1st Edition

Connecting People with Technology Issues in Professional Communication

Edited By George Hayhoe, Helen Grady Copyright 2008
    222 Pages
    by Routledge

    222 Pages
    by Routledge

    This book explores five important areas where technology affects society, and suggests ways in which human communication can facilitate the use of that technology.Usability has become a foundational discipline in technical and professional communication that grows out of our rhetorical roots, which emphasize purpose and audience. As our appreciation of audience has grown beyond engineers and scientists to lay users of technology, our appreciation of the diversity of those audiences in terms of age, geography, and other factors has similarly expanded.We are also coming to grips with what Thomas Friedman calls the 'flat world,' a paradigm that influences how we communicate with members of other cultures and speakers of other languages. And because most of the flatteners are either technologies themselves or technology-driven, technical and professional communicators need to leverage these technologies to serve global audiences.Similarly, we are inundated with information about world crises involving health and safety issues. These crises are driven by the effects of terrorism, the aging population, HIV/AIDS, and both human-made and natural disasters. These issues are becoming more visible because they are literally matters of life and death. Furthermore, they are of special concern to audiences that technical and professional communicators have little experience targeting - the shapers of public policy, seniors, adolescents, and those affected by disaster.Biotechnology is another area that has provided new roles for technical and professional communicators. We are only beginning to understand how to communicate the science accurately without either deceiving or panicking our audience. We need to develop a more sophisticated understanding of how communication can shape reactions to biotechnology developments. Confronting this complex network of issues, we're challenged to fashion both our message and the audience's perceptions ethically.Finally, today's corporate environment is being shaped by technology and the global nature of business. Technical and professional communicators can play a role in capturing and managing knowledge, in using technology effectively in the virtual workplace, and in understanding how language shapes organizational culture.

    Introduction:
    George F. Hayhoe and Helen M. Grady
    Part I-Usability: Making Technology Fit Its Users

    Chapter 1 Making Connections: Teaming Up to Connect Users, Developers, and Usability Experts
    Carol Barnum, David Deyton, Kevin Gillis, and Joe O'Connor

    Chapter 2 Usability Standards: Connecting Practice Around the World
    Whitney Quesenbery

    Chapter 3 Conducting an Automated Experiment Over the Internet to Assess Navigation Design for a Medical Web Site Containing Multipage Articles
    Elisabeth Cuddihy, Carolyn Wei, Alexandra Bartell, Jen Barrick, Brandon Maust, Seth S. Leopold, and Jan H. Spyridakis

    Chapter 4 Manuals for the Elderly: Text Characteristics That Help or Hinder Older Users
    Floor van Horen, Carel Jansen, Leo Noordman, and Alfons Maes

    Part II-Globalization: Overcoming the Challenges of Languages and Cultures

    Chapter 5 Communication as a Key to Global Business
    Reinhard Schäler

    Chapter 6 The Hidden Costs of Cross-Cultural Documentation
    Marie-Louise Flacke

    Chapter 7 How to Save Time and Money by Connecting the Writing Process to the Update and Translation Process
    Margaretha Eriksson

    Chapter 8 Technical Communication and Cross-Cultural Miscommunication: User Culture and the Outsourcing of Writing
    Joseph Jeyaraj

    Chapter 9 Presenting in English to International Audiences: A Critical Survey of Published Advice and Actual Practice
    Thomas Orr, Renu Gupta, Atsuko Yamazaki, and Laurence Anthony

    Part III-Health and Safety: Informing Society of Risks and Dangers

    Chapter 10 Public Professional Communication in the Anti-Terror Age: A Discourse Analysis
    Catherine F. Smith

    Chapter 11 Challenges to Effective Information and Communication Systems in Humanitarian Relief Organizations
    Christina Maiers, Margaret Reynolds, and Mark Haselkorn

    Chapter 12 Using Role Sets to Engage and Persuade Visitors of Web Sites that Promote Safe Sex
    Michaël F. Steehouder

    Chapter 13 Physicians and Patients: How Professionals Build Relationships through Rapport Management
    Kim Campbell

    Part IV-Biotechnology: Reporting Its Potential and Its Problems

    Chapter 14 Connecting Popular Culture and Science: The Case of Biotechnology
    Susan Allender-Hagedorn and Cheryl W. Ruggiero

    Chapter 15 Biotechnology and Global Miscommunication with the Public: Rhetorical Assumptions, Stylistic Acts, Ethical Implications
    Steven B. Katz

    Chapter 16 The Need for Technical Communicators as Facilitators of Negotiation in Controversial Technology Transfer Cases
    Dale L. Sullivan

    Part V-Corporate Environment: ImprovingTechnology

    Chapter 17 Technical Language: Learning from the Columbia and Challenger Reports
    Paul M. Dombrowski

    Chapter 18 The Theoretical Foundations of Service Leadership: A New Paradigm
    Judith B. Strother and Svafa Grönfeldt

    Chapter 19 Managing Collaboration: Adding Communication and Documentation Environment to a Product Development Cycle
    Laura S. Batson and Susan Feinberg

    Chapter 20 Virtual Office Communication Protocols: A System for Managing International Virtual Teams
    Kirk St. Amant

    Chapter 21 Knowledge Management in the Aerospace Industry
    David J. Harvey and Robert Holdsworth

    Chapter 22 Using Their Digital Notes: Three Cases to Make Tacit Knowledge Visible in a Web-based Surrounding
    Leisbeth Rentinck

    Meet the Contributors

    Index

    Biography

    George F Hayhoe (Edited by) , Helen M Grady (Edited by)