Table Of ContentSolving
Problems in
Technical
Communication
SOLV INCi
PROBLEMS IN
TECHNICAL
COMMUNICATION
Edited by
Joh nda n Joh nson-Eilola
and Stuart A. Sel ber
THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS
Chicago and London
JohndanJohnson-Eilola is professor of
communication and media at Clarkson University.
Stuart A. Seiber is associate professor of English at the
Pennsylvania State University.
The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 60637
The University of Chicago Press, Ltd., London
© 2013 by The University of Chicago
All rights reserved. Published 2013.
Printed in the United States of America
22 21 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 1 2 3 4 5
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-92406-9 (cloth)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-92407-6 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-92408-3 (e-book)
ISBN-10: 0-226-92406-8 (cloth)
ISBN-10: 0-226-92407-6 (paper)
ISBN-10: 0-226-92408-4 (e-book)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Solving problems in technical communication I
edited byJohndanJohnson-Eilolaand Stuart A. Seiber.
pages; em
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN-13: 978-o-226-92406-9 (cloth: alkaline paper)
ISBN-13: 978-o-226-92407-6 (paperback: alkaline
paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-226-92408-3 (e-book)
ISBN-10: o-226-92406-8 (cloth: alkaline paper)
[etc.]
1. Communication of technical information.
2. Technology-Information services. I. Johnson
Eilola, Johndan. II. Seiber, Stuart A.
T10.5.s638 2013
601.4-dc23
2012037860
@This paper meets the requirements of ANSI/Nrso
Z39.48-1992 (Permanence of Paper).
Dedicated to our families:
KELLY JOHNSON-EILOLA,
CAROLYN EILOLA,
KATE LATTERELL,
and
AVERY SELBER,
GRIFFIN SELBER
Contents
Introduction 1
johndanjohnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Seiber
PART 1: MAPPING THE FIELD 15
1 What Are the Boundaries, Artifacts, and Identities
of Technical Communication? 19
Richard]. Selfe and CynthiaL. Selfe
2 What Are the Work Patterns of Technical Communication? so
William Hart-Davidson
3 How Can Technical Communicators Fit into Contemporary
Organizations? 75
jim Henry
4 How Can Technical Communicators Develop as
Both Students and Professionals? 98
Kelli Cargile Cook, Emily Cook, Ben Minson, and Stephanie Wilson
PART 2: SITUATING THE FIELD 121
5 How Can Rhetoric Theory Inform the Practice of
Technical Communication? 125
james E. Porter
6 How Can Work Tools Shape and Organize
Technical Communication? 146
jason Swarts
7 What Can History Teach Us about Technical Communication? 165
Bernadette Longo and T. Kenny Fountain
8 What Is the Future of Technical Communication? 187
Brad Mehlenbacher
PART 3: UNDERSTANDING FIELD APPROACHES 209
9 How Can Technical Communicators Work in an
Ethical and Legal Manner? 213
]. Blake Scott
10 How Can Technical Communicators Plan for Users? 237
Antonio Ceraso
11 How Can Technical Communicators Study Work Contexts? 262
Clay Spinuzzi
12 How Can Technical Communicators Evaluate
the Usability of Artifacts? 285
Barbara Mirel
13 How Can Technical Communicators Manage Projects? 310
R. Stanley Dicks
PART 4: DEVELOPING FIELD KNOWLEDGE 333
14 What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know
about Genre? 337
Brent Henze
15 What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know
about Writing? 362
AnnM. Blakeslee and Gerald]. Savage
16 What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know
about Information Design? 386
Karen Schriver
17 What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know
about New Media? 428
Anne Frances Wysocki
18 What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know
about Collaboration? 454
Rebecca E. Burnett, L. Andrew Cooper, and Candice A. Welhausen
19 What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know
about International Environments? 479
Kirk St. Amant
List of Contributors 497
Index 501
JOHN DAN JOHNSON-EILOLA & STUART A. SELBER
Introduction
This book is for students who are learning about the field of technical
communication. For both newcomers and people with some experience,
it provides a coherent approach to understanding and solving problems
and developing strategies that work in different types of communication
situations. Because problems in this field are complex, multifaceted, and
rooted in local settings, they do not lend themselves to one-size-fits-all
solutions. There are, however, heuristic frameworks (more on this phrase
later) that can help you address communication tasks in a systematic
and thoughtful manner. This book offers original heuristics for problem
contexts that are central to the field. Taken as a whole, they constitute a
broad-based perspective for both education and work that is sensitive to
the contingent nature of technical communication.
Although technical communication has a long and rich past-re
searchers have documented cases of technical communication in ancient
Roman culture, for example-the field began to mature as an organized
profession in the mid-twentieth century. This ongoing process, modern
historians tell us, continues to parallel in close ways the development of
complex technical systems and the proliferation of consumer markets
for all things technical and scientific. More than ever, the inventions and
processes of contemporary society call for a great deal of explanation, in
struction, and careful design, in large part because their audiences (users)
have expanded to include not only technical specialists but also nonspe
cialist audiences.
Computers provide an instructive case in point. Early computer sys
tems were built by and for technical professionals, and they were em
ployed in highly specialized settings such as scientific labs and research
and development sites. (Think IBM or Westinghouse in the 1950s, or the
U.S. Department of Defense in the post-cold-war period.) Communica
tion about and through these early systems occurred in relatively stable
work cultures and involved limited groups of workers and activities. Now
adays, of course, computers come in all shapes and sizes, and are used
in a wide variety of settings by a wide variety of people. This very real
diversity requires more and different approaches to technical communi
cation: not only does computer documentation need to be prepared for a
range of abilities and goals, but computer programs themselves need to
