A Research Primer for Technical Communication: Methods, Exemplars, and Analyses

A Research Primer for Technical Communication: Methods, Exemplars, and Analyses

Volumn , Issue , 2007, Pages 1-220

  Hughes, Michael A ^a   Hayhoe, George F ^b  

^a UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA   (United States)

^b MERCER UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84917369822     PISSN: None     EISSN: None     Source Type: Book    
DOI: 10.4324/9780203877203     Document Type: Book

References (136)

1. Argyris, C., R. Putnam, and M.M. Smith. 1985. Action Science: Concepts, Methods, and Skills for Research and Intervention. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
2. Bright, W.E. 1952. An Introduction to Scientific Research. New York: McGraw-Hill.
3. Hendrick, C. 1983. A middle-way metatheory. Contemporary Psychology 287:504-507.
4. Koetting, J.R. 1996. Philosophy, research, and education. In Handbook of Research for Educational Communications and Technology, ed. D.H. Jonassen, 1137-1147. New York: Simon & Schuster Macmillan.
5. Lincoln, Y.S., and E.G. Guba. 1985. Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
6. Miller, G. 1956. The magical number seven, plus or minus two: Some limits on our capacity for processing information. The Psychological Review 63:81-87.
7. Reeves, T. 1998. The scope and standards of the Journal of Interactive Learning Research. http://www.aace.org/pubs/jilr/scope.html: Association for the Advancement of Computing in Education.
8. Senge, P. 1990. The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization. New York: Doubleday.
9. Watkins, K.E., and A. Brooks. 1994. A framework for using action technologies. In The EmergingPower of Action Inquiry Technologies, ed. A. Brooks and K.E. Watkins, 99-111. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
10. Charles, C.M. 1998. Introduction to Educational Research, 3rd ed. New York: Addison-Wesley Longman.
11. Kuhn, T. 1962. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
12. Office of Human Subjects Research. 1979. The Belmont report: Ethical principles and guidelines for the protection of human subjects of research. http://ohsr.od.nih.gov/guidelines/belmont.html.
13. Smudde, P. 1991. A practical model of the document-development process. Technical Communication 38:316-323.
14. The Nuremberg Code. 1949. Trials of War Criminals Before the Nuremberg Military Tribunals Under Control Council Law No. 10, vol. 2. Washington, D.C.: U.S. Government Printing Office.
15. Alred, G.J. 1997. The St. Martin's Bibliography of Business and Technical Communication. New York: St. Martin's Press.
16. American Psychological Association. 2001. Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed. Washington, D.C.: American Psychological Association.
17. Hofstede, G. 1994. Culture and Organizations: Software of the Mind. London: HarperCollins.
18. Hofstede, G. 2001. Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviours, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations, 2nd ed. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
19. University of Chicago. 2003. The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
20. Campbell, K.S. (1990). Theoretical and pedagogical applications of discourse analysis to professional writing. Unpublished doctoral dissertation, Louisiana State University.
21. Fisher, L. (2001, January). Technical communicators: Designing the user experience. Intercom, 21-23.
22. Fishman, T. (2002). As it was in the beginning: Distance education and technology past, present, and future. Kairos. Retrieved March 8, 2006, from http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/7.3/binder2.html?coverweb/fishman/index.html.
23. Kostelnick, C., & Roberts, D.D. (1998). Designing visual language: Strategies for professional communicators. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
24. Morkes, J., & Nielsen, J. Concise, scannable, and objective: How to write for the Web. Retreived March 8, 2006, from http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html.
25. Porter, E. (2004, April 28). Send jobs to India? Some find it's not always best. New York Times, p. A-1.
26. Ramey, J. (2000). Guidelines for Web data collection: Understanding and interacting with your users. Technical Communication 47, 397-410.
27. Teich, T., Redish, J.C., & Rainey, K.T. (1995). Interact to produce better technical communicators:Academia and industry. In Proceedings of the STC 42nd Annual Conference, pp. 57-60. Arlington, VA: Society for Technical Communication.
28. Usability Professionals' Association. Usability body of knowledge. Retrieved March 8, 2006, from http://www.usabilitybok.org/.
29. Campbell, K.S. 1990. Theoretical and pedagogical applications of discourse analysis to professional writing. PhD diss., Louisiana State Univ.
30. Fisher, L. 2001. Technical communicators: Designing the user experience. Intercom (January), 21-23.
