This index covers all technical items - papers, correspondence, reviews, etc. - that appeared in this periodical during the year, and items from previous years that were commented upon or corrected in this year. Departments and other items may also be covered if they have been judged to have archival value. The Author Index contains the primary entry for each item, listed under the first author's name. The primary entry includes the co-authors' names, the title of the paper or other item, and its location, specified by the publication abbreviation, year, month, and inclusive pagination. The Subject Index contains entries describing the item under all appropriate subject headings, plus the first author's name, the publication abbreviation, month, and year, and inclusive pages. Note that the item title is found only under the primary entry in the Author Index.

Research Problem: Investigate the match between content published by the Transactions and content sought by its readers. Research Questions: What content does the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication publish? How does that compare to the content published by other journals in the field? And what content do readers of the Transactions want to read? Literature Review: Researchers in most fields occasionally analyze the entire body of literature within a discipline to assess the current state of the literature, identify leading works, assess the state of the literature, provide a basis for changing the direction of a journal, and assess alignment among parts of the literature. Methodology: To identify what journals published, researchers used the STC Body of Knowledge schema and a list of categories of research methods that classify all peer-reviewed articles published between January 2006 and December 2010 in the Transactions, Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Technical Communication, and Technical Communication Quarterly. To identify reader preferences of the Transactions, researchers surveyed members of the IEEE Professional Communication Society about their preferences for content and types of research. Results and Discussion: In terms of the topics covered, the three most widely covered topics in the Transactions were: (1) Deliverables, (2) Information Design and Development, and (3) Academic Programs. Readers prefer (1) About Technical and Professional Communication, (2) Information Design and Development, and (3) Research Theory, and Practice. The three least-covered topics were (1) Business Knowledge, (2) About Technical Communication, and (3) Technical Communication Standards. Of least interest to participants were: (1) Deliverables, (2) Quality Assurance, (3) Management, and (4) Technical Communication Standards. The Transactions primarily publishes experiments, surveys, and tutorials while readers prefer case studies, literature reviews, and tutorials.

Research Problem: Claims have been made about the impact of applying Linguistic Politeness Theory to workplace contexts. Linguistic politeness theory argues that speakers or senders of messages make language choices to soften potential face-threatening acts. These claims have not been empirically examined in regards to trust between leaders and members. Research Questions: (1) What effect does a leader's use of linguistic politeness have on perceptions of trust? (2) Do indirect and direct requests differ in building trust? (3) Is there an optimal combination of level of directness and type of linguistic politeness strategy in building trust? Literature Review: Previous literature has shown that people in positions of power utilize linguistic politeness when interacting with subordinates. Further, studies have shown an association between managerial communication style and relational variables, including trust. No study, however, has empirically examined a leader's use of linguistic politeness on subordinate's perceptions of trust toward the leader. Methodology: The current study uses a quantitative approach. An experiment was designed to test the effect of politeness on trust. One-hundred fifteen undergraduates were selected for the experiment. Results and Discussion: Quantitative analysis, which included a two-way ANOVA, revealed that participants trusted leaders who used linguistic politeness strategies in their emails, as opposed to those who failed to include mitigating strategies. Furthermore, downgraders, moves that mitigate the force of face-threatening act without adding semantic content, were effective at building trust when paired with direct speech acts. Similarly, supportive moves, moves that mitigate face-threatening acts but do add semantic content, were effective at building trust when paired with indirect speech acts. The results have theoretical implications that include the contextual importance of linguistic politeness strategies. Further, practical implications include the way student leaders might phrase email requests to team members. However, because the sample included students, the results must be carefully interpreted, particularly when extrapolating to professional populations. Future studies can apply a similar methodology to a population of professionals, allowing for a comparison of datasets.

On the basis of an extensive survey study conducted among business professionals engaging in global communication, this paper discusses communicative competence. Rapid changes in work environments, particularly advancing globalization and new technology, have highlighted the need for expanding our knowledge of the elements that constitute communicative competence in global encounters. Competence has been investigated by several researchers; however, the language perspective, particularly the language used for international communication, that is, English as a Lingua Franca (ELF), has largely been ignored. Our findings indicate that global communicative competence (GCC) consists of three layers: multicultural competence, competence in English as a Business Lingua Franca (BELF) and the communicator's business know-how. Based on our findings, we present a model for GCC, which includes language as a key component. Implications for theory, practice, and education include the need for a multidisciplinary approach and the acknowledgement of ELF/BELF as the language of global interaction. ELF IBELF assumes a shared "core" of the English language, but focuses on interactional skills, rapport building, and the ability to ask for and provide clarifications.

