Technical Communication in the Global Community

by Andrews, Deborah C.

• ISBN13: 9780130281524
• ISBN10: 0130281522
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2000-12-29
• Publisher: Pearson

Summary

Today's technical professionals need to reach audiences and collaborate on projects across borders of culture, language, technology, and expertise. This versatile, highly readable text encourage students to think critically in a changing environment, with the goal of communicating successfully with people who may not share their values, approaches, or knowledge base. Deborah Andrews provides strategies and guidelines for communicating effectively and for enjoying the challenge of communication. Information design is a constant emphasis.

Table of Contents

Preface	xv
PART ONE Performing Your Role as a Communicator	1	(56)
Introduction	3	(14)
Writing Collaboratively	17	(21)
Writing Ethically	38	(19)
PART TWO Managing Information for Readers	57	(64)
Collecting Empirical Information	59	(22)
Collecting Information from Documents and Web Sites	81	(19)
Managing Information for Readers	100	(21)
PART THREE Designing Information for Readers	121	(158)
Designing Information for Readers	123	(28)
Composing Visuals	151	(39)
Composing Text	190	(18)
Explaining	208	(27)
Persuading and Proving	235	(26)
Revising	261	(18)
PART FOUR Developing Technical and Scientific Documents	279	(122)
Abstracts and Executive Summaries	281	(14)
Proposals	295	(26)
Reports	321	(30)
Progress Reports	351	(20)
Instructions	371	(30)
PART FIVE Communicating as a Professional	401	(116)
Letters	403	(18)
The Job Search	421	(25)
Memos and Electronic Mail	446	(22)
Articles and Reviews of Literature	468	(24)
Oral Presentations	492	(25)
Works Cited	517	(12)
Index	529

Excerpts

PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITIONThe focus in this edition remains the same as in the first: to provide strategies for technical professionals to use as they reach audiences and collaborate on projects across borders of culture, language, and technology. In revising, I have reshaped some sections to reflect the rapidly changing context for technical communication. I've also incorporated new research findings and comments from students and colleagues.The problems giving rise to communication remain muddled and multidimensional. To solve them, students must learn how to write and speak as global citizens as well as global engineers or health professionals or scientists. As in the first edition, I've taken an international context for granted. Science and technology are international activities, and an informed professional writes with the international community in mind. The pervasiveness of the Internet and especially the Web only underscores this reality.As I reviewed the first edition, I kept in mind how current information technology aids--or hinders--good communication and looked for ways to update advice about using that technology. These updates appear overtly in theElectronic Edgefeature boxes and are interwoven throughout the book wherever appropriate. One perhaps cynical observer notes that the Internet only lets bad information get to you faster. To avoid such risks, students will find here expanded strategies for managing information in a 24/7 world.In this edition, too,designtakes center stage. To adapt a line fromAlice in Wonderland(the original is quoted at the beginning of Chapter 10): "Much of what you see depends on howitlooks." Extensive research in academe and the marketplace confirms the central role of design in shaping the content of information products. In light of this research and my own years as an avid observer of the visual world, I thoroughly revised Part 3 on expression. The revision reverses the order of the first edition (sentences to visuals to design). In this edition, design comes first, followed by advice on composing visuals and then on composing text. Design issues also thread through the chapters on individual genres as well as oral presentations. In addition, to practice what we preach, we redesigned the look of this edition.In other ways, too, I hope to have enhanced elements of the first edition without messing up what readers found attractive there. Several chapters have been edited for greater crispness and clarity following excellent suggestions from students and reviewers.The Crossing CulturesandA Closer Lookfeature boxes remain, most in updated form. So do the models, cases, exercises, and checklists readers depended on to make rhetorical concepts come alive. (Badgered by reviewers and students, however, I reluctantly let the Chapter 1 rats go.) For additional updates on information in the book, more cases and models, and expanded exercises, please visit the book's Web site: www.prenhall.com/andrews. An instructor's manual is also available. ACKNOWLEDGMENTSAll writing, at least the way I write, is collaborative, and I'd like to thank publicly some of the many people who guided me in improving the text.The following reviewers for Prentice Hall gave me just the advice I needed: Genie Babb, University of Alaska, Anchorage; Daryl R. Davis, Northern Michigan University; Matt Pifer, University of Oklahoma; and Sharon K. Wilson, Fort Hays State University.I'd also like to thank Craig Campanella, my editor at Prentice Hall, and Alison Gnerre, Production Manager.In addition, the Consortium for the Study of Engineering Communication provided some of the best conversations about writing (and desserts) that I can remember. I'd particularly like to thank Linda Driskill, consortium convener, Rice University; Penny Hirsch, Barbara Shwom, Northwestern University;