways to address the truly empirical aspects of human interpretation. http://tc.eserver.org/13380.html http://tc.eserver.org/13380.html Will the generation of readers that grow in the age of the Internet respond to text differently than earlier generations? What if in the year 2015 a teenager chooses an online version of Harry Potter where they can actually influence the text to determine an adventure that no one else has ever encountered? It is entirely possible that the Internet could potentially affect how future readers respond to text based on their online experiences. Perhaps these future readers will no longer respond to the passive roles that static text can sometimes place them in. They may seek instead, an active role in both the text and the options they have in the online world. How can text support this role? What kinds of rhetorical reading strategies brought fourth by Technical Communication (TC) could support new adaptations to text that allow the reader to actively engage in both content and navigation online to capture a richer, more rewarding experience? http://tc.eserver.org/13385.html http://tc.eserver.org/13385.html Audience analysis figures prominently into Technical Communication curricula because the focus of technical communication is to take complex technical information and create materials that can help readers use, learn, repair, or build equipment or systems (Alred et al. 2). In order to help readers perform these specialized tasks, we must be intimately familiar with their real and anticipated needs, expectations, and limitations. Many different models of the author/audience relationship have been proposed to aid in this analysis. These models have worked well (depending on what school of thought one subscribed to) when the main delivery system consisted of print media. http://tc.eserver.org/13383.html http://tc.eserver.org/13383.html Technical communicators perform an important role in society, relaying complex messages in a clear and concise manner to people who would otherwise have to spend an inordinate amount of time tracking down this information for themselves. Among other things, technical communicators are responsible for writing software manuals and computer help systems, instruction manuals for everything from appliances to airplanes, and health-related pamphlets and warnings. If this information is misunderstood – either through the shortcomings of the writer or reader – the consequences can be devastating. http://tc.eserver.org/13381.html http://tc.eserver.org/13381.html One of the most frequent questions technical communicators encounter is what style they should write in. Unfortunately it is not an easy question. The answer to this question should come from careful theoretical studies and deliberate analysis of the audience and many other factors, such as social environment. In this paper, I wish to analyze theories, which guide the style in technical communication, from three angles: reader analysis, interpretive communities and whether technical communication is plain, instructional, or rhetorical. In the conclusion section, I will try to analyze the importance of extracting valuable parts from each theory and how the valid points from each theory work together to guide technical communicators to choose the right style in technical communication. http://tc.eserver.org/13377.html http://tc.eserver.org/13377.html For over thirty years, “humanistic” theorists in the field of technical communication have attempted to link it to the more established academic disciplines of rhetoric and literary theory. These theorists, such as Carolyn Miller and David Dobrin, have based their attempts on the following (grossly simplified) logic: objectivity, in language as well as reality, is a sham; therefore, those of us in technical communication do not objectively report reality, but rather, persuade readers to accept reality as we see it; furthermore, to claim that we do anything less is to distort the truth. Patrick Moore subscribes to an opposing view termed “positivist,” yet it is so universally panned that no one outside the sciences presently dares embrace it. Moore notes that Miller “expresses her concern that technical communication is ‘coercive’”, and goes on to cite other humanistic theorists, such as Dobrin and Charles Bazerman, who try to make technical communication theory dance to the tune of rhetoric, which is more pleasing to their ears. http://tc.eserver.org/13382.html http://tc.eserver.org/13382.html Technical communication strives to convey information in ways to best help the reader, whether a jet-engine mechanic with manual in hand, a physicist reading a peer-reviewed article, or the new owner of the latest computer or coffeepot. Ideally, it presents information that people will read, understand, and find interesting. 'Just writing a document isn’t enough to ensure that people will read it. Reading is a voluntary act; people don’t have to do it,' says Janice C. Redish in 'Understanding Readers' (15). She and other academics endeavor to improve the field, recording their efforts in such publications as the Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, Technical Communication, Technical Communication Quarterly, and Techniques for Technical Communicators. The hybrid discipline has tapped other fields to further its goals of readability and comprehension, from psychology to computer science. Technical communication could also draw from another field, journalism, which uses story structure and writing styles that readers everywhere are familiar with. And journalism is adept at adapting to an array of audiences. http://tc.eserver.org/10285.html http://tc.eserver.org/10285.html When considering the design of information and information structures, the focus tends to gravitate to general issues of content, information hierarchies, and in some instances, system usability. In discussions concerning system usability and human factors, the issue of the user experience, or overall aesthetic experience, with regard to a specific information structure is rarely addressed. Things such as the 'look and feel' of a website, for example, may get some attention by the designers and developers of the information structure, but the idea of 'look and feel' is essentially an issue of how to 'decorate' the information. Too often, when software developers or usability engineers discuss 'look and feel,' they do not consider it to be an integral part of the information design structure but an additive element applied only after the structure and content of the information have been resolved. What seems to be lacking in information design is a concern for the visual composition of information. http://tc.eserver.org/10286.html http://tc.eserver.org/10286.html Much discussion in web usability in recent years has revolved around designing web sites which are intended to be easily accessible by even the least technologically advanced user. This attempt to attract the highest number of visitors is especially appropriate for promoting and selling goods and services. The inexperienced user unaccustomed to reading text displayed on monitors and unable to efficiently download multimedia files should not be alienated by highly detailed or stylized web writing or a lack of bandwidth. Yet, there are more-advanced users on the web that designers should consider when appropriate. http://tc.eserver.org/10287.html http://tc.eserver.org/10287.html One of the most important aspects of information design is the planning process. Unfortunately, the planning process is one of the first items to get cut when schedules are tight. Projects that have skipped this step often suffer from problems that are difficult to fix once the site has been developed. For example, sites that have not been planned in advance often contain information that was added randomly and inconsistently, related topics don't link to one another, and readers have a frustrating experience navigating the site. http://tc.eserver.org/10288.html http://tc.eserver.org/10288.html Streaming media is a method for delivering multimedia content, where video, audio, graphics, and animation can all play simultaneous roles in the presentation.<P>The advantage of streaming media is that you can start viewing the presentation almost immediately while the file itself is still being sent from the server; there is no waiting period while all the component files are first downloaded to your hard drive. When the presentation is over, none of the component files remain on your computer.