Journal of Business and Technical Communication recent issues

Assertions of Expertise in Online Product Reviews

Mackiewicz, J. — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:16:04 PST

In online consumer reviews on Web sites such as Epinions, laypeople write and post their evaluations of technical products. But how do they get readers to take their opinions seriously? One way that online reviewers establish credibility is to assert expertise. This article describes 10 types of assertions that online reviewers used (along with the three broader categories of these types), explaining the method used to test the types for reliability. This testing revealed that the types are reliable. This study lays the groundwork for understanding how reviewers construct expertise and, therefore, credibility and for gauging readers' perceptions of reviews that contain these assertions.

The Resources of Ambiguity: Context, Narrative, and Metaphor in Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene

Journet, D. — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:16:04 PST

Richard Dawkins’s The Selfish Gene illustrates the power of ambiguity in scientific discourse. The rhetorical and epistemic resources that ambiguity provide are most apparent at the level of metaphor but are also central to the exigency for Dawkins’s argument and to the narrative form that the argument takes. Using ratios derived from Burke’s dramatistic pentad, I analyze how ambiguous language helped Dawkins to link different theoretical conceptions of the gene and consequently posit connections between genes and organisms that had not yet been empirically established. I thus demonstrate at a conceptual and textual level how ambiguity contributes to the construction of novel scientific arguments. For Dawkins, ambiguity provided a discursive space in which he could speculate on connections and developments for which he did not yet have evidence, data, or terminology. Despite his insistence that his use of figurative motive language was simply a ‘‘convenient shorthand’’ for more technical language, The Selfish Gene demonstrates the powerful epistemological and rhetorical role that ambiguous metaphors play in biological discourse.

The Ethic of Exigence: Information Design, Postmodern Ethics, and the Holocaust

Ward, M. — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:16:04 PST

Compared to ethics in technical writing, ethics in design has received less attention. This lack of attention grows more apparent as document design becomes ‘‘information design.’’ Since Katz discerned an ‘‘ethic of expediency’’ in Nazi technical writing, scholars have often framed technical communication ethics in categorical terms. Yet analyses of information design must consider why arrangements of text and graphics have symbolic potency for given cultures. An ‘‘ethic of exigence’’ can be seen in an example of Nazi information design, a 1935 racial-education poster that illustrates how designers and users co-constructed a communally validated meaning. This example supports the postmodern view that ethics must account for naturalized authority as well as individual actions.

Convergence in the Rhetorical Pattern of Directness and Indirectness in Chinese and U.S. Business Letters

Wang, J. — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:16:04 PST

This article examines rhetorical patterns in claim letters from two universities, one in China and one in the United States, to see whether these patterns are convergent. A genre-based textual analysis of the claim letters, written by two different cultural groups of participants, found that both groups of letters display a similar rhetorical preference for directness and indirectness. The author explores how local contextual factors have contributed to these groups of participants’ preference for similar rhetorical patterns and calls for the integration of contextual factors in intercultural rhetoric research, practice, and pedagogy.

Special Issue of JBTC: Revisiting the IText Revolution

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 14:16:04 PST

Features of Success in Engineering Design Presentations: A Call for Relational Genre Knowledge

Dannels, D. P. — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:22:46 PDT

This study explores design presentations that were graded by engineering faculty in order to assess the distinguishing features of those that were successful. Using a thematic analysis of 17 videotaped, final presentations from a capstone chemical engineering (CHE) course, it explores the rhetorical strategies, oral styles, and organizational structures that differentiate successful and unsuccessful team presentations. The results suggest that successful presenters used rhetorical strategies, oral styles, and organizational structures that illustrated students’ ability to negotiate the real and simulated relational and identity nuances of the design presentation genre—in short, they illustrated students’ relational genre knowledge.

The First Weeklong Technical Writers' Institute and Its Impact

Whitburn, M. D. — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:22:46 PDT

Rensselaer’s Technical Writers’ Institute, the first program of its kind, had a profound impact on technical communication. It enabled technical communicators without formal education in the field to gain important knowledge, provided a forum for communicators from different industries to meet in order to solve mutual problems, played a key role in defining the field and its needs, encouraged recruitment (including the hiring of more women), promoted professional societies and formal degree programs, and seriously affected industry training programs by enabling them to use institute teaching materials. Knowledge gained through the Technical Writers’ Institute enabled Rensselaer to develop many other innovations.

