Technical Communication Practices Research Articles

The Technical Communicator as Artist: Rhetoric, Aesthetics, and Form in the Workplace

Purpose: This article describes how the specialized, rhetorical aesthetic theory of form, posited by Kenneth Burke, highlights humanistic and artistic elements of technical communication exemplified in the technical workplace. A specialized way of understanding how types of communication build relationships between author and audience, the theory of form offers a unique way to contextualize how an artist-rhetor creates and fulfills audience desires, expectations, and appetites. Method: The authors first contextualize technical communication as a field of artistic and creative practice; they then expand that context using Burke???s rhetorical aesthetic theory of form as a framework for application and examine that application in the context of the technical workplace, using a self-reported case study from industry as an example. Results: The rhetorical aesthetic theory of form provides a way of rethinking technical communication practice, emphasizing the humanistic and artistic elements of technical communication in the workplace. Conclusion: Looking at technical communication with an interrelated view of rhetoric and aesthetics can provide scholars, teachers, and practitioners with new insights for how technical communicators can see themselves and their audiences as complex people who have the capacities for arguing, influencing, and persuading–and also with capacities for drama, story, feeling, creating, and being moved by art.

On the Current Moment in AI: Introduction to Special Issue on Effects of Artificial Intelligence Tools in Technical Communication Pedagogy, Practice, and Research, Part 1

On the Current Moment in AI: Introduction to Special Issue on Effects of Artificial Intelligence Tools in Technical Communication Pedagogy, Practice, and Research, Part 1

Peer-Led Professional Development: How One Technical Communication Team Learns on the Job

Technical communication practice can change rapidly over time and across organizations. As a result, lifelong learning is an important mind-set, yet few studies explore how technical communicators learn on the job. This study builds on research about technical communication training by reporting on learning practices in one documentation team working at a large, multinational corporate information technology firm. Based on interviews and artifact analysis, the authors report on topics, technologies, and learning purposes that the team discussed, finding that peer-led, collaborative learning enables documentation teams to create and sustain group dynamics, an underexplored facet of on-the-job learning.

Review of "The Profession and Practice of Technical Communication by Yvonne Cleary," Cleary, Y. (2022). The profession and practice of technical communication. Routledge.

Yvonne Cleary's The Profession and Practice of Technical Communication (2022) offers a narrative survey on communication design/technical communication as an academic field of study but also builds bridges between academic work (both pedagogical and research-oriented) to work environments and practitioners in the professional realm. Because of the book's organizational structure and approachable text, Cleary is highly successful both in her research and the presentation of it, creating a valuable resource for students and providing insight for field practitioners.

The Profession and Practice of Technical Communication: Yvonne Cleary: [Book Review

This book provides an up-to-date, research-based, but practical and accessible description of contemporary technical communication practice in a global environment. It gives readers a thorough understanding of the technical communication field by emphasizing how it should be viewed as a profession, how one might pursue a career in it, and finally how to practice it. Finally, the book draws the reader’s attention to background material with a succinct summary of ideas that have been popularized in both literature and practice. In addition, the book’s extensive multiple method study methodology provides a solid justification for the information’s foundation. The book has nine chapters that are divided into the following three sections: An introduction to the fundamentals of technical communication as a profession; an examination into how diverse the technical communication profession is—for instance, by examining the many competencies required, various sorts of activities that are performed, and various work environment options accessible, including working from home; and finally, an introduction into the theories and procedures that serve as the book’s foundation and link the first two sections to a research framework. This book is accessible and useful for industry practitioners, students, and teachers. The book also helps novices by giving them all the knowledge they need about the subject, educational options, societies, technologies, necessary skills, workplaces, and the need to adapt quickly to changing conditions to meet future needs. Real-world case studies and the sharing of technical communicators’ real experiences are of tremendous value to professionals and will aid in the development of their technical communication skills.