Increasingly, various tasks are being conducted by dispersed teams. However, such teams lack a common context, and knowledge gaps exist among dispersed team members making collaboration difficult. This paper seeks to examine whether and how properties of team context (e.g., familiarity with team members and task) have the potential to moderate the effects of structure of team context (e.g., dispersion) on dispersed team collaboration. Further, this paper teases out these effects in teams with a varying extent of dispersion. Findings offer evidence that a unique constraint of distance that dispersed teams face may not be the key factor that determines their performance.

This special issue examines theories and practices of professional communication outside the US. In this editorial, we preview each article of this issue and place those articles in the context of current practices and theories in the field. We also outline crucial questions and directions for future research. These directions include the call for a more comprehensive view of international professional communication, which takes into account philosophies, approaches, and practices which are current in Finland and China.

This paper examines the role that initial exchanges play in determining subsequent process and outcome in email-based negotiations, an increasingly popular means of conducting domestic and international negotiations. The results of the study suggest considerable symmetry between parties in terms of the quantity (words) and quality of initial messages. However, informal greetings, introductions, and proposal surfacing in these early exchanges played little role in determining the likelihood of an agreement or an integrative (win-win) outcome. In contrast, the parties' stated intentions of pursuing a mutually beneficial outcome and their exaggeration of initial offers significantly related to the likelihood of reaching an agreement. The implications of these findings for practitioners and future research are discussed.

Every company has a brand to build or a product or service to sell, and persuasive marketing communication has thus become indispensable. With the flourishing of the internet, electronic direct mail (EDM) messages have become an increasingly important and convenient mode of communication in the sales and marketing arena. This paper addresses the impact of new media on the design of such messages. Chi square test results reveal significant differences between the message-design strategy of EDMs and that of their print media counterparts. This paper concludes with practical advice for the professional communicators and instructors who work on sales-message design.

This paper reports on a 10-year case study at a Chinese university of a faculty team's attempt to develop and disseminate a project-based computer-assisted language learning (CALL) program for professional communication. The discussion focuses on three main challenges (professional/academic values, pedagogical philosophy, and institutional culture) to expand a project-based CALL program at this university. Based on the findings, this paper discusses how the implementation of project-based CALL for professional communication needs to be founded upon a good understanding of China's sociocultural contexts and how it might be tailored in order to be more responsive to the local university context. This paper concludes by suggesting a path that practitioners might take in light of these circumstances and challenges.

Little research has been done to explore the status of business genres in China. The present study explores the evolution of genre of resume writing in China using a grounded theory approach. This study examines the rhetorical patterns and persuasive strategies employed in resume writing in different periods in China and reveals how these changes are related to historical, social, and economic contexts in China, especially from 1979 to 2010, as well as impacts of global contexts on Chinese resume writing. This study characterizes resume writing in China and relates these features to cultural motives and cultural contexts. It concludes that current resume writing practice in China shows a glocal trend.

This study examines the impact of a new communication tool, the social media release (SMR), on bloggers. Specifically, we seek to determine what factors will influence bloggers' intent to use SMRs or their components. Our global survey of 332 bloggers finds that bloggers' perceptions of the effectiveness of the SMR and the use of SMRs by companies positively affect their decisions to use SMRs now and in the future. We also find that bloggers' current use of SMRs influences their decisions to continue using SMRs. Implications on the use of SMRs as corporate communication tools are discussed.

This research is based on an analysis of a management communication training program used by one large US international hotel company to train newly promoted supervisors and managers in Hong Kong and mainland China. The key communication competencies emphasized in the training materials were listening effectively, giving and receiving feedback, using verbal language correctly, using effective nonverbal communication, and displaying empathy. Implications of this study indicate that planning and executing any communication training program must be done mindfully, which includes comprehensive follow-up through reassessment and coaching by the upper managers in order to support employees' transfer of training.

As translation of technical documents continues to grow rapidly and translation becomes more automated, the roles of professional communicators and translators appear to be converging. This paper updates preliminary findings first presented at the 2008 International Professional Communication Conference, Montreal, QC, Canada. It analyzes trends revealed from recent surveys and recommends follow-up research to determine if the trends may continue and become entrenched. The authors conclude with recommendations for academic programs interested in adjusting to the trends.

