Categories: Theory & Rhetoric
Citation-worthy
“The central purpose of this anthology is to assist
technical communicators in adapting to the new focus on technology and digital
literacy in their work and work environments” (Spilka, 2010, p. 9).
“This anthology assumes the following about theories in
general: not all theories are relevant or useful for practice; all theories
have flaws; all theories need continual testing; all theories, though, have
potential relevance and benefits for practice” (Spilka, 2010, p. 14).
“Digital Literacy for Technical Communication provides you
with new ways to think about the development of content by providing insights
into the challenges of audience analysis, structured authoring, cross-cultural
communication, content management, and information design” (Spilka, 2010, p.
ix).
Innovators… early adopters… early and late majorities…
laggards… (Spilka, 2010, pp. vii-viii).
“Authors argue throughout that the roles and
responsibilities of technical communicators are changing rapidly – in some
cases for the worse. The focus on producing ‘books’ by individual authors
working independently is rapidly coming to an end” (Spilka, 2010, p. ix).
“Technical communicators have important options to consider;
given the pervasiveness of technology in our field, technical communicators
need to take stock, now, of what recent changes in their work contexts mean for
the work, and then make a decision, for example, to adapt to the changes and
become a valuable asset to a work environment…” (Spilka, 2010, p. 3).
Preface Summary
There is a need for evolution in the field of Technical
Communication. The way we view, use, and work with technology in digital work environments is shifting. The solutions are to work in teams, question traditional boundaries, be ready
to merge with or assist other fields, contribute to the greater good, and adapt
to digital literacy. The subject of the book is fertile, as are some of the chapters. In summary, the editor asked, "How has work changed, what is important, and what are
best practices?"
Chapter-specific notes
Carliner, S. (2010). Computers and
Technical Communication in the 21st Century. In Spilka, R. (Ed.), Digital Literacy for Technical
Communication (pp. 21-50). New York, NY: Routledge.
Citation-worthy
“Five Phases in Development of Technology for Technical
Communication… affected by two overarching trends. … The increasing role of
computers in the production process. … The increased move of content to online…
“Phase One:
Automation of Production Tasks (1970s and Early 1980s)”.
“Phase Two:
The Desktop Revolution (Mid-19080s to Early 1990s).
“Phase
Three: The Graphical User Interface Revolution (Early to Late 1990s).
“Phase
Four: Web 1.0 (Mid-1990s to Mid-2000s).
“Phase
Five: Web 2.0 (Since Mid-2000s)” (Carliner, 2010, pp. 29-42).
“The read/write Web, in which the Web is a two-way medium
with people serving as both readers and providers of content, a situation made
possible by software tools that let people create content easily. The read/write Web is characterized by tools
like blogs (Web logs that let one person post thoughts and others respond) and
wikis (a concept named for the Hawaiian word for fast, which allow many users
to collaborate on the preparation of a single document)” (Carliner, 2010, p.
43).
“For practicing professionals, the primary issue is which
technologies they should choose for investing their limited training dollars”
(Carliner, 2010, p. 47).
Bullet Summary
- Provide a history of the impact of technology on the past,
current and future work in the field.
- With the speed of progress, it is difficult for
individuals to maintain cutting-edge expertise fronts.
- Technology leads to a consolidation of jobs (Carliner,
2010, p. 26).
- Transition in 1990s to PCs caused technical communicator
to undergo profound changes.
- Many technical communicators avoid the costs of purchasing
software as it is too expensive to keep up; use freeware or open source
instead.
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Dicks, R. S. (2010). The Effects of
Digital Literacy on the Nature of Technical Communication Work. In Spilka, R.
(Ed.), Digital Literacy for
Technical Communication (pp. 51-81). New York, NY: Routledge.
Citation-worthy
“The nature of work for many technical communicators is
changing so rapidly that many now perform an entire task set that they did not
even know about five years ago” (Dicks, 2010, p. 51).