Understanding Public Policy Development as a Technological Process

Williams, M. F. — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:22:46 PDT

This article discusses public policy writing as a genre of technical communication and, specifically, public policy development as a technological process. It cites DeGregori’s theory of technology to demonstrate the shared invention processes of technology and public policy, the work of public policy scholars to describe the policy-development process, and the work of human—computer interaction scholars to identify cognitive models of public policy development as a technological process. The article concludes with a discussion of e-rulemaking Web sites and the role of technical communicators in creating these blended spaces.

''Sort of Set My Goal to Come to Class'': Evoking Expressive Content in Policy Reports

Sligo, F., Tilley, E. — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:22:46 PDT

This article documents a novel yet theory-informed process of preparing research reports designed for government officials who are concerned with creating adult-literacy policy. The authors use cartoons that include verbatim dialogue from the transcripts of interviews with research participants with low functional literacy. This dialogue, which depicts positive messages about the participants’ moral character, strengths, and resilience, is set against photographic backdrops of the participants’ lived environment to give a sense of real people in a real place. Inclusion of such images is an attempt to change policy-report readers’ thinking about adult literacy because creative visual communication offers ways to approach this challenge that text alone cannot.

Book Review: Book Review Editor: Jeffrey Jablonski, University of Nevada, Las Vegas: Zachry, Mark, and Thralls, Charlotte (Eds.). (2007). Communicative Practices in Workplaces and the Professions: Cultural Perspectives on the Regulation of Discourse and Organizations. Amityville, NY: Baywood. 280 pages

Tovey, J. — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:22:46 PDT

Book Review: Book Review Editor: Jeffrey Jablonski, University of Nevada, Las Vegas: Logie, John. (2006). Peers, Pirates, and Persuasion: Rhetoric in the Peer-to-Peer Debates. West Lafayette, IN: Parlor Press. 164 pages

Ceraso, A. — Mon, 31 Aug 2009 11:22:46 PDT

Starter Ecologies: Introduction to the Special Issue on Social Software

Spinuzzi, C. — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:14 PDT

Genre, Activity, and Collaborative Work and Play in World of Warcraft: Places and Problems of Open Systems in Online Gaming

Sherlock, L. — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:14 PDT

This article examines the characteristics of collaborative work and overlapping activity systems in the popular online game World of Warcraft. Using genre theory and activity theory as frames to work out the genre ecology of gameplay, the article focuses on how players coordinate ad hoc grouping activity across and through genres. It articulates the related development of open systems in online gaming in a discussion of interface modifications (AddOns) and online information databases that players generate, drawing on De Certeau's formulation of strategies and tactics and Warner's discussion of publics and counterpublics. The article concludes by discussing implications of online gaming for an open-systems approach to information design in professional communication and for professional communication in general.

Networked Exchanges, Identity, Writing

Rice, J. — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:14 PDT

This article argues for a rhetoric of networked exchanges that focuses on the response. Working from Spinuzzi's call for a rhetoric of horizontal learning, it examines two kinds of online writing spaces in order to propose such a rhetoric. After surveying conflicting, academic attitudes regarding networked exchanges, the article proposes the response as a type of professional communication. A specific message board thread and a series of blog carnivals serve as examples of the rhetoric of response, a way that horizontal learning produces a specific type of networked writing identity. The article concludes with a call for response-based communication practices.

``With My Head Up in the Clouds'': Using Social Tagging to Organize Knowledge

Panke, S., Gaiser, B. — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:14 PDT

Social tagging ranges among the ``killer applications'' of Web 2.0. An ever-growing international community uses Web sites such as the photo database Flickr and the bookmarking service Delicious. In addition, a number of other portals use tagging to compile user-specific metadata on information on any subject—whether it be travel destinations, personal contacts, films, or museum exhibits. Retrieving and storing information via tagging seems to meet users' needs for a number of purposes and in many contexts. Starting with a synopsis of the current literature on social tagging and then focusing on the results of two surveys—qualitative interviews and an online questionnaire—this article explores the potential and limitations of tagging as a tool for organizing shared and personal knowledge.

