Solving 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