Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637026
Jonathan Price, Nw, Albuquerque
As organizations expand the amount of information they expect us to publish on the World-Wide Web, the work-world of technical communicators grows more complicated. Because so many of us are caught up in transforming legacy documents for use on company intranets or extranets, I use the Web as an example of the complexity we face. I borrow some ideas from the work of several complexity theorists to give an intellectual model for grappling with the changes that are taking place around us.
{"title":"Using complexity theory to understand what's happening to technical communication","authors":"Jonathan Price, Nw, Albuquerque","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637026","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637026","url":null,"abstract":"As organizations expand the amount of information they expect us to publish on the World-Wide Web, the work-world of technical communicators grows more complicated. Because so many of us are caught up in transforming legacy documents for use on company intranets or extranets, I use the Web as an example of the complexity we face. I borrow some ideas from the work of several complexity theorists to give an intellectual model for grappling with the changes that are taking place around us.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"53 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115699615","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637041
C. Hawley, P. Panda, J. Holm
The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, is challenged with not only providing an environment where engineers and scientists can exchange information quickly and accurately, but also providing the public with the fruits of its exploration in a way that is both interesting and understandable to all age groups and professional arenas. Web technology has given us the means to meet this challenge. A myriad of tools and technologies are used daily to solve communication problems from simple memo distribution to highly complex Web sites instantly delivering custom data around the world.
{"title":"Meeting the challenge of electronic communication","authors":"C. Hawley, P. Panda, J. Holm","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637041","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637041","url":null,"abstract":"The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), California Institute of Technology, is challenged with not only providing an environment where engineers and scientists can exchange information quickly and accurately, but also providing the public with the fruits of its exploration in a way that is both interesting and understandable to all age groups and professional arenas. Web technology has given us the means to meet this challenge. A myriad of tools and technologies are used daily to solve communication problems from simple memo distribution to highly complex Web sites instantly delivering custom data around the world.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"201 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116161248","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637057
T. R. Girill
ACM SIGDOC's Journal of Computer Documentation (JCD) features open peer commentary on all its major articles. This paper compares the role that commentary plays in JCD with its role, actual and proposed, in other professional journals, and contrasts that role with prepublication refereeing. JCD's preference for commentary that is rich in ostensive and comparative features is explained by their benefits for documentation practitioners, just as including literature-awareness commentaries offers practitioners a greater voice on journal pages. And JCD's annual reprint-commentary combinations provide unusual opportunities for continuing professional education.
{"title":"Contributions of the open-commentary journal to the documentation profession","authors":"T. R. Girill","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637057","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637057","url":null,"abstract":"ACM SIGDOC's Journal of Computer Documentation (JCD) features open peer commentary on all its major articles. This paper compares the role that commentary plays in JCD with its role, actual and proposed, in other professional journals, and contrasts that role with prepublication refereeing. JCD's preference for commentary that is rich in ostensive and comparative features is explained by their benefits for documentation practitioners, just as including literature-awareness commentaries offers practitioners a greater voice on journal pages. And JCD's annual reprint-commentary combinations provide unusual opportunities for continuing professional education.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"7 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"116172935","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637056
G. Hayhoe
This paper presents some basic questions for traditional paper journal publishers and readers about how an electronically published professional communication journal should differ from the paper journals they are familiar with. The author leads a focused discussion to explore some of the answers to these questions.
{"title":"Defining the online journal: preliminary questions for readers","authors":"G. Hayhoe","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637056","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637056","url":null,"abstract":"This paper presents some basic questions for traditional paper journal publishers and readers about how an electronically published professional communication journal should differ from the paper journals they are familiar with. The author leads a focused discussion to explore some of the answers to these questions.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"42 2 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124969926","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637074
Sharon Kowalski, Nawctsd, Orlando
This statistical study makes use of data gathered during quality-control inspections to examine the validity of two commonly held stereotypes. The first of these is the belief that documents containing superficial errors are likely to be flawed in a more substantial manner; the second is that engineers tend to be especially inept as technical writers. In both cases, the data indicate that the stereotypes are invalid.
{"title":"An investigation of two stereotypes regarding the writing of engineers","authors":"Sharon Kowalski, Nawctsd, Orlando","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637074","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637074","url":null,"abstract":"This statistical study makes use of data gathered during quality-control inspections to examine the validity of two commonly held stereotypes. The first of these is the belief that documents containing superficial errors are likely to be flawed in a more substantial manner; the second is that engineers tend to be especially inept as technical writers. In both cases, the data indicate that the stereotypes are invalid.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121671051","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637050
A. Manning
The problems of nonlinear information design are not unique to modern media technologies such as the World-Wide Web. Newspaper writers have traditionally used guiding questions (who, what, when and where) to formulate the summary leads that allow each reader to idiosyncratically navigate a nonlinear narrative path through a newspaper. Thus, user access to nonlinear information on the World Wide Web likewise improves with the inclusion of question-guided summary leads. To formulate those summary leads, a site designer should likewise use guiding questions, but the designer should be aware that not all information belongs to the genre of narrative. Leading summaries in each genre differ in terms of their guiding questions.