Technical Communicators' Use of and Requirements for Special Language Reference Tools

Background: Technical communicators use special language information to describe technology products. Researching such information is part and parcel of their job and thus occupies a relevant share of their working time. Literature review: Numerous studies examine information needs and search techniques of various professionals, such as engineers or translators. However, very little is known about technical communicators’ use of and requirements for information sources containing special language information. This article contributes to filling this research gap by discussing results of an empirical study. Research questions: 1. What types of nonhuman information sources do technical communicators use when researching special language information? 2. What properties do technical communicators expect from special language reference tools? Research methodology: We conducted a written online survey among technical communicators. In this article, we analyze and interpret survey data related to the two research questions. Results: Respondents use 14 major types of information sources for researching special language information. Half can be categorized as reference tools, while the other half are document-like. Respondents would like to have special language reference tools that are available electronically, can be adapted to their personal needs, and offer up-to-date information with good usability. Conclusions: Half of the information source types are document-like and can be used as text corpora. Thus, text corpus-management methods and tools should be promoted in technical communication practice and teaching. Technical communicators’ requirements and wishes described in this article lay the groundwork for developing tailor-made special language reference tools.

Pasts and Futures of Design Thinking: Implications for Technical Communication

<bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Introduction:</b> Design thinking has gained popularity over the last few decades due to its promise for social innovation and user-centered solutions for technical communication practices and pedagogy. Yet, our increasingly complex sociotechnical climate calls for the historical examination of the decades-old problem-solving model and re-envisioning of the prospect of design thinking in academia and industry. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research questions:</b> 1. What prominent historical narratives have informed design-thinking values and practices as we know them today? 2. What could be the future of design thinking in the technical communication profession? <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Research methodology:</b> This article interrogates the historiography of design thinking by mapping its dominant narratives and constructs antenarrative futures by weaving adjuvant accounts into new trajectories for technical communication purposes and aspirations. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Results:</b> Based on the mapping of historical traces of design-thinking narratives, this article presents two root accounts of design-thinking development—the efficiency narrative and the participatory narrative—with key identifiers and examples. Retracing the stories to highlight stances of nondominant sources, the findings indicate the importance of social advocacy through two main antenarratives—inclusion and social justice. <bold xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">Conclusion and future research:</b> Taking into account the antenaratives of design thinking, future applications should center inclusion and social justice advocacy in academic as well as industry settings. Future studies may investigate this approach to implementing design thinking and examine the corresponding outcomes.

Technical Editing: An Introduction to Editing in the Workplace: Donald H. Cunningham, Edward A. Malone, and Joyce M. Rothschild [Book Review

Subtitling this 578-page book as an introduction may be a misnomer; the book is broad in scope and deep in coverage of its subject. It fills a need for current texts on the topic of technical editing and is grounded in modern technical communication workflows, practices, and approaches. This book is an invaluable teaching aid for classrooms and a welcome reference resource for practicing professionals. Throughout the book, the authors address issues of modern technical communication workflows. They acknowledge that the dedicated editor role has become increasingly rare and that many technical writers are responsible for editing their own or their peers’ documents. They also address workplace considerations, including people, budgets, and schedules, in both planning and executing editing projects. The book includes a thorough 30-page glossary of grammar terms, 33 pages of notes and references, and a thorough index.

Design Thinking in Technical Communication: Solving Problems Through Making and Collaboration: Jason C. K. Tham: [Book Review

The book targets two main audiences. It primarily addresses students and instructors of technical communication, and also addresses industry practitioners. The book provides practical and theoretical examples that both the primary and secondary audiences can incorporate in their pedagogy and industry practices. The author includes learning activities at the end of each chapter that teachers/instructors can emulate in the technical communication classroom. The approaches in the book make it a significant contribution for the teaching and practice of technical communication. The author admonishes students, instructors, professionals, and industry practitioners to change technical communication by paving the way for design thinking and making. He summarizes the need to adopt design thinking as a methodology in technical communication to make designs user- and human-centered, and to advocate for social justice in our approaches to teaching, learning, and practice in the field. Thus, he calls for a rethinking of technical communication pedagogy “to focus less on genres.". The author also argues that design thinking is a necessary component of technical communication and shows how it can be incorporated into technical communication practice and pedagogy. The examples and learning activities presented in the book make it a valuable guide for students, teachers, and practitioners of technical communication. Instructors of technical communication will find the learning activities presented throughout each chapter of the book particularly useful.

The Evolution of University Business Incubators: Transnational Hubs for Entrepreneurship

University business incubators (UBIs) are uniquely positioned to foster transnational entrepreneurship and the evolution of business and technical communication practices on a worldwide basis. UBIs facilitate the launch of start-ups by professors, students, researchers, and local entrepreneurs. This study uses assemblage theory to profile four UBIs. Its findings concern their process of exporting incubation models and training transnational entrepreneurs, the roles of alumni and students, and the genres and conventions of entrepreneurship.

