Technical and Professional Writing Commons^™

I Want All The Words! How Gestalt Principles And Plain Language Can Help You Become An Effective Document Designer, Jennifer M. Turner, Jessica Schomberg

Library Services Publications

Librarians across library types and departments frequently provide training materials to each other, library technicians, and student workers. For these materials to be effective, they must contain accurate information and should also follow guidelines for usable document design. Good design makes documents easier to use, helps documents stand out from other pieces of information, and lends credibility to document creators. A few simple tips, such as following Gestalt principles and using plain language, can improve document usability. The presenters will demonstrate how making these and other changes will improve the accessibility and functionality of library training materials. They will also …

Enc 4931 Grant Writing, Johanna Hillen

Service-Learning Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Volume 105 Issue 26, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 105 Issue 25, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Shifting The Center: Piloting Embedded Tutoring Models To Support Multimodal Communication Across The Disciplines, Dustin Hannum, Joy Bracewell, Karen J. Head

English and Technical Communication Faculty Research & Creative Works

Beginning in its third year, the Georgia Tech Communication Center began investigating embedded tutoring as part of the overall slate of tutoring services already in practice. Because our center remains in a nascent period of identity, we continue to enjoy an unusual amount of flexibility in how we are exploring new ways to work within the tutoring milieu—that is, we have not had time to become complacent in providing services in particular ways. Additionally, because we are somewhat unusual given our professional staff of postdoctoral fellows, we have a broader ability to work across disciplines with instructors who are more …

The Changing Discourse Of The Supreme Court, Stephen M. Johnson

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “Academics, judges, and other commentators complain that, for the past few decades, the Justices on the Supreme Court have been increasingly writing opinions that are unreadable for most American citizens. Those critics complain that the opinions are too long and too complex, riddled with incomprehensible multi-part tests. They also attack the style of the opinions and assert that recent opinions are more likely to be written in a technocratic, rather than persuasive, style.

There seems to be little consensus among the critics regarding why the Justices are writing opinions that are increasingly unreadable. Some attribute it to the increasing …

Defining Workplace Information Fluency Skills For Technical Communication Students, Yuejiao Zhang

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Information fluency refers to the ability to recognize information needs and to gather, evaluate, and communicate information appropriately. In this study, I treat "information fluency" as both an overall competency and as a collection of knowledge and skills. The purpose of this study is to explore the specific workplace information fluency skills valued by employers of technical communicators, to find out how instructors perceive and teach these skills, and to suggest how these findings can inform our teaching practices. Within the framework of qualitative methodology, this study employs two data-collection instruments, including a content analysis of online job recruitment postings …

Document Design And Emergency Management Plans, Emily Elizabeth Price

English Theses & Dissertations

Document design is a hybrid field of study that emerged &om both graphic design and professional writing. Emergency management planning occurs at all levels of government and documents processes, procedures and responsibilities of responding agencies to a disaster situation. An examination of the rhetorical elements of audience, context and purpose enables application of appropriate document design in any type of document, including emergency management plans, because the rhetorical situation of a document helps to determine appropriate design cues appropriate for the specific audience, context or purpose of that specific document.

Through relevant research into document design theory and practice, currently …

Théorie Et Pratique De L’Écriture Chez Pius Ngandu Nkashama, Kasereka Kavwahirehi

Présence Francophone: Revue internationale de langue et de littérature

Pius Ngandu Nkashama is mostly known as a literary critic and theorist. But he is also an established novelist, poet and playwright. This essay attempts to show that both his critical work and his creative work share a common dynamic. It shows how, for Pius Ngandu, literary and aesthetic practice is not only a way of life, an existential experience from which he draws the energy to overcome despair and human mediocrity, but it is also a way of participating in the African struggle for freedom and for the conquest of a history that has been confiscated by dictators.

