Technical Writing's Roots in Computer Science: The Evolution from Technician to Technical Writer

1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 305-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Henrietta Nickels Shirk
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Software Industry ◽  
Computer Software ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
Computer Scientists ◽  
Technical Writer ◽  
History Of ◽  
Assimilation Process ◽  
The Impact

The history of Technical Writing closely parallels trends in the discipline of Computer Science. The early technical writers in the computer software industry were its own technicians (programmers and analysts), who used a variety of diagramming techniques to document computer systems. As a result of the widespread availability of computers and software which began in the 1970s, professional communicators joined the software industry and reinterpreted these diagramming techniques from technical source documents into user documentation. The impact of this assimilation process has influenced graphic representations in Technical Writing, as well as created the conceptual metaphors of the “user” and the “module” (which are emerging archetypes). In the past, Technical Writing's historical roots have been the result of reactions to Computer Science. However, the increasing presence of online documentation is now creating opportunities for technical writers to shape their own future by joining with computer scientists as influential equals.

Feedforward (ff) en Metaforische Transfer (mt) -Dimensies Van Technical Writers'

1984 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 116-124
Author(s):  
J.W. Broer
Keyword(s):  
Professional Identity ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Visual Elements ◽  
Communication Problems ◽  
Writing Problems ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
The World ◽  
Technical Writer ◽  
Use Of Knowledge

A map of the world of 'technical' communication shows the (a, ß)-universe, flat country filled with language experts and scientists, including engineers. In the centre Technical Writing is situated, a territory in turmoil, on the border of α-land and ß-land. In the U.S.A. the territory is developing fast as the professional core of a new skill. As emigrants, many people of an α-type or ß-type nature end up in the territory. Having a problem of professional identity they possess a hy-brid personality. The attention paid to this problem causes them to lose sight of the two 'natural' forces of an emigrating individual, that is to say feedforward — an anticipative composition principle — and metaphoric transfer — 'as-if use of knowledge from the individual's professional past, to solve the communication problems met at present. Feedforward (Ivor A. Richards, 1893-1979) is a principle of creative action, proceeding from more generic to less (a top-down hier-archy); a number of 'formators' (Charles W. Morris and Bess Sondel), the tools for making text according to the feedforward scheme, are discussed. Nowadays visual elements as formators receive more emphasis. Text is seen as a distribution of three types of elements ('knowing', 'feeling', 'acting') glued into a unit, the communicative 'whole', by the formators. The textual whole should match the type of readers as originally anticipated by the technical writer (27 types, a classification based upon estimating three levels of knowing, feeling, acting; examples are included). Some prescriptions for solving Technical Writing problems found by metaphoric transfer are discussed. To illustrate the traffic of ideas arising from metaphoric transfer, a detailed map of the border area science/ technical writing is shown.

Does Clio Have a Place in Technical Writing? Considering Patents in a History of Technical Communication

1988 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 297-304 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. John Brockmann
Keyword(s):  
Nineteenth Century ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Historical Perspective ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Sense Of Self ◽  
Science Writing ◽  
Self Identity ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Writing Standards

Technical writers need a historical perspective in order to distinguish between enduring and transitory writing standards, to understand the variety of past styles in building future styles, and to give the profession a better sense of self-identity. To overcome the problems in developing a historical perspective, such as a dearth of artifacts to examine and the peculiarities in rhetorical time and place which undercut attempts to generalize on historical information, the 200 year-old federal collection of patents is offered as a solution. This collection of patents is also very often the only remaining written work of the ordinary mechanic of the nineteenth century, and this collection truly reflects technical not legal, business, or science writing.

Bibliography of Articles on the History of Technical Writing

1983 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 155-165 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. John Brockmann
Keyword(s):  
Broad Spectrum ◽  
Technical Communication ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Historical Research ◽  
Central Problem ◽  
Historical Approach ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
History Of ◽  
Slow Evolution

This collection of thirty-six articles exposes the problem and the promise of historical research in technical writing. The central problem is that historical research in technical writing has too often been focused only on celebrated authors or scientists as technical writers. The central promise contained in some very recent essays is that historical research in technical communications is beginning to consider the slow evolution of technical communication taking place across a broad spectrum of both celebrated and uncelebrated writers. This historical approach, though more difficult to carry out, is immensely more accurate and meaningful.

Career Opportunities for Teachers of Technical Writing: A Survey of Programs in Technical Communication

1978 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 175-192 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul V. Anderson
Keyword(s):  
Technical Communication ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Mail Survey ◽  
Experienced Teachers ◽  
Promotion And Tenure ◽  
Formal Study ◽  
Career Opportunities ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
Technical Writer

In response to a mail survey of the career opportunities they offer teachers of technical writing, twenty-four programs that prepare students for careers as technical writers and editors indicated that their technical writing faculty enjoy about the same teaching loads, salaries, and chances for promotion and tenure as do equally qualified and experienced teachers of literature at their schools. The programs also indicated that they have a growing number of openings on their faculties for teachers of technical writing. Finally, the programs ranked and rated seventeen qualifications that might be offered by applicants for those positions; the most significant conclusion drawn from the rankings and ratings is that the programs look more favorably upon experience — both in teaching and in working as a technical writer or editor — than they do upon formal study of technical writing or the teaching of it.