31. Fishman, T. 2002. As it was in the beginning: Distance education and technology past, present, and future. Kairos. http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/7.3/binder2.html?coverweb/fishman/index.html.
32. Kostelnick, C., and D.D. Roberts. 1998. Designing Visual Language: Strategies for Professional Communicators. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
33. Morkes, J., and J. Nielsen. Concise, scannable, and objective: How to write for the Web. http://www.useit.com/papers/webwriting/writing.html.
34. Porter, E. 2004. Send jobs to India? Some find it's not always best. New York Times, April 28, 2004.
35. Ramey, J. 2000. Guidelines for Web data collection: Understanding and interacting with your users. Technical Communication 47, 397-410.
36. Teich, T., J.C. Redish, and K.T. Rainey. 1995. Interact to produce better technical communicators:Academia and industry. In Proceedings of the STC 42nd Annual Conference, 57-60. Arlington, VA: Society for Technical Communication.
37. Usability Professionals' Association. Usability body of knowledge. http://www.usabilitybok.org/.
38. Nielsen, J. 1993. Usability Engineering. Boston, MA: Academic Press.
39. Corbin, J., and Strauss, A. 1990. Grounded theory research: Procedures, canons, and evaluative criteria. Qualitative Sociology 13 (1):3-21.
40. Firestone, W.A. 1993. Alternative arguments for generalizing from data as applied to qualitative research. Educational Researcher 22 (4):16-23.
41. Hughes, M. 2000. Team usability testing of web-based training: the interplay of team learning and personal expertise. Ph.D. diss., University of Georgia.
42. Hughes, M. 2006. A pattern language approach to usability knowledge management. Journal of Usability Studies 2 (1):76-90.
43. Kidder, L. 1982. Face validity from multiple perspectives. In New Directions for Methodology of Social and Behavioral Science: Forms of Validity in Research, ed. D. Brinberg and L. Kidder, 41-57. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
44. Lincoln, Y.S., and Guba, E.G. 1985. Naturalistic Inquiry. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
45. Merriam, S.B. 1998 Qualitative Research and Case Study Applications in Education. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.
46. Seely-Brown, J. 1998. Research that reinvents the corporation. Harvard Business Review on Knowledge Management. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School Publishing.
47. Allen, Paul R. 1995. Save money with a corporate style guide. Technical Communication 42:284-289.
48. Blakely, J. Paul, and Anne S. Travis. 1987. The nine-year gestation of a unified technical style guide. Proceedings of the 34th International Technical Communication Conference, 63-64. Washington, DC: Society for Technical Communication.
49. Bush, Don. 1993 Let the authors have their words. Technical Communication 40:126-128.
50. Caernarven-Smith, Patricia. 1991. Aren't you glad you have a style guide? Don't you wish everybody did? Technical Communication 38:140-142.
51. Caruthers, Clifford M. 1986. The evolution of a style guide. Proceedings of the 33rd International Technical Communication Conference, 405-407. Washington, DC: Society for Technical Communication.
52. Chapman, Victor W., and Jean L. Owens. 1986. Finding solid ground: Using and articulating the grammar of technical editing. Proceedings of the 32nd International Technical Communication Conference, 67-68. Washington, DC: Society for Technical Communication.
53. Lalla, Sharon Trujillo. 1988. The state-of-the-art style guide development. Proceedings of the 35th International Technical Communication Conference, 176-179. Washington, DC:Society for Technical Communication.
54. Mitchell, Valerie. 1986. A style guide-Why and what. Technical Communication 33:232.
55. Nichols, Michelle Corbin. 1994. Using style guidelines to create consistent online information. Technical Communication 41:432-438.
56. Rash, Wayne Jr. 1991. Corporate style. Byte (February):89.
57. Terlip, Elizabeth A. 1989. Writing standards: The foundations for new publications departments. Proceedings of the 36th International Technical Communication Conference, 101-103. Washington, DC: Society for Technical Communication.
58. Washington, Durthy A. 1993. Creating the corporate style guide: Process and product. Technical Communication 40:505-510.
59. Washington, Durthy A. 1991. Developing a corporate style guide: Pitfalls and panaceas. Technical Communication 38:553-555.
60. Wieringa, Douglas. 1995. Editors, authors, and audiences. Technical Communication 42:101-103.
61. MacKay, P.D. 1997. Establishing a corporate style guide: A bibliographic essay. Technical Communication 44:244-251.
62. Alley, Michael. 2003a. The Craft of Scientific Presentations. New York, NY: Springer-Verlag, 125-129.
63. Alley, Michael. 2003b. Design of presentation slides, http://writing.eng.vt.edu/slides.html.
64. Alley, Michael, and Kathryn A. Neeley. 2005. Rethinking the design of presentation slides: a case for sentence headlines and visual evidence. Technical Communication, 52:417-426.