Integrating Social Media Into Existing Work Environments: The Case of Delicious

Stolley, K. — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:14 PDT

This article offers an example case of technical communicators integrating the social bookmarking site Delicious into existing work environments. Using activity theory to present conceptual foundations and concrete steps for integrating the functionalities of social media, the article builds on research within technical communication that argues for professional communicators to participate more fully in the design of communication systems and software. By examining the use of add-ons and tools created for Delicious, and the customized use of Rich Site Syndication (RSS) feeds that the site publishes, the author argues for addressing the context-sensitive needs of project teams by integrating the functionality of social media applications generally and repurposing their user-generated data.

Book Review: Ahonen, Tomi, and O'Reilly, Jim. (2007). Digital Korea: Convergence of Broadband Internet, 3G Cell Phones, Multiplayer Gaming, Digital TV, Virtual Reality, Electronic Cash, Telematics, Robotics, E-Government and the Intelligent Home. London: Futuretext. 284 pages

Sun, H. — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:14 PDT

Book Review: Benkler, Yochai. (2006). The Wealth of Networks: How Social Production Transforms Markets and Freedom. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press. 515 pages

Edwards, M. — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:14 PDT

Book Review: Kaptelinin, Victor, and Nardi, Bonnie A. (2006). Acting With Technology: Activity Theory and Interaction Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. 333 pages

Walls, D. M. — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:14 PDT

Book Review: Karaganis, Joe. (Ed.). (2007). Structures of Participation in Digital Culture. New York: Social Science Research Council. 284 pages

Jones, J. M. — Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:14 PDT

Board of Reviewers

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:14 PDT

Submission Guidelines

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 16:24:14 PDT

Introduction to the Themed Issue on the State of Research in Technical Communication

Russell, D. R. — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:45:44 PST

The Technical Communication Research Landscape

Blakeslee, A. M. — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:45:44 PST

This article reports data from questionnaires assessing the day-to-day experiences that members of the technical communication field have in carrying out their research. The data revealed that most members experience at least some frustration and numerous constraints that prevent them from doing the kinds and amounts of research that they want to do and that may affect the quality of their research. In short, technical communication scholars face an array of challenges. This article presents examples of these challenges and ideas that respondents had both for lessening the challenges scholars face and for better preparing graduate students. It suggests several practical initiatives for addressing these challenges along with realistic strategies for implementing those initiatives.

Mapping the Research Questions in Technical Communication

Rude, C. D. — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:45:44 PST

Agreement about research questions can strengthen disciplinary identity and give direction to a field that is still maturing. The central research question this article poses foregrounds texts, broadly defined as verbal, visual, and multimedia, and the power of texts to mediate knowledge, values, and action in a variety of contexts. Related questions concern disciplinarity, pedagogy, practice, and social change. These questions overlap and inform each other. Any single study does not necessarily fall exclusively into one area. A mapping of a field's research questions is a political act, emphasizing some questions and marginalizing or excluding others. The emphases may change over time. This mapping illustrates reasons for the tensions between the academic and practitioner areas of the field. It also points out their shared research interests and opportunities for future research.

Practitioner Research Instruction: A Neglected Curricular Area in Technical Communication Undergraduate Programs

Spilka, R. — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:45:44 PST

Most technical communication practitioners conduct research throughout their careers. Yet, a survey of the Web sites of 114 undergraduate technical communication programs between September 2006 and April 2007 revealed that 65% (about two thirds) of these programs are providing minimal or no exposure to research instruction and therefore are not sufficiently preparing students to handle the types of research they will encounter in their upcoming careers. Given the disconnect between the centrality of research in the work that technical communicators do and the low presence of research instruction at the undergraduate level, academics need to look for ways to overcome institutional and other constraints in order to give research training greater priority in their undergraduate programs.

Book Review: Artemeva, Natasha, and Freedman, Aviva (Eds.). (2006). Rhetorical Genre Studies and Beyond. Winnipeg, Canada: Inkshed. 282 pages

Johnson, K. — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:45:44 PST

Book Review: Faber, Brenton. (2007). Discourse, Technology and Change. New York: Continuum. 206 pages

Stolley, K. — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:45:44 PST