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.

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.

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.

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.

The Informational Sketch — A Major Vice of the Technical Writer

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-13
Author(s):  
George H. Douglas
Keyword(s):  
Technical Writing ◽  
Technical Paper ◽  
Technical Writer ◽  
Narrative Functions

The author of this article argues that all too often teachers of technical writing spend too much time pressuring their students to write simply and without jargon, and that as a result they often get writing that is bad because it is skeletal and undeveloped writing lacking in continuity and narrative functions. The technical writer is often overjoyed to submit outline-writing because it requires small effort, not realizing that it shifts the burden of interpretation to the reader. The author recommends a number of cures for the skeletal technical paper.

Procedures, Instructions, and Specifications: A Challenge in Audience Analysis

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 235-242 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mary M. Lay
Keyword(s):  
Audience Analysis ◽  
Communication Task ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
Technical Writer

Procedures, instructions, and specifications demand precise and imaginative audience analysis. Although these three communications tasks ask an audience to participate in an operation, the specific purpose and audience of each is unique. Recognizing this uniqueness provides the technical communications teacher with challenging student assignments and the technical writer and editor with useful questions to ask in analyzing these audiences. This article describes the audiences that read procedures, instructions, and specifications, provides examples of each communication task, suggests assignments in each for technical communications teachers, and lists questions for technical writers and editors to ask about audiences of each task.

Technical Writing in the Eighties

1974 ◽  
Vol 4 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard W. Schmelzer
Keyword(s):  
Technical Writing ◽  
Information Storage And Retrieval ◽  
Information Storage ◽  
Major Influence ◽  
Nineteen Eighties ◽  
Storage And Retrieval ◽  
Interactive Lectures ◽  
Technical Writer ◽  
Information Bank

Three present-day developments are very likely to have a major influence upon technical writing in the nineteen eighties. These are: interactive lectures, information storage and retrieval, and the development of an ultra-small electronic camera for movies, television, and still pictures. Carefully tested interactive lectures will provide individual attention for learners at the time it is most needed. Under a perfected system of information storage and retrieval, the technical writer would suggest to the reader the kinds of information to request from a nation-wide information bank. He would also assist in the screening of information so that learners would not be deluged by surplus information. The small electronic camera will enable the technical writer to illustrate his instructions on the user's TV set. Thus, the technical writer of the eighties could well become a writer-producer.

The Common Diseases of Technical Writing

1974 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 37-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
George H. Douglas
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
College Level ◽  
Freshman English ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
High School English ◽  
Teaching College ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
The Common ◽  
Intellectual Discipline

This paper discusses some of the main reasons for the weakness of much technical writing. It suggests that in teaching college-level students in science and engineering curricula the writing teacher should focus mainly on those weak areas, many of which are neglected in high school English courses or in traditional freshman English. If scientific and technical writers can be taught to make a rigorous intellectual analysis of their writing and can be steered away from simplistic and simple-minded formulas they will come to have enough respect for writing as an intellectual discipline that they can be motivated to bring about actual improvement in their written work.

Sentence Skills for Technical Writers

1981 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Glenn J. Broadhead
Keyword(s):  
Technical Writing ◽  
Technical Writers

In most textbooks on technical writing, understandability of sentences is misleadingly equated with grammatical primitiveness. In actual technical writing, however, writers regularly conform to six basic rules dealing with the uses of base clauses and free modifiers, as well as punctuation. There are ten types of free modifiers, which can be used singly or in parallel or nonparallel sequences. All types are used either to add details to a key idea expressed in a base clause or to make transitions between one sentence or paragraph and another.

An Editor's View: Ten Common Errors in Technical Writing

1982 ◽  
Vol 12 (3) ◽  
pp. 185-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Clarence H. Annett
Keyword(s):  
Technical Writing ◽  
Technical Editor ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
Grammatical Errors

The practicing technical editor quickly realizes that regardless of author or subject, the same grammatical errors occur repeatedly in manuscripts. This can probably be blamed on a fundamental weakness in the training of technical writers, rather than on any lack of individual or collective ability on the writer's part. With this in mind, ten errors commonly found in technical manuscripts are collected and presented. It is hoped that the list will be helpful to teachers of technical writing and to technical writers who wish to improve their craft.

Interviewing for Information

1984 ◽  
Vol 14 (1) ◽  
pp. 55-58
Author(s):  
Leslie Levine
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Design ◽  
Annual Report ◽  
Accurate Information ◽  
Major Task ◽  
Technical Writers ◽  
Interviewing Skills ◽  
Technical Writer

Gathering information is a major task of the technical writer. All too often, however, writers take this important skill for granted. Successful interviewing often is, however, the technical writer's key to writing good technical prose. Whether the writer is seeking the theory behind an engineering design or preparing an annual report, the techniques that writer uses for successful interviewing will be the same. Further, by developing good interviewing skills, a writer will improve his or her organization and writing techniques. Yet the most important aspect of good interviewing is obtaining accurate information. If technical writers want to be considered professionals in their field, they must become expert interviewers as well as good technical translators.

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