65. Alley, Michael, Madeline Schreiber, Katrina Ramsdell, and John Muffo. 2005. Pilot testing of a new design for presentation slides to teach science and engineering. Proceedings for the 35th ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference. Indianapolis, IN: IEEE.
66. Atkinson, Cliff. 2005. Beyond Bullet Points: Using Microsoft PowerPoint to Create Presentations That Inform, Motivate, and Inspire. Redmond, WA: Microsoft Press.
67. Doumont, Jean-luc. 2005. Slides are not all evil. Technical Communication, 52:64-70.
68. Gottlieb, Larry. 2002. Well organized ideas fight audience confusion. 49th Annual Conference of the Society of Technical Communication. Arlington, VA: Society for Technical Communication.
69. Mayer, Richard E. 2001. Multimedia Learning. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
70. Parker, I. 2001. Absolute PowerPoint. The New Yorker (28 May):76-87.
71. Schreiber, Madeline. 2005. Teaching slides from Resources Geology: Geos 1024. Blacksburg,VA:Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech.
72. Schwartz, John. 2003. The level of discourse continues to slide. The New York Times, 28 September, sec. 4, 12, col. 1.
73. Shaw, Gordon, Robert Brown, and Philip Bromiley. 1998. Strategic stories: How 3M is rewriting business planning. Harvard Business Review (May-June):41-50.
74. Toulmin, Stephen E. 2003. The Uses of Argument. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press.
75. Alley, M., M. Schreiber, K. Ramsdell, and J. Muffo. 2006. How the design of headlines in presentation slides affects audience retention. Technical Communication 53:225-234.
76. Association of Teachers of Technical Writing. 2001. Call for proposals. http://www.attw.org
77. Blackwell, C. 1995. A good installation guide increases user satisfaction and reduces support costs. Technical Communication 42:56-60.
78. Boykin, Carolyn, and Elizabeth Buonanno. 1994. Alternative names for the roles of the communicator. In Theory and the profession: Evolving roles of the communicator, ed. Charles E. Beck. Technical Communication 41:539-543.
79. Carliner, Saul. 1998. Business objectives: A key tool for demonstrating the value of technical communication projects. Technical Communication 45:380-384.
80. Cordes, Cynthia L., and Thomas W. Dougherty. 1993. A review and an integration of research on job burnout. The Academy of Management Review 18:621-657.
81. Dunlap, Johnny. 1992. Customer satisfaction: The documentation challenge. Proceedings of the 39th International Technical Communication Conference, 700-703, Arlington, VA:Society for Technical Communication.
82. Fisher, Phil, and David Sless. 1990. Information design methods and productivity in the insurance industry. Information Design Journal 6:103-129.
83. Grice, Roger A. 1997. Professional roles: Technical writer. In Foundations for Teaching Technical Communication: Theory, Practice, and Program Design, ed. Katherine Staples and Cezar Ornatowski, 209-220. Greenwich, CT: Ablex Publishing Corporation.
84. Harrison, Teresa M., and Mary Beth Debs. 1988. Conceptualizing the organizational role of technical communicators: A systems approach. Journal of Business and Technical Communication 2:5-21.
85. Henry, Jim. 1998. Documenting contributory expertise: The value added by technical communicators in collaborative writing situations. Technical Communication 45:207-220.
86. Maslach, Christina, and Julie Goldberg. 1998. Prevention of burnout: New perspectives. Applied and Preventative Psychology 7:63-74.
87. Occupational Outlook Handbook. 2002. http://www.bls.gov/oco/ocos089.htm
88. Pieratti, Denise D. 1995. How the process and organization can help or hinder adding value. Technical Communication 42:61-68.
89. Redish, Janice. 1995. Adding value as a professional technical communicator. Technical Communication 42:26-39.
90. Rehling, Louise. 1998. Exchanging expertise: Learning from the workplace and educating it, too. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 28:385-393.
91. Seligman, M. E. P. 1972. Learned helplessness. Annual Review of Medicine 23:407-412.
92. TECHWR-L. 2003. http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/polls/techwhirlpollresults.php3?pollID=51
93. Winsor, Dorothy. 1990. Engineering writing/writing engineering. College Compositionand Communication 41(1):58-70.
94. Barnum, C.M. 2002. Usability Testing and Research. New York: Longman.
95. Wilson, G., and J.D. Ford. 2003. The big chill: Seven technical communicators talk ten years after their master's program. Technical Communication 50:145-159.
96. Aristotle. 1980. The Nicomachean Ethics. Trans. David Ross. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
97. Austin, J. L. 1962. How to Do Things with Words. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
98. Benson, Phillipa J. 1985. Writing visually: Design considerations in technical publications. Technical Communication 32:35-39.
99. Bryan, John. 1992. Down the slippery slope: Ethics and the technical writer as marketer. Technical Communication Quarterly 1:73-88.
