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The purpose of this cutting-edge collection of essays is threefold: first, it presents the principles of data collection and interpretation or the methodological distinctions of a particular method appropriate to technical communication research. Second, it discusses the foundational principles of the methodologies given the primary discipline in which they were created and applied. Finally, it reflects upon the process of importing and employing these methodologies into the research field of technical communication, and on how technical communication research has contributed to the development and application of these methodologies.
Written by many noted scholars in the field and presenting a wide range of research methods,
Research in Technical Communication combines theory and practice. Both technical communicators and industry researchers who want to learn more about workplace research and methodologies will find it invaluable, as will beginning and advanced scholars, who will find much that is useful in its variety of subjects.
List of contents
Introduction
Considering Ethical Issues in Technical Communication Research by Lee-Ann Kastman Breuch, Andrea M. Olson, and Andrea Breemer Frantz
Ethnographic Research by Susan M. Katz
Analyzing Everyday Texts in Organizational Settings by Carol A. Berkenkotter
Historical Methods for Technical Communication by Teresa Kynell and Bruce Seely
Surveys and Questionnaires by Daniel J. Murphy
Experimental and Quasi-Experimental Research by Davida Charney
Identifying and Accommodating Audiences for Technical and Professional Communication Research by Jo Allen and Sherry Southard
Evaluating the Complete User Experience: Dimensions of Usability by Roger A. Grice
Feminist Criticism and Technical Communication Research by Mary M. Lay
Cultural Studies: An Orientation for Research in Professional Communication by Charlotte Thralls and Nancy Blyler
Science and Technology Studies as a Research Method: Toward a Practical Ethics for Technical Writing by John Monberg
Technical Communication Research in Cyberspace by Laura J. Gurak and Christine M. Silker
Index
About the author
LAURA J. GURAK is Associate Professor and Director of the Internet Studies Center in the Rhetoric Department at the University of Minnesota, where she is also a Faculty Fellow in the Law School. A nationally recognized Internet researcher, she is the author of
Persuasion and Privacy in Cyberspace: The Online Protests over Lotus MarketPlace and the Clipper Chip and
Cyberliteracy: Navigating the Internet with Awareness. She has also authored two textbooks, edited a collection of essays, and has been published in journals including
Technical Communication, Computers and Composition, and Rhetoric Review.
MARY M. LAY is Professor of Rhetoric and former Director of Graduate Studies at the University of Minnesota. She is the co-author of the second edition of
Technical Communication, co-editor of
Collaborative Writing in Industry: Investigation in Theory and Practice, and author of
The Rhetoric of Midwifery: Power, Knowledge, and Gender. She is also co-editor of
Technical Communication Quarterly, the official journal of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, and past president of that association.