[On adding value:] “How do communicators show management how
they add value? They can do so in four basic ways: cost reduction, cost
avoidance, revenue enhancement, intangible contributions” (Dicks, 2010, p. 61).
“Technical communicators need to worry about how they are
perceived and evaluated and whether they might be likely sources for being re-engineered and either eliminated or outsourced. This growing reality introduces additional
management trends spawned from re-engineering: outsourcing, downsizing, and rightsizing”
(Dicks, 2010, p. 64).
Bullet Summary
- The transformative impact of digital literacy. Examines
how economic, management, and methodological trends are affecting current work
practices and the professionals of technical communication.
- Need to shift from assembly line to strategic contributors. Adding value preserves the profession.
- Technology is viewed by some as an asset, others as
de-humanizing and deskilling and reskilling human beings (see p. 57-58).
- Core competency skills are still needed like “using words
and images (whether stationary or moving) to inform, instruct, or persuade an
audience” (Schriver, 1997).
- Symbolic-analytic work theory.
- Symbolic-analytic workers
identify and solve problems; they are "strategic brokering"
people. Symbolic analysts are similar to
routine production workers because they typically compete on an international
level for positions; because so much of the work of symbolic analysts takes
place in computer-mediated communication, they are more likely able to
telecommute. But in most other ways symbolic analysts differ from the other job
classifications in terms of status, responsibility, mobility, and pay. Because
they are often highly recruited, they are more able to move from place to
place. They have higher disposable incomes and companies will often pay moving
expenses for their services. In essence, symbolic analysts act out the movement
away from history (where an employee often worked in the same location and
position as their parent and even grandparent) to power over global information
spaces.
- Businesses are involved in globalization, flattening
(decrease of need for management), single sourcing (ie one user manual).
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Clark, D. (2010). Shaped and Shaping
Tools: The Rhetorical Nature of Technical Communication Technologies. In
Spilka, R. (Ed.), Digital
Literacy for Technical Communication (pp. 85-102). New York, NY:
Routledge.
Citation-worthy
Hughes’ definition of technology (2005, p. 4):
“I see technology as craftsmen,
mechanics, inventors, engineers, designers, and scientists using tools,
machines, and knowledge to create and control a human-built world consisting of
artifacts and systems associated mostly with the traditional fields of civil,
mechanical, electrical, mining, materials, and chemical engineering. In the twentieth and twenty-first centuries,
however, the artifacts and systems also become associated with newer fields of
engineering, such as aeronautical, industrial, computer, and environmental
engineering, as well as bioengineering” (Clark, 2010, p. 89).
Bullet Summary
- Problem: How do technical communicators learn about and
assess “broader implications” and “potential influence” (see p. 87)?
- Thesis: “The boundaries of such work are not as tightly
fixed as in, say, the rhetoric of science, and in many cases authors do not
specifically use the term ‘rhetoric of technology.' I will argue, nonetheless,
that we can talk about the rhetoric of technology as a coherent category of
literature that addresses specific concerns of technical communicators.
- The rhetoric of technology is not the rhetoric of science
(see 89-92): Science produces symbols such as articles and grant proposals. Technologies
aim at the creation of useful objects and material processes. – Science
emphasizes the creation of knowledge. Technology is designed to meet human
needs – Science is open to validate, tech protects trade secrets – science is
self-sufficient, tech enlists the support of numerous publics (financial,
legal, corporate, public, technical).
- Rhetorical analysis theory.
- Use
traditional rhetorical analysis to analyze.
- Technology transfer theory (diffusion).
- Examine the factors that
determine the adoption and implementation of new technologies.
- Appropriability model:
focus on quality of research and competitive market. Good technologies sell
themselves (1945-1950s).
- Dissemination model:
transfer expert knowledge to the user who is a willing receptor (1960-1970s).
- Knowledge utilization
model: research moves from researcher to client, from developed idea to product.
