Technical and Professional Writing Commons^™

Creating Effective Style Documents: A Practicum In Trade Publication, Kristen Tardio

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

It is no secret that the field of publication thrives on collaboration: among publishers, editorial and production team members, designers, marketing and publicity staff, sales representatives and promoters, authors, illustrators, reviewers, and, of course, readers. However, an equally important yet less-explored relationship exists within this industry, between publishing staff and a text itself. As such, despite this crucial connection, the technical means by which the final product is created may also be overlooked.

This practicum examines these technical resources: style guides/sheets (especially for house style), their creation, and their usage in publishing, specifically how they pertain to sales material. Also …

A Word From The Writing Center (November 2017), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Stylish academic writing
• The Write Stuff

A Word From The Writing Center (October 2017), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Selecting a target journal using journalguide.com
• Teaching and Communication Skills workshops

The Write Stuff - Autumn 2017 (Vol. 14, No. 4), Research Medical Library

Write Stuff 2017

• ICMJE member journals to begin requiring data sharing statements
• Online tools for researchers
• Changes to NIH forms for studies involving human subjects
• Unusual terms used in scientific writing and publishing: Text recycling

1993 Shrine Of Mary Revitalized

St. Norbert Times

• News
  • 1993 Shrine of Mary Revitalized
  • Booking It
  • Old Doors, New Look
  • Campus Bikes Are Back
  • CNS Book Acquisition
• Opinion
  • Rally the Orgs
  • A Guide to Introversion
  • Your Voice Goes Beyond Voting
• Features
  • Go Greek or Social on Campus
  • Climate Change
  • The Marian Shine Through Time
  • SNC Day 2017
  • A Letter from the Editors
  • Oh, What a Beautiful SNC Day!
• Entertainment
  • Junk Drawer: What’s on Netflix?
  • Upcoming Events
  • Sudoku
  • Did You Know?
  • The Animation Corner: “The Iron Giant”
  • Are Comeback Albums a Good Idea?
  • Faculty Spotlight: Katie Ries
• Sports
  • Soccer Plays Final Games Before Conference Openers
  • 2002 Oakland Athletics vs. …

A Word From The Writing Center (September 2017), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Writing Tip: Sentences that start with the word there
• Communication Skills Workshop Series: Communicate Like a Pro: Think like a...

Final Ma Portfolio, Erica Pax

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

This portfolio is a compilation of graduate research and writing completed as the capstone project for the Master of Arts in English degree with a specialization in professional writing and rhetoric. The first selection is a research paper that reviews how embellishments in graphical representations and infographics affect viewer perception. The second research paper is a content analysis that explores the extent to which visual metaphors are used in ISO public information graphical symbols. The third research paper explores how to create effective video software tutorials and reorganizes existing guidelines into eighteen distinct guidelines in three major categories: accessibility, cognitive …

Curricular Analysis Of The University Of Arkansas Composition I Pilot Course: Engl 1013, Community Ethnography, Morgan Lindsay Scholz

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes a new first-year writing course that is under consideration for implementation as the standard Composition I course at the University of Arkansas. The course utilizes an ethnographic approach to teaching critical writing skills to students. This thesis presents evaluation through a metacognitive lens and explores the course through a case study approach. This thesis also examines the expectations and concluding reflections of three stakeholder groups: students, instructors, and administrators.

Business Communication For Success - Gvsu Edition, Unnamed Author, Mark Schaub, Jenniffer Eckert, Anessa Fehsenfeld, Rhonda R. Hoffman, Adam Krusniak, Tami Mccoy, Rachel Jean Norman, Julian Toscano

Open Textbooks

About the GVSU Edition

This text is an adaption of Business Communication for Success, an open textbook produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing in 2015.

Chapters 9, 18, and 20 of Business Communication for Success: GVSU Edition were revised and rewritten by student authors in 2017, as part of a course in the Writing Department at Grand Valley State University. All other chapters retain the content and formatting of previous editions.

Note about the 2015 edition:

The edition produced by the University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing was itself adapted from a work …

A Word From The Writing Center (July 2017), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Grammar tip: affect vs effect
• Opportunity for online writing workshop for scientists

Technical Communication, Tamara Powell, Jonathan Arnett, Monique Logan, Cassandra Race, Tiffani Reardon, Lance Linimon, James Monroe

Communication Grants Collections

This Grants Collection for Technical Communication was created under a Round Three ALG Textbook Transformation Grant.

Affordable Learning Georgia Grants Collections are intended to provide faculty with the frameworks to quickly implement or revise the same materials as a Textbook Transformation Grants team, along with the aims and lessons learned from project teams during the implementation process.

