Connecting People with Technology: Issues in Professional Communication

This book explores five important areas where technology affects society, and suggests ways in which human communication can facilitate the use of that technology.Usability has become a foundational discipline in technical and professional communication that grows out of our rhetorical roots, which emphasize purpose and audience. As our appreciation of audience has grown beyond engineers and scientists to lay users of technology, our appreciation of the diversity of those audiences in terms of age, geography, and other factors has similarly expanded.We are also coming to grips with what Thomas Friedman calls the 'flat world,' a paradigm that influences how we communicate with members of other cultures and speakers of other languages. And because most of the flatteners are either technologies themselves or technology-driven, technical and professional communicators need to leverage these technologies to serve global audiences.Similarly, we are inundated with information about world crises involving health and safety issues. These crises are driven by the effects of terrorism, the aging population, HIV/AIDS, and both human-made and natural disasters. These issues are becoming more visible because they are literally matters of life and death. Furthermore, they are of special concern to audiences that technical and professional communicators have little experience targeting - the shapers of public policy, seniors, adolescents, and those affected by disaster.Biotechnology is another area that has provided new roles for technical and professional communicators. We are only beginning to understand how to communicate the science accurately without either deceiving or panicking our audience. We need to develop a more sophisticated understanding of how communication can shape reactions to biotechnology developments. Confronting this complex network of issues, we're challenged to fashion both our message and the audience's perceptions ethically.Finally, today's corporate environment is being shaped by technology and the global nature of business. Technical and professional communicators can play a role in capturing and managing knowledge, in using technology effectively in the virtual workplace, and in understanding how language shapes organizational culture.

Table of Contents:
Introduction: George F. Hayhoe and Helen M. Grady Part I-Usability: Making Technology Fit Its Users Chapter 1 Making Connections: Teaming Up to Connect Users, Developers, and Usability Experts Carol Barnum, David Deyton, Kevin Gillis, and Joe O'Connor Chapter 2 Usability Standards: Connecting Practice Around the World Whitney Quesenbery Chapter 3 Conducting an Automated Experiment Over the Internet to Assess Navigation Design for a Medical Web Site Containing Multipage Articles Elisabeth Cuddihy, Carolyn Wei, Alexandra Bartell, Jen Barrick, Brandon Maust, Seth S. Leopold, and Jan H. Spyridakis Chapter 4 Manuals for the Elderly: Text Characteristics That Help or Hinder Older Users Floor van Horen, Carel Jansen, Leo Noordman, and Alfons Maes Part II-Globalization: Overcoming the Challenges of Languages and Cultures Chapter 5 Communication as a Key to Global Business Reinhard Schäler Chapter 6 The Hidden Costs of Cross-Cultural Documentation Marie-Louise Flacke Chapter 7 How to Save Time and Money by Connecting the Writing Process to the Update and Translation Process Margaretha Eriksson Chapter 8 Technical Communication and Cross-Cultural Miscommunication: User Culture and the Outsourcing of Writing Joseph Jeyaraj Chapter 9 Presenting in English to International Audiences: A Critical Survey of Published Advice and Actual Practice Thomas Orr, Renu Gupta, Atsuko Yamazaki, and Laurence Anthony Part III-Health and Safety: Informing Society of Risks and Dangers Chapter 10 Public Professional Communication in the Anti-Terror Age: A Discourse Analysis Catherine F. Smith Chapter 11 Challenges to Effective Information and Communication Systems in Humanitarian Relief Organizations Christina Maiers, Margaret Reynolds, and Mark Haselkorn Chapter 12 Using Role Sets to Engage and Persuade Visitors of Web Sites that Promote Safe Sex Michaël F. Steehouder Chapter 13 Physicians and Patients: How Professionals Build Relationships through Rapport Management Kim Campbell Part IV-Biotechnology: Reporting Its Potential and Its Problems Chapter 14 Connecting Popular Culture and Science: The Case of Biotechnology Susan Allender-Hagedorn and Cheryl W. Ruggiero Chapter 15 Biotechnology and Global Miscommunication with the Public: Rhetorical Assumptions, Stylistic Acts, Ethical Implications Steven B. Katz Chapter 16 The Need for Technical Communicators as Facilitators of Negotiation in Controversial Technology Transfer Cases Dale L. Sullivan Part V-Corporate Environment: ImprovingTechnology Chapter 17 Technical Language: Learning from the Columbia and Challenger Reports Paul M. Dombrowski Chapter 18 The Theoretical Foundations of Service Leadership: A New Paradigm Judith B. Strother and Svafa Grönfeldt Chapter 19 Managing Collaboration: Adding Communication and Documentation Environment to a Product Development Cycle Laura S. Batson and Susan Feinberg Chapter 20 Virtual Office Communication Protocols: A System for Managing International Virtual Teams Kirk St. Amant Chapter 21 Knowledge Management in the Aerospace Industry David J. Harvey and Robert Holdsworth Chapter 22 Using Their Digital Notes: Three Cases to Make Tacit Knowledge Visible in a Web-based Surrounding Leisbeth Rentinck Meet the Contributors Index