Aircraft Community Noise Impact Model

1998 ◽  
Vol 1626 (1) ◽  
pp. 58-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eric Stusnick ◽  
Richard L. Thompson ◽  
Terence R. Thompson ◽  
Bryan A. Evans ◽  
John DiFelici
Keyword(s):  
Computer Software ◽  
Software System ◽  
Impact Model ◽  
Community Noise ◽  
Noise Impact ◽  
History Of ◽  
Langley Research Center ◽  
Computer Software System ◽  
User Friendly ◽  
The Impact

The Aircraft Community Noise Impact Model (ACNIM) is a computer software system being developed by Wyle Laboratories and Metron, Inc., for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration–Langley Research Center. It is intended to provide a user-friendly tool for analysis of the impact of the noise from aircraft operations on communities near airports. The history of the development of ACNIM and some of its unique features are outlined and the optimization algorithms that are used by ACNIM to produce minimally impacting flight trajectories are discussed in some detail.

Irish Identification as Exigence

2012 ◽  
pp. 173-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Mara ◽  
Miriam Mara
Keyword(s):  
Identity Formation ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Adventure Travel ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
Technical Writer ◽  
Do It Yourself ◽  
User Motivation ◽  
Tour Operator

To address some of the technical writing pressures concomitant with globalization, this chapter investigates documentation solutions implemented by an Irish Do-It-Yourself tour operator. The same identity-dependent approaches that these DIY tourism companies use to fulfill tourist expectations can provide technical writers with additional tools for analyzing user motivation. This chapter first analyzes how an Irish DIY Adventure travel company harnesses user motivations, then applies Appadurai’s (1996) globalism theories (especially his use of ethnoscapes, technoscapes, and mediascapes) to a particular use of this travel company’s documents, and finally demonstrates how user motivation intrinsic to identity formation can help the technical writer create documentation that effectively assists users in overcoming breakdowns through identity affordances.

scholarly journals THE ARRIVAL OF MADURA TRADERS TO SUMBAWA BESAR (STUDY OF CULTURAL ASSIMILATION OF SUMBAWA BESAR COMMUNITY WITH MADURA TRADERS)

2021 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Syahrul Amar ◽  
Abdul Rasyad ◽  
Fetridawati Fetridawati
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Research Data ◽  
Cultural Assimilation ◽  
Literature Study ◽  
Cultural Character ◽  
Trading Relation ◽  
History Of ◽  
Assimilation Process ◽  
New Community ◽  
The Impact

This study described the history of the arrival of Madurese traders to Sumbawa Besar with a cultural assimilation process of Sumbawa Besar and Madurese communities. The purpose of this study was to find out the history of the arrival of Madurese traders to Sumbawa Besar, to find out the cultural assimilation process of Madurese and Sumbawa Besar communities, and to find out the impact of the assimilation between Sumbawa Besar and Madurese communities. This research was qualitative research. Data collection was done through direct observation, interviews, documentation, and literature study. The study result concluded that Madurese traders came to Sumbawa in the middle of 17th century through trading relation. In the middle of 20th century around 1920, several Madurese began to explore the land of Sumbawa Besar. The cultural character of open and democratic society made Madurese traders and Sumbawa’s people to assimilate easily. The assimilation process was carried out through social interaction, marriage, trade, and religious processes. The impact of the cultural assimilation of Sumbawa Besar and Madurese communities was shown by the establishment of a communication relationship between Sumbawa Besar and Madurese communities, the construction of a new community structure for the integrated of Sumbawa Besar community as Tau and Tana Samawa, and the construction of a new culture as Sumbawa’s culture requiring openness and tolerance.

Technical Writing is Different

1974 ◽  
Vol 4 (4) ◽  
pp. 285-289
Author(s):  
Gerard Hische
Keyword(s):  
Technical Writing ◽  
Writing Skills ◽  
Personal Style ◽  
Knowing How ◽  
Technical Writer ◽  
The Impact

Most technically orientated students are never exposed to lessons in effective technical writing skills. Yet, knowing how to express oneself properly is a necessity in today's technical world. The technical writer must use correct grammar and exact language in his descriptions of precise, technical subjects. He must learn how to adapt his personal style to the impact he wants to make. In addition, he must also learn how to communicate to various levels of audiences, for not all of his readers will possess the same knowledge about a subject. Also, he must learn to use graphic aids in the presentation of an article.

“What Happens to the Raspado man in a Cash-free Society?”: Teaching and Learning Socially Responsible Computing

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (4) ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Jean J. Ryoo ◽  
Alicia Morris ◽  
Jane Margolis
Keyword(s):  
Computer Science ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Teaching And Learning ◽  
Social Impact ◽  
Teaching Practice ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Socially Responsible ◽  
Computer Scientists ◽  
K 12 ◽  
The Impact

The Computer Science for All movement is bringing CS to K-12 classrooms across the nation. At the same time, new technologies created by computer scientists have been reproducing existing inequities that directly impact today's youth, while being “promoted and perceived as more objective or progressive than the discriminatory systems of a previous era” [1, p. 5–6]. Current efforts are being made to expose students to the social impact and ethics of computing at both the K-12 and university-level—which we refer to as “socially responsible computing” (SRC) in this paper. Yet there is a lack of research describing what such SRC teaching and learning actively involve and look like, particularly in K-12 classrooms. This paper fills this gap with findings from a research-practice partnership, through a qualitative study in an Advanced Placement Computer Science Principles classroom enrolling low-income Latino/a/x students from a large urban community. The findings illustrate 1) details of teaching practice and student learning during discussions about SRC; 2) the impact these SRC experiences have on student engagement with CS; 3) a teacher's reflections on key considerations for effective SRC pedagogy; and 4) why students’ perspectives and agency must be centered through SRC in computing education.

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