Documents are in .pdf format, with a separate .docx (Word) version available for download. Each collection contains the following materials:

• Linked Syllabus
• Initial Proposal
• Final Report

The Write Stuff - Summer 2017 (Vol. 14, No. 3), Research Medical Library

Write Stuff 2017

• Grant Writers' seminars return in October
• Increase INTEREST in your grant proposals
• Academic search engine optimization: Help readers find your research
• Plagiarism policies of journals preferred by MD Anderson authors
• Tips for writing Introduction sections for NIH “resubmission” grant applications
• Unusual terms used in scientific writing and publishing: Journalology

A Word From The Writing Center (June 2017), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Writing tip: Purpose of semicolons and colons
• Tips on preparing posters

Write Place At The Write Time: A Study Of How Writing Contexts Affect Rates Of Productivity And Perceptions Of Success In Creative Writing, Sydnie R. Long

Senior Honors Projects, 2010-2019

This research explores the writing contexts of a few creative writers in an effort to learn more about the habits and conditions with which creative writers prefer to work. My goal is to observe how different contexts affect the success or productivity a writer experiences. I will build my project off the central question, is there a correlation between writing contexts and success in writing? From there, I will divide the project into three subsections guided by four subquestions aiming to explore where and how writers write, and gain an insight to their views on what success and productivity mean …

A Word From The Writing Center (May 2017), Jennifer Wilson, Ms, Els

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Grammar writing tip on ZOMBIE nouns!
• Keep Reading with BrowZine

Merging Mediums: Applying Document Design To Online Help Systems To Increase Usability, Meghan M. Smith

Graduate Theses/Dissertations

Document design is an essential part of print, and more recently, web documents, but recent application to the usability of document design in the current iteration of online help systems has been lacking. As an attempt to fill this gap, I conducted a study testing three document design principles—color, navigation structures (headings/hyperlinks), and visuals—to determine how they should be applied in online help systems to increase usability. I constructed an online help system for the online infographic creator Piktochart, and used these three principles according to theories and practices from prior research on print and web documents. Participants used the …

Science, Between The Lines: Rosalind Franklin, Rachael Renzi

Senior Honors Projects

The purpose of this paper is to contrast scientific rhetoric with creative biographical writing style. Both forms of communication rely on specific syntax and styles to describe research findings to the appropriate audiences, but the often passive format of scientific literature excludes the passionate reasonings of the researcher. In order to understand why the scientist is kept separate from his or her published findings, I am going to experiment with the two contrasting forms. Throughout the paper, each form will be tested and used at varying levels. Both scientific and creative writing will be mixed. To emphasize the technically dense …

Creating A Web Presence For A Small Business Using A Holistic Content Strategy Approach, Tabitha Akins

Master of Arts in Professional Writing Capstones

Creating a Web Presence for a Small Business Using a Holistic Content Strategy Approach details the content strategy process used and work done to revise a small business website, in order to better meet the content needs of both the business and its customers.

Reflections In Passion And Progress: Blending Vision, Resilience, And Evolution As A Writer And Scholar Of The English Language, Elizabeth Scoville

Master of Arts in English Plan II Graduate Projects

The following is a final master's degree portfolio of revised graduate work in English composition. Consisting of four projects, this portfolio highlights research, theory, and applications in multidisciplinary writing, visual argumentation, linguistics pedagogy, and professional editing. The pieces within reflect significant growth and adaptation in the field of English comprehension and writing, where successful compositions walk hand-in-hand with innovation, audience acknowledgement, and the willingness to change as language ebbs and flows with the passage of time.

Volume 112 Issue 21, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Colstrip Coal: Developing A Website To Communicate A Highly Complex And Controversial Subject, Carolyn Chaffee

Graduate Theses & Non-Theses

The purpose of this meta-document is to explain my project design, review its development and outcomes, and provide my reflections on the project. The project objective was to create a website that communicates vital information about the coal industry, Colstrip’s coal-fired power plants, the potential closure of several of the plants, and the potential impacts closure would have on the community and the state. The project also discusses options to continue to use coal as an energy source and lower its impacts on the environment. The information on the website is thorough and presented in an interesting and effective method; …

The Write Stuff - Spring 2017 (Vol. 14, No. 2), Research Medical Library

Write Stuff 2017

• GrantScoop helps researchers find funding opportunities
• New NIH guidance on citing interim research products in grant applications: a note of caution
• Update on Beall’s list of suspected predatory journals and publishers
• Using double and single quotation marks
• Grant guidance and upcoming grant deadlines
• -- Unusual terms used in scientific writing and publishing: PMID and PMCID

Volume 112 Issue 20, Southwestern Oklahoma State University

The Southwestern - Archive

No abstract provided.