- Genre theory.
- “Derived largely from Miller’s
work in the 1980’s that defined genres as ‘typified rhetorical actions based in
recurrent situations’ (1984), p. 159). For rhetoricians, Miller’s work implies
that we should not think of genres, such as a memo, a report, or a manual,
simply as different formats; instead, they are most usefully seen as
regularizing structures, that is, as socially recognized types of communicative
actions that become habitual, regularized, and institutionalized templates that
shape the work of members of organizations (p. 69)” (Clark, 2010, p. 96-97).
- “Genres create expectations of
purpose, content, participants, form, time, and place…” (Clark, 2010, p. 97).
- Activity theory.
- Since social construction theory did not account
for power and agency.
-
“Activity theory … designates useful, structure
ways for incorporating discussions of material tools and technologies” (Clark,
2010, p. 98).
-
“Activity theorists argue that an ‘activity
system,’ the basic unit of analysis, is ‘any ongoing, object-directed,
historically conditioned, dialectically structured, tool-mediated human
interaction,’ for example, ‘a family, a religious organization, an advocacy
group, a political movement’ (Russell, 1997, p. 510)” (Clark, 2010, p. 98).
-
Emphasizes multidirectional interconnections –
individual, dyad, group.
- Means or tools: machines, writing, speaking, gesture.
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Salvo, M. J. & Rosinski, P. (2010).
Information Design; From Authoring Text to Architecting Virtual Space. In
Spilka, R. (Ed.), Digital
Literacy for Technical Communication (pp. 103-127). New York, NY:
Routledge.
Citation-worthy
“Effective technical communication has never been simply
about writing clearly, but rather, about effectively organizing written
communication for future reference and application” (Salvo, 2010, p. 123).
Bullet Summary
- proficiency in information design has become a key
component of literacy in work contexts.
- use of genre theory to explore subject.
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Hart-Davidson, W. (2010). Content
Management: Beyond Single-Sourcing. In Spilka, R. (Ed.), Digital Literacy for Technical
Communication (pp. 128-143). New York, NY: Routledge.
Cite Worthy
Quotations
“Today’s technical writer could very well be a content
manager. Content managers face the twin
pressures of simultaneously reducing the total investment a company must make
to produce content and increasing the quality, quantity, and sustainable value
of that content” Hart-Davidson, 2010, p. 128).
“By virtue of their expertise, technical communicators
should play the key role in making sure an organization can succeed in this
critical endeavor” (Hart-Davidson, 2010, p. 129).
“There is tremendous opportunity for those who understand
how critical writing is for the success of organizations in an ‘information
economy.’ But there is also risk. Both are real” (Hart-Davidson, 2010, p. 140).
“Managers … need to recognize the following: that writing
needs to assume a high status in corporate work, and be viewed as a critical
means to just about every organizational end. The lingering idea that writing
is somehow a ‘basic skill’ rather than an area of strategic activity for a
whole enterprise sometimes causes managers to make poor choices when
implementing CM practices and systems.
Many see these as a chance to automate or, worse, eliminate the work
that writing specialists can do” (Hart-Davidson, 2010, 142).
Bullet Summary
- We are now in an information society and information is
the valuable commodity.
- Problem: The field of tech com views content management
practices and the arrival of content management systems rather narrowly.
- Author’s solution: “explore the range of expertise
required to ensure that large groups, not merely individuals or small teams,
write well together” (Hart-Davidson, 2010, p. 129).
- Content managers (1) distribute tasks among members of a
group (2) author and store content for multiple uses (3) author and store content
in ways that permit multiple output formats (4) author and store content in
ways that facilitate systematic reuse. (see p. 130).
- Categories for creating and managing content: (a) making
texts (b) creating and managing information assets (c) designing and managing
workflows and production models (Chart on p. 136).
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Longo, B. (2010). Human+Machine
Culture: Where We Work. In Spilka, R. (Ed.), Digital
Literacy for Technical Communication (pp. 147-168). New York, NY:
Routledge.