100. Buccholz, William James. 1989. Deciphering professional codes of ethics. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 32:62-68.
101. Clark, Gregory. 1987. Ethics in technical communication: A rhetorical perspective. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 30:190-195.
102. Code, Lorraine, Sheila Mullett, and Christine Overall, eds. 1988. Feminist Perspectives:Philosophical Essays on Methods and Morals. Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press.
103. Dragga, Sam. 1992. Evaluating pictorial illustrations. Technical Communication Quarterly 1:47-62.
104. Dragga, Sam. 1993. The ethics of delivery. In Rhetorical Memory and Delivery: Classical Concepts for Contemporary Composition and Communication, ed. John Frederick Reynolds, 79-95. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
105. Felker, Daniel B., Frances Pickering, Veda Charrow, V. Melissa Holland, and Janice C. Redish. 1981. Guidelines for Document Designers. Washington, DC: American Institutes for Research.
106. Geary, David C., Jeffrey W. Gilger, and Barbara Elliott-Miller. 1992. Gender differences in threedimensional mental rotation: A replication. Journal of Genetic Psychology 15:115-118.
107. Gilligan, Carol. 1982. In a Different Voice: Psychological Theory and Women's Development. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.
108. Gilligan, Carol. 1987. Moral orientation and moral development. In Women and Moral Theory, ed. Eva Feder Kittay and Diana T. Meyers, 19-33. Totowa, NJ: Rowman & Littlefield.
109. Girill, T. R. 1987. Technical communication and ethics. Technical Communication 34:178-179.
110. Goldstein, David, Diane Haldane, and Carolyn Mitchell. 1990. Sex differences in visual-spatial ability: The role of performance factors. Memory and Cognition 18:546-550.
111. Johannesen, Richard L. 1990. Ethics in Human Communication, 3rd ed. Prospect Heights, IL:Waveland Press.
112. Kant, Immanuel. 1964. Groundwork of the Metaphysic of Morals. Trans. H. J. Paton. New York, NY: Harper & Row.
113. Kittay, Eva Feder, and Diana T. Meyers, eds. 1987. Women and Moral Theory. Totowa, NJ:Rowman & Littlefield.
114. Kostelnick, Charles. 1990. The rhetoric of text design in professional communication. The Technical Writing Teacher 17:189-202.
115. Larrabee, Mary Jeanne, ed. 1993. An Ethic of Care: Feminist and Interdisciplinary Perspectives. New York, NY: Routledge.
116. Mill, John Stuart. 1957. Utilitarianism. Ed. Oskar Piest. Indianapolis, IN: Bobbs-Merrill.
117. Monmonier, Mark. 1991. How to Lie with Maps. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
118. Murch, Gerald M. 1985. Using color effectively: Designing to human specifications. Technical Communication 32:14-20.
119. Noddings, Nel. 1984. Caring: A Feminine Approach to Ethics and Moral Education. Berkeley, CA:University of CA Press.
120. Olson, Darlene M., and John Eliot. 1986. Relationships between experiences, processing style, and sex-related differences in performance on spatial tests. Perceptual and Motor Skills 62:447-460.
121. Perica, Louis. 1972. Honesty in technical communication. Technical Communication 15:2-6.
122. Peterson, Becky K. 1983. Tables and graphs improve reader performance and reader reaction. Journal of Business Communication 20 (2): 47-55.
123. Plunka, Gene A. 1988. The editor's nightmare: Formatting lists within the text. Technical Communication 35:37-80.
124. Radez, Frank. 1980. STC and the professional ethic. Technical Communication 27:5-6.
125. Rubens, Philip M. 1981. Reinventing the wheel? Ethics for technical communicators. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 11:329-339.
126. Sachs, Harley. 1980. Ethics and the technical communicator. Technical Communication 27:7-10.
127. Schriver, Karen A. 1989. Document design from 1980 to 1989: Challenges that remain. Technical Communication 36:316-331.
128. Shimberg, H. Lee. 1980. Technical communicators and moral ethics. Technical Communication 27:10-12.
129. Society for Technical Communication. 1992. Profile 92: STC Special Report. Arlington, VA:Society for Technical Communication.
130. Togo, Dennis F., and Jacqueline H. Hood. 1992. Quantitative information presentation and gender: An interaction effect. Journal of General Psychology 119 (2): 161-168.
131. Tufte, Edward R. 1983. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics Press.
132. Walzer, Arthur E. 1989. Professional ethics, codes of conduct, and the Society for Technical Communication. In Technical Communication and Ethics, ed. R. John Brockmann and Fern Rook, 101-105. Arlington, VA: Society for Technical Communication.
133. White, Jan V. 1982. Editing by Design, 2nd ed. New York, NY: Bowker.
134. Wicclair, Mark R., and David K. Farkas. 1984. Ethical reasoning in technical communication:A practical framework. Technical Communication 31:15-19.
135. Williams, Robert I. 1983. Playing with format, style, and reader assumptions. Technical Communication 30:11-13.
136. Dragga, S. 1996. "Is this ethical?" A survey of opinion on principles and practices of document design. Technical Communication 43:255-265.