{"title":"Moving beyond narrative in nonlinear Web site design","authors":"A. Manning","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637050","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637050","url":null,"abstract":"The problems of nonlinear information design are not unique to modern media technologies such as the World-Wide Web. Newspaper writers have traditionally used guiding questions (who, what, when and where) to formulate the summary leads that allow each reader to idiosyncratically navigate a nonlinear narrative path through a newspaper. Thus, user access to nonlinear information on the World Wide Web likewise improves with the inclusion of question-guided summary leads. To formulate those summary leads, a site designer should likewise use guiding questions, but the designer should be aware that not all information belongs to the genre of narrative. Leading summaries in each genre differ in terms of their guiding questions.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"23 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"124474852","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637044
A.C. Forzese
Both electronic performance support systems (EPSS) and minimalist manuals rely on audience analyses as the foundation of their effectiveness. EPSS are computer-based systems that provide whatever resources are necessary to help a person complete a task quickly. Minimalist manuals are documents that are structured to allow users to explore a system on their own, after receiving some basic guidance. Designs driven by the application of EPSS and minimalist audience analyses may apply to the creation of interactive instructions-to empowering an audience to create their own learning. The paper represents an introductory investigation into the implications of audience analysis implicit in EPSS and minimal systems. A comparison of the audience driven design goals of these systems suggests three tools technical communicators can investigate to help audiences construct their own learning: hypertext, multiple information paths, and information layering.
{"title":"How do performance support and minimalist systems designers consider audience? Some design tools for user-focused systems","authors":"A.C. Forzese","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637044","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637044","url":null,"abstract":"Both electronic performance support systems (EPSS) and minimalist manuals rely on audience analyses as the foundation of their effectiveness. EPSS are computer-based systems that provide whatever resources are necessary to help a person complete a task quickly. Minimalist manuals are documents that are structured to allow users to explore a system on their own, after receiving some basic guidance. Designs driven by the application of EPSS and minimalist audience analyses may apply to the creation of interactive instructions-to empowering an audience to create their own learning. The paper represents an introductory investigation into the implications of audience analysis implicit in EPSS and minimal systems. A comparison of the audience driven design goals of these systems suggests three tools technical communicators can investigate to help audiences construct their own learning: hypertext, multiple information paths, and information layering.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"357 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"115941351","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637046
J. R. Friedman
Trends in technology now support a "paperless" environment, but in the author's experiment to produce an entire issue of a technical journal using electronic documents, more paper was generated than ever before. The conclusion is that it is possible to achieve efficient handling of technical journal papers in electronic form throughout a cycle that encompasses peer-level review, author revision, editing, print production, but in most organizations this efficiency will require additional software, changes to hardware, and adaptation to new processes. The author presents the highlights of an experiment to investigate how a journal publication process could evolve to accommodate the new processes, methods, and capabilities of some selected software applications. The author reports on experiences and suggest what may be practical to do in a current publishing environment.
{"title":"An experiment in processing electronic documents","authors":"J. R. Friedman","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637046","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637046","url":null,"abstract":"Trends in technology now support a \"paperless\" environment, but in the author's experiment to produce an entire issue of a technical journal using electronic documents, more paper was generated than ever before. The conclusion is that it is possible to achieve efficient handling of technical journal papers in electronic form throughout a cycle that encompasses peer-level review, author revision, editing, print production, but in most organizations this efficiency will require additional software, changes to hardware, and adaptation to new processes. The author presents the highlights of an experiment to investigate how a journal publication process could evolve to accommodate the new processes, methods, and capabilities of some selected software applications. The author reports on experiences and suggest what may be practical to do in a current publishing environment.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"252 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134271374","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637038
M. Zimmerman, B. Creekbaum, A. Nathanson
How can a university best prepare students to enter the field of technical communication? Technical communicators need to be familiar with a range of subjects, including management theory, educational psychology, intercultural awareness, graphic arts, publications technology, database design, human factors, interview methods and user psychology. This list is open-ended, and new subjects will become important and some will disappear. The time may come when universities give maintenance contracts to graduates and deliver updated knowledge through virtual classrooms. For technical communicators, there seems no way around the necessity for lifelong learning.
{"title":"Preparing students to enter the field of technical communication: industry and university perspectives","authors":"M. Zimmerman, B. Creekbaum, A. Nathanson","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637038","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637038","url":null,"abstract":"How can a university best prepare students to enter the field of technical communication? Technical communicators need to be familiar with a range of subjects, including management theory, educational psychology, intercultural awareness, graphic arts, publications technology, database design, human factors, interview methods and user psychology. This list is open-ended, and new subjects will become important and some will disappear. The time may come when universities give maintenance contracts to graduates and deliver updated knowledge through virtual classrooms. For technical communicators, there seems no way around the necessity for lifelong learning.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"11 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"128188360","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 1997-10-22DOI: 10.1109/IPCC.1997.637037
M. Magyar
Addresses the issue of certification for technical communicators. Certification is an issue that has generated much controversy for many years, without any clear resolution or agreement. This indicates there is something missing in the questions being asked. I propose the alternative of a formal apprenticeship program as a way of opening the discussion to consider some of the unaddressed assumptions and larger issues. The discussion presents the practitioner's, academic and employer's points of view.
{"title":"A modest proposal for an apprenticeship program for technical communicators","authors":"M. Magyar","doi":"10.1109/IPCC.1997.637037","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.1997.637037","url":null,"abstract":"Addresses the issue of certification for technical communicators. Certification is an issue that has generated much controversy for many years, without any clear resolution or agreement. This indicates there is something missing in the questions being asked. I propose the alternative of a formal apprenticeship program as a way of opening the discussion to consider some of the unaddressed assumptions and larger issues. The discussion presents the practitioner's, academic and employer's points of view.","PeriodicalId":255103,"journal":{"name":"Proceedings of IPCC 97. Communication","volume":"25 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"1997-10-22","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"127266679","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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