Citation-worthy
“The idea of community as critical to maintaining social
order is important in stories we tell about the origins of human community – as
preordained by God; as naturally organic; and as necessary for the survival of
the species. The fear here is that the formative act of inclusion/exclusion
simultaneously casts some people as outsiders who pose a threat to the stable
community, since those outsiders can and will form, or because their own
opposing community with different values, desires, and goals” (Longo, 2010, p.
152).
“Spinuzzi (2003) defines a common trope in use-centered
design literature: the work as victim. In this standard narrative, the user is
oppressed by an unjust tyranny and in need of rescue (p. 1) by usability
specialists who will educate these lay users into the system. Contrary to this
standard narrative, Spinuzzi asserts that when a user finds a technology is not
designed to facilitate her tasks, she does not wait helplessly for rescue by
the experts. Instead, she ‘picks up available tools, adapts them in
idiosyncratic ways, and makes do.
Through these ‘invisible’ innovations … she subverts the information
system, inventing her own ways to turn it to her needs’ (p. 2).” (Longo, 2010,
p. 159).
“In a scientific knowledge economy, those people who have
the power to establish and sustain a language system – and impose it through
education – occupy a dominant position and exercise leadership. As scribes of
technology, technical communicators occupy this strategic position of author
and leadership to educate users’ native knowledge into science and technology
with the purpose of shaping that knowledge and the people who possess it into
efficient workers within a community” (Longo, 2010, p. 166).
Bullet Summary
- Activity theory based discussion of the mediating aspects
a machine adds.
- Activity theory discussed in detail on 160-161.
- “I am arguing for a new understanding of our culture when
we become profoundly coupled to machines that facilitate our communication and
networking with other people… the idea of community must be studied within its
cultural context in order to come to an understanding of why people make the
decisions they do in a given circumstance” (Longo, 2010, P. 148).
- Outline of academic scholarship on culture & community
& activity theory.
- People value human relations. People sign up [for web sites] to meet their
personal needs, but in doing so, they also sign up to be managed as one of a
group.
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Thatcher, B. (2010). Understanding
Digital Literacy Across Cultures. In Spilka, R. (Ed.), Digital Literacy for Technical
Communication (pp. 169-198). New York, NY: Routledge.
Citation-worthy
“Digital literacy means accessing, understanding, and
appropriately using digital media in specific communication situations. Digital literacy across cultures means
understanding how this access, understanding, and use vary according to the
broad rhetorical and cultural patterns of a target culture.
Bullet Summary
- Problem: “One key weakness of much research and practice
on digital literacy is that it fails to provide a global or cross-cultural
framework for understanding how digital media function outside the United
States or many Western European countries” (Thatcher, 2010, p. 170).
- Digital literacy increases information spread and
transfer. There are more ways to collaborate. We must deal with the cultural
implications that accompany such interactions.
- Example of the email and the changes for the email for the
Mexican stakeholders (see p. 172-173).
- Cross-cultural framework:
start by recognizing similarities based on shared contexts… avoid
embedding differences in a framework of similarities… there are three values
Thatcher chooses to explore.
- I/other –
how a single person relates to others.
- Norms/rules – what cultures
establish as standards, whether universal or particular.
- Public/private – diffuse or
specific degrees of involvement across different spheres of life.
- How does one adapt digital literacy approaches for
specific communicative traditions? Thatcher recommends a five point
communicative heuristic:
- purpose – what must the
communication achieve without it failing?
- Audience.
- Information needs.
- Organizations strategies (to meet
the purpose, audience, and informational needs).
- Style preferences (phrasing or
presenting in a culturally appropriate manner).