Lean Data Visualization: Considering Actionable Metrics for Technical Communication

Analyzing data gathered around COVID-19 can increase our understanding of its spread and the social and economic impacts. Data visualizations can help various stakeholders understand the outbreak. To this end, this article seeks to understand how COVID-19 data dashboards utilized actionable metrics to inform various stakeholders. Used in lean methodology, actionable metrics specifically tie data visualization to actions to improve a specific situation. The authors discuss how actionable metrics were used in COVID-19 data dashboards to inspire actions of various stakeholders by modeling different outcomes through future projections. In turn, the authors explore how actionable metrics in data dashboards can inform new business and technical communication practices for data visualization.

Legally Minded Technical Communicators: A Case Study of a Legal Writing Course

Understanding the law and its impact on the practice of technical communication has been an important scholarly thread in technical and professional communication (TPC) for more than two decades. Technical communicators recognize the impact of their work on stakeholders as well as the potential liability issues associated with composing technical communication documents. While this scholarship is widespread, relatively few pedagogical resources are available to prepare students for success in a litigious world or to guide instructors in teaching legal writing. This article offers a case study of a legal writing course that prepares TPC students to develop legal literacy and succeed in the workplace.

Editorial

Technical communication (TC) practice is changing in significant ways, due largely to maturing technologies and increasing consumer demand for content designed for a multitude of devices and delivery channels. Whereas ten years ago technical communicators primarily produced static documents, today they primarily produce modular content components, the essential building blocks for the vast array of information products (e.g., user guides, training materials, product descriptions) that organizations must deliver in a variety of publishing formats, such as PDFs, websites, embedded user assistance, dynamic delivery, and mobile applications. In addition, technical communicators increasingly contribute to user experience (UX) projects, create video documentation, curate user-generated content, and manage social media communications.

Plain Language in the Twenty-First Century: Introduction to the Special Issue on Plain Language

Documentation for consumers is frequently complex, convoluted, and hard to follow. Bureaucratic organizations such as insurance companies, government agencies, hospitals, and law firms often have reputations for communicating poorly. Such poorly prepared documents diminish consumers’ abilities to make informed decisions about their health, rights, and finances. When these documents leave consumers with more questions than answers, organizations must try again (and again) to communicate more clearly. With the ease of accessing documents online, organizations face increasing pressure to create effective content appropriate for broad audiences. Plain language offers an approach to language and design for producing accessible and readable public documents. This movement, which gained traction in several countries in the 1970s, has regained its momentum with recent legislation and new public and private sector initiatives. Then-US-President Barack Obama signed the Plain Writing Act in 2010 and Executive Order 13563 in 2011, requiring clear communication in plain writing from US government agencies. Other sectors have responded as well. Practitioners use plain language in a range of other areas such as healthcare, business, science, engineering, and law. In keeping with these developments, we provide this special issue to reintroduce the discussion of plain language in professional and technical communication research and practice.

Strategies for Managing Cultural Conflict: Models Review and Their Applications in Business and Technical Communication

In the field of business and technical communication, scholars have called for research on dealing with cultural conflict for a long time. But the limited study on dealing with cultural conflicts, along with the current political context in the United States, calls for efforts to systematically address diversity issues and cultural conflict in our research and teaching practices. One obstacle to advance effective communication strategies on cultural conflict in business and technical communication is the lack of communication with other disciplines. Through an interdisciplinary perspective, the current article introduces the concept of cultural conflict, examines strategy models to address cultural conflict in different fields, and provides an example on how to identify a strategy model to resolve cultural conflict in business and technical communication practices. This article concludes by emphasizing that there is not a best model that can be applied to handle cultural conflict in all circumstances and calling for research on exploring and identifying effective strategy models to resolve cultural conflict in business and technical communication practices.

Technical communication practices in the collaborative mediascape

Professional practices in technical communication are increasingly being challenged by the emergence of collaborative media that enable users to access technical information created by non-professionals. At the same time, these technologies also allow technical communicators to provide a continually expanding audience with knowledge and skills needed now more than ever. Through a co-design case study, researchers developed a new and innovative platform for producing and distributing technical information including user-generated content. Moreover, the events of the case included market strategies in which a professional organization moved from a reactive to a more proactive position on collaborative media. In so doing, they outlined a set of new professional roles for technical communicators including editors, curators, facilitators, and community managers.

