A Methodology for Streamlining Historical Research: The Analysis of Technical and Scientific Publications

This article provides a framework for organizing and structuring the research of historical researchers who analyze technical and scientific publications. Because historical research spans both decades and centuries, an effective research methodology is essential. The framework consists of a multifaceted 10-step method for studying the written discourse of scientific and technical communication, specifically for interpreting historical data obtained from articles published in technical and scientific journals. The method is a reliable means for making sense of the enormous body of data that awaits historical researchers in the volumes of scientific and technical discourse already published

Interaction Online: A Reevaluation

Instructors commonly assume that the successful online course must replicate its live counterpart by including a variety of interactions among student, instructor, and computer. Given the changing lifestyles prompted by an evolving Internet, an increasing student need for autonomy, and student learning styles, highly interactive courses may not necessarily be the best online approach. In this article, I review research dealing with interactive environments, present the results of my own interaction study, and propose an integrative approach for the use of interaction that sees it in light of the increasing integration of the Internet into students\u27 daily lives

The Interplay Between Narrative, Education, and Exposition in an Emerging Science

Drawing upon eleven volumes of articles published between 1890 and 1990 in The Auk, journal of American ornithology, this study shows the path to professionalization through four phases of ornithological discourse history. In the science of ornithology, the interests of conservationists, science students, and scientists themselves were originally served by a single discourse form— the personal narrative of natural history. But, with professionalization, scientists increasingly associated such narratives with amateur performance. The resulting gap between professional science and public understanding of science was reinforced by the establishment of a university program of study in ornithology, by an emerging sense of a scientific community, and by the forces of environmentalism

Extensible Markup Language: How Might It Alter the Software Documentation Process and the Role of the Technical Communicator?

This article describes the influence that Extensible Markup Language (XML) will have on the software documentation process and subsequently on the curricula of advanced undergraduate and master\u27s programs in technical communication. XML, an evolving set of standards for storing and displaying information, uses nine components that make up the XML development process. Grouped into content, formatting, and language specifications, these components enhance organizations\u27 ability to manage information more efficiently and accurately. As the XML development process is adopted, the software documentation process will evolve from a self-contained procedure into a more flexible, interactive process in which software documenters must work closely with a wide range of specialists. The changes that XML will have on the software documentation process will likewise have implications for programs in technical communication in the need to address new kinds of job descriptions, skill sets, and career paths of future technical communicators. The article recommends adaptations to existing courses, as well as new elective and required courses

Teaching a Distance Education Version of the Technical Communication Service Course: Timesaving Strategies

The author has taught a distance education version of the undergraduate technical communication service course at Boise State University since 1997 and shares the strategies he has found to decrease the time instructors spend teaching online, thereby enabling them to use the time they do have to enhance their students’ online experience. These strategies are distributed among four areas: management of collaboration, presentation of course material, grading, and interaction with students. For each one, the author presents the problems that may occur and approaches to resolving them. The article addresses a number of concerns expressed in the scholarly literature on distance education and is informed by surveys given to five sections of the author’s course taught between 2001 and 2003. Interspersed through the article is an overview of some of the current research and commentary on distance education of particular interest to those teaching the technical communication service course via the Internet

The Rhetoric of Science in the Evolution of American Ornithological Discourse

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Essays in the Study of Scientific Discourse: Methods, Practice, and Pedagogy

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Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century Falconry Manuals: Technical Writing with a Classical Rhetorical Influence

This study traces Renaissance and post-Renaissance technical writers\u27 use of classical rhetoric in English instruction manuals on the sport of falconry. A study of the period\u27s five prominent falconry manuals written by four authors—George Turberville, Simon Latham, Edmund Bert, and Richard Blome—reveals these technical writers\u27 conscious use of classical rhetoric as an important technique to persuade readers to accept these authors\u27 authority and trust the information they were disseminating. These manuals employed several classical rhetorical techniques: invention by using ethos and several classical topics, classical arrangement, the plain style, and adaptation of the orator\u27s duties. The explanation for this classical influence rests in the authors\u27 own knowledge of classical rhetoric derived from sources such as Thomas Wilson, as well as the sources from whom these authors obtained their knowledge of falconry. The article ends by suggesting the origins through which these classical rhetorical techniques influenced the writing of the manuals