Handling And Preventing Journalistic Fraud: Janet Cooke, Stephen Glass, Jayson Blair, Kenneth Munson

Undergraduate Theses and Capstone Projects

Fraud is a growing concern in the news business, especially in recent years where numerous journalism scandals rock its foundation. This paper examines the most prominent cases: Stephen Glass, the reporter for The New Republic newsmagazine who completely or partially fabricated 27 stories in the late ‘90s; Jayson Blair, the New York Times reporter who was found to have plagiarized or made up his supposedly on-thescene reporting in 2003; and Janet Cooke, who won a Pulitzer Prize in 1981 for her Washington Post story about a child heroin addict who, in actuality, did not exist. This paper will examine flaws …

Genre And Persona In Activist Websites, Margaret M.F. Boreman

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Digital texts present significant challenges to technical communicators in terms of genre and persona. Because of the ubiquity of electronic media, we increasingly embrace digital formats over print-based documents. As a result, technical communicators must now devise the means to cue audiences to the purposes of digital documents in any given discourse community. We can only convey meaning to our Internet audiences through the use of appropriate standards and elements recognizable generic forms and rhetorical cues that we designate as conventions in specific digital discourse. Just as we use file and folder office metaphors for information stored on computers, digital …

A Rhetoric Of Technology: The Discourse In U.S. Army Manuals And Handbooks, Sherry Ann Steward

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation examines the historical technical publications of the United States Army from 1775-2004. Historical research in Army technical communication reveals the persuasive characteristics of its technical publications. Elements of narrative, storytelling, and anthropomorphism are techniques writers used to help deliver information to readers. Research also reveals the design techniques writers adopted to unite the situated literacies of the troops. Analyses of print, comic, and digital media expose the increasing visualization of information since the eighteenth century. The results of such historical research can be applied to new media designs. Automating processes captured in paper-based technical manuals and adding intelligent …

Volume 95 Issue 14, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Using A Civil Procedure Exam Question To Teach Persuasion, Sophie M. Sparrow

Law Faculty Scholarship

Studies show that learners master new material more effectively when it builds upon what they already know. By revisiting assignments from a previous semester, students can focus their efforts on persuading, rather than learning new doctrine or facts. Turning a predictive discussion into a persuasive argument demonstrates that making an argument requires the same rigorous thinking as predicting a result. One way to do this is to assign students to write an argument based on their fall Civil Procedure exam.

Egypt: Encourage Journalists To Cover Reproductive Health, Frontiers In Reproductive Health

Reproductive Health

To raise public awareness of reproductive health (RH) issues, the Population Council’s Frontiers project and the Futures Group’s Policy project jointly organized four press briefings and provided background materials to key journalists from Arabic newspapers and magazines. From May 1999 to June 2000, project staff worked closely with 20 Egyptian journalists, including editors of women’s pages and senior editors. The press briefings covered youth, marriage patterns, contraceptive technology, and menopause. The press kit prepared for each briefing contained fact sheets, reference materials, a contact list of key experts, and an evaluation sheet. To assess RH reporting and track coverage resulting …

Egypte: Encourager Les Journalistes À Couvrir Les Questions Relatives À La Santé De La Reproduction, Frontiers In Reproductive Health

Reproductive Health

No abstract provided.

Volume 90 Issue 15, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Computers In The Revision Process, Patrick James Clauss

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study focuses on computer technology in the revision processes of composition students. Although advances in computer technology have had significant effects on composition instruction, teachers' attitudes toward, and expectations of, computers in the writing classroom have been divided concerning the effects of the technology on students' revision strategies and performance. With the first uses of computers in composition, researchers were overly optimistic about the computer's benefits in revision. After closer scrutiny, though, some researchers reported that computers had little effect on the quality of students' revisions. Now, after more than a decade of computer use, researchers' opinions are still …

Volume 81 Issue 18, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 78 Issue 23, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 78 Issue 22, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 78 Issue 21, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 78 Issue 20, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 78 Issue 19, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 78 Issue 18, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 78 Issue 17, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 78 Issue 16, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 78 Issue 15, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 78 Issue 14, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Volume 78 Issue 13, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.