The social help desk

Technical support, a traditional practice of technical communication, is rapidly changing due to the ubiquitous use of digital technologies (Spinuzzi, 2007). In fact, many technology companies now have dedicated Twitter accounts specifically for providing technical support to end users. In response to this changing technical support landscape, we conducted an empirical study of Twitter-based interactions among six companies and their customers in order to examine the nature of the emerging technical support genre on Twitter. Among other findings, we discovered technical support was widely sought among the customers of the companies studied (Comcast, Verizon, AT&amp;T, Samsung, Hewlett Packard, and Dell) with nearly 200,000 tweets recorded in just a 38-day timespan. We also found a majority of individuals used Twitter to complain about a brand as opposed to seeking support for a specific technical problem. In our entry, we discuss the implications of these and other findings for technical communication practitioners and researchers who design for technical documentation in social media contexts.

Networking in a Field of Introverts: The Egonets, Networking Practices, and Networking Technologies of Technical Communication Entrepreneurs

Research problem: Although labor statistics document a steady rise in contract, contingent, and entrepreneurial labor, knowledge about the professional communication practices that build and sustain independent careers in the field of technical communication (TC) largely emerges from broad survey analysis, cultural/social critiques, or individual anecdotes. From these statistics and stories, we already know that independent technical communicators face challenges ranging from legal issues to establishing marketing visibility when they start and maintain businesses. Drawing on thick qualitative description from semistructured interviews, this article responds to the need for more systematic research tracing the networking practices, technologies, and relationships that enable entrepreneurial work. Research question: How do established individual entrepreneurs in TC describe the social relationships, networking practices, and networking technologies that shape their careers over time? Literature review: This project extends prior research at the intersections of entrepreneurship, technical communication, and social networks. Entrepreneurial studies research indicates that strong social ties and embeddedness influence venture performance; however, systematic scholarship on the networks or networking practices of independent or entrepreneurial technical communication practice has been limited. Methodology : The project used semistructured interviews to analyze the professional communication practices of eight technical communicators with considerable experience working independently as consultants or small-business owners. We used an online search to identify experienced entrepreneurs in the interdisciplinary field of technical communication. After recruiting participants via email, we conducted semistructured interviews to gather employment narratives, while prompting participants to share information about career-relevant ties, networking practices, and networking technologies. We then analyzed data through two iterative qualitative coding passes. Results and conclusions: Our participants, made up of experienced TC entrepreneurs, have used networking over at least two decades to advance personal business outcomes and evolve technical communication as a field and profession. Findings detail how networking is central to professional social knowledge construction, as TC entrepreneurs establish transactional contact with others, practice learning, and enact exponential reputation-building that addresses the isolation of working outside traditional organizations. Since this is a qualitative study based on self-report, the results are not generalizable but provide a foundation for future larger-scale research building from these qualitative themes.

Solving Problems in Technical Communication

Overall, the chapters in "Solving Problems in Technical Communication" provide an accessible introduction to major topics in the theory and practice of technical communication. The texts' focus on the context of communicators makes the book appropriate for technical communication majors at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Instructors of technical communication, including those who teach nonmajors, will find the discussion questions and literature overviews particularly useful. The editors of the book (Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber)state that the book is intended for "students who are learning about the field of technical communication" or professionals "interested in keeping up with new developments in the field." As members of the second cohort, the reviewers agree with that choice of audience wholeheartedly. As teachers of technical communication in an engineering college, they agree that the text is appropriate for students, but we would restrict the audience further, to students who plan to become technical communicators.

The State of Technical Communication in the Former Ussr: A Review of Literature

Over the last 2 decades, the nations that once comprised the Soviet Union have begun to play an increasingly important role in the global economy. As a result, today's technical and professional communicators could find themselves interacting with co-workers, colleagues, and clients in these nations. Being successful in such contexts, however, requires an understanding of the cultural, historic, educational, and economic factors that have affected and continue to shape technical and professional communication practices in these countries. This article provides an overview of the literature that has been published on technical and professional communication practices in the former USSR as well as reviews educational factors that have contributed to such practices. Through such an examination, the article provides readers with a foundation they can use to engage in future research relating to technical and professional communication practices in post-Soviet states.