-Thatcher states this about the
five point communicative heuristic:
“Cultural differences can matter,
sometimes in significant ways This chapter presents a method for addressing the
literacy – cultural issues, one that moves beyond the now taboo approach of
listing do’s and don’ts for communicating across cultures. It provides a
useful framework for understanding why digital communication patterns are
grounded in specific cultural values, what these patterns actually mean in the
cultural traditions, which patterns need to be adapted for a particular
context, and how to adapt those patterns” (Thatcher, 2010, p. 196).
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Blakeslee, A. M. (2010). Addressing
Audiences in a Digital Age. In Spilka, R. (Ed.), Digital Literacy for Technical Communication
(pp. 199-229). New York, NY: Routledge.
Cite Worthy
Quotations
“A concern with audience has always been a defining aspect
of who we are and what we do in the field… one of our main goals is to write
and design documents with the target audience in mind” (Blakeslee, 2010, p.
199).
Bullet Summary
- I found this chapter’s thesis, “Our approach to audience
with digital texts needs to remain as complex and nuanced as in the past” (p.
200) sophomoric at best, infantile at worst. They do not address or even seem
to attempt to grasp and categorize the audience, instead throwing their
intellectual arms up as if to say, “it’s impossible.” Read Hailey’s book for an
example of how to approach a difficult or complex problem.
- The post-modern view of keeping things complex ignores the
opportunities technology provides for describing, tracking, and understanding
the audience. Only if budgets, knowledge, or other similar constraints are
actual constraints for an individual or organization could the point of this
article stand. It ignores real time and sought out systems of feedback and runs
around with its hands up screaming “the internet is falling, the internet is
falling.” The idea that “I don’t have a solution and therefore there is no solution” is asinine
or lazy.
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Katz, S. B. & Rhodes, V. W. (2010).
Beyond Ethical Frames of Technical Relations: Digital Being in the Workplace
World. In Spilka, R. (Ed.), Digital
Literacy for Technical Communication (pp. 230-256). New York, NY:
Routledge.
Citation-worthy
“We … define ethical frames as a set of philosophical
assumptions, ideological perceptions, and normative values underlying and/or
guiding how people relate to and exist with technology.
Bullet Summary
- An exploration of the relationship of technology to
ethical frames of reference.
- Problem: “The digital revolution is fundamentally changing
the nature of the workplace, and indeed the world. But are current
communication ethics theories and practices adequate for such a revolution?”
(Katz & Rhodes, 2010, p. 230).
- Frames of technical relations (Vested in each other see
page 233).
- False frame: technology does not
facilitate the discovery of knowledge (based on Plato) rejected by the authors.
- Tool
Frame – how can we use ____ to _______?
(Means to an end).
- Means-end
frame – technology is the end.
- Autonomous – “Technology is not
only a producer of its own means and ends, but also a producer of its own moral
codes (productivity, speed, efficiency)” (Katz & Rhodes, 2010, p. 234).
Technology is its own reason for being (d’etre).
- Thought Frame – the underlying
value system of the autonomous technology is absorbed into the consciousness of
the user. The user is changed by it, (ie how we use words changed how papers
were written and how we think about writing papers {save button, save button,
please don’t crash, backup, cloud drive, save button, flash drive,
ugh-oh-no-Microsoft!).
- Being frame- technology, the
thought and the machines, order nature and our relation to and knowledge of it
(see page 237).
- Excellent summaries are found on
p. 239.
- Digital being can encircle the other frames, and therefore
“Digital communication has become an extension of ourselves, increasingly
projecting our consciousness outward so that our image becomes the medium of
our existence and the object of our gaze.
- They then analyze email with those frames.
- All these thoughts lead to their sixth frame SANCTITY
FRAME – where we treat the computer as a being, and form a relationship with
it. It ceases to be a thing, and becomes an entity. {Once we can blame the
computer, can we can eliminate all human responsibility (Asimov, “The Robot
Series”)}. I did not drink the Kool-aid from this chapter. Computers are still
tools. Many times people have come to rely on tools and even care for tools,
but that relationship does not belong outside their mind.