Revision Crítica Del Concepto De Género En El Discurso Escrito Y Su Aplicación Didáctica A La Enseñanza De Las Lenguas Con Propósitos Específicos. Critical Review Of The Genre Concept In Written Discourse And Its Pedagogical Application To Language Teaching For Specific Purposes, David Sánchez-Jiménez

Publications and Research

This paper provides a theoretical review of how the concept of academic and professional discursive genres has evolved, from a linguistic perspective when it first emerged to its current sociocognitive perspective. The stage it has reached is due to intertextuality and interdiscursivity processes caused by the contact between different disciplines. Similarly, the paper discusses some of the most current didactic recommendations on genre teaching proposed by the languages for specific purposes (lps) approach. The discursive genre has been regularly used in lps since learning how to develop the typical genres of a discourse community is a fundamental requirement to succeed …

Playing With Usability: Why Technical Communicators Should Examine Mobile Games, Alexandra Cata

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines how technical communicators can look to free, successful mobile games for mobile User Interface (UI) and User Assistance (UA) inspiration and design techniques. The purpose of this thesis is to provide an overview of major game studies theories and situate them within technical communication theory and practices. Technical communicators can leverage game studies theories to augment existing technical communication theories and practices. Specifically, I examine cognitive learning theory in game design, game usability, playability, and user-centered design, and how these theories relate to technical communication, rhetorical, mobile UI/UA, and general usability theories and methods. Additionally, I also …

Grace Hopper And The Marvelous Machine: Lessons For Modern Technical Communicators From The Mark I Ascc Manual, Jessica Meyr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Women's technical writing achievements often go unrecognized, both due to the invisibility of technical writing professionals in general, and a lack of famous technical communication role models in particular. The purpose of this thesis is to analyze and present an early major work in the technical writing of Rear Admiral "Amazing" Grace Hopper, inventor of the compiler and an important figure in computer science history. Although Hopper is arguably best known for popularizing the idea of the "computer bug," her achievements in computer science extend from invention of the software compiler to tireless promotion of the programming language COBOL. Her …

The Modern Church Communicates: Rhetoric And Hypertext In Church Website Design, Edward Palmer

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The Internet and the World Wide Web have supplanted many paper-based information systems. People turn to the web to locate local services in the same way they find ecommerce sites such as Amazon. Churches of all sizes must develop effective and attractive websites to attract new members and inform existing members. These two groups form distinct audiences that must be correctly targeted by the website content. Other churches may visit to gather ideas for their programs; they are a third group of site visitors. Organization of hypertext on the web requires skills that are different than writing for print. Technical …

Rhetoric Of Typography: Cross-Cultural Perceptions Of Typefaces For Technical And Visual Communication, Michael Peterson

All Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Other Capstone Projects

Since the early 2000s, scholars have been conducting research to determine whether typefaces influence a reader's response to a document. Some areas of research have included the role of gender, age, or other demographics on typeface perception. However, the role of culture in academic discourse on the rhetoric of typography has been largely underexplored, and this is concerning given the ease with which technical documents can be delivered to cultures around the world with a couple of clicks on a computer.

I developed my research topic to explore whether Koreans perceive typefaces differently from non-Koreans and to discover what typefaces …

An Integrated Curriculum For Technical Writing In Higher Education In China, Feifei Zhong, Gene Hou

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

This study aims to develop an effective curriculum plan to improve technical writing in higher education in China. The paper first investigated the deficiency in the curriculum design in China for English technical writing by comparing the required courses offered in Southwest Jiaotong University (SWJTU) in China with those in Old Dominion University (ODU) in US. Questionnaires and interviews were then conducted among studying abroad Chinese students, visiting scholars, English as Second Language (ESL) instructors as well as engineering professors. The collected data revealed that the oversea Chinese students were struggled more with higher order concerns in writing than lower …

The Write Stuff - Winter 2017 (Vol. 14, No. 1), Research Medical Library

Write Stuff 2017

• Reusing your own previously published material: When is it okay?
• Think. Check. Submit: Selecting a trusted journal for your manuscript
• NIH revises its grant appendix policy and font recommendations
• Minimizing text on scientific posters
• Winter and spring schedule for the Research Medical Library webinar program
• Unusual terms used in scientific writing and publishing: Predatory journals, misleading metrics, and other publishing hazards