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This paper presents the use of the dialogic communication model to teach students how to write a report introduction. In the case study presented, the students engaged in discussions and reflections regarding the contextual complexities in the writers' and readers' organizational environments, which helped them adapt their writing to their readers' needs and thought processes. The thinking process that students go through in making their writing more reader centered using this model could be a useful springboard to help students adopt the thinking processes of professional engineers.

While researchers and instructors of technical and professional communication have embraced the importance of visual communication skills in recent years, little systematic effort has been made to develop assessment instruments that measure visual design skills. This paper presents a project that examines timed tests as a means of measuring a student's ability to solve design problems. The process and rationale for the test designs and the results of a series of empirical studies are discussed. The results of the studies suggest that timed tests can be a viable complement to the project-oriented assessment approach suggested by prior studies.

In this text, the author investigates the creative processes between authors and authors. The author states that he is interested in verbal-visual collaboration because the increased visual nature of communication necessitates the collaboration between those specializing in visual communication and those specializing in verbal communication. This work will be of particular interest to theorists as well as instructors in graphic design, professional communication, as well as rhetoric and composition and those studying ethnographic methodologies.

This book brings together 10 original essays that aim to "engender meaningful conversations about technology and clarify the stakes of technological projects not only for rhetorical studies but also for society at large."

Knowledge contribution in virtual communities is an important issue in the field of knowledge management. Based on Ames's theoretical framework on motivation, we propose a model for knowledge contribution in problem-solving virtual communities (PSVCs). The model includes two second-order individual motivations, with four major mechanisms in PSVCs that are associated with these motivations. Results confirm that only egoistic motives affect members' knowledge contribution in PSVCs. Further, knowledge repository and social identity are found to be important mechanisms for promoting knowledge contribution through egoistic motives. This paper concludes with theoretical and practical implications and provides insights for future research.

The book is a valuable resource for prospective and experienced teachers of technical editing. It would also be an excellent supplementary text for a graduate-level course in technical editing.

Global virtual teams (GVTs) can provide benefits in terms of lower costs and enhanced performance. However, the realization of these benefits depends on effective GVT task coordination, which faces significant challenges due to time-zone differences and geographical dispersion. Further, there is a lack of understanding of optimal information-technology (IT)-mediated coordination mechanisms for these teams. Based on an in-depth study of project tasks carried out by three GVTs, we uncovered IT-mediated task coordination portfolios (sets of mechanisms) used for effective coordination. The portfolios should fit the GVT's task dependence, members' common time frame, and perceived time constraints in order to be effective.

Engineering programs in the US made notable efforts to develop students' intercultural competence, but they tended to overlook the teaching of intercultural communication. Technical communication teachers can fill this gap by addressing intercultural issues in the service class. This proposal faces challenges: the lack of class time, teacher training, textbooks, and teaching methods. To address these challenges, this tutorial uses various materials and genre-based instruction to integrate intercultural communication into the service class. This approach helps to raise students' intercultural awareness and sensitivity as they learn engineering communication genres. This tutorial may be used in service classes for other majors.

In 1848, <formula formulatype="inline" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"><tex Notation="TeX">{\font \frog = psabkml \hbox {\frog Scientific American}</tex></formula> , a popular science and technology journal, published a series criticizing Morse v. O'Reilly's (1848) confirmation of Samuel Morse's broad telegraph patent and patenting scientific principles. It attacked the decision using copia and classification, rhetoric echoed by the Supreme Court and others in reversing the 1848 decision. The journal was particularly concerned with the case's implications for Morse's patent battles with Royal House and Alexander Bain. The articles offer an opportunity to examine the rhetoric of patent debates and differences in the rhetoric of professional and scientific journals without the emotional attachments of examining contemporary issues.

Recent updates in qualitative data-analysis software have provided the qualitative researcher in professional communication with powerful tools to assist in the research process. In this tutorial, we provide a brief overview of what software choices are available and discuss features of NVivo, one prominent choice. We then use our experiences with the software to discuss how it enhances three specific dimensions of our research: efficiency, multiplicity, and transparency. We end with a compilation of best practices for using the software.

The introduction of international financial reporting regulations has caused European multinationals to be increasingly reliant on the nonfinancial multimodal sections of the annual report as a means of informing and persuading international stakeholders. Due to the growing status of English as an international financial communication language, moreover, these annual report sections are usually produced in English. This experimental study compares the effectiveness of texts and photos in Dutch-English and British-English management statements from the perspective of financial analysts in the UK. The research results largely confirm the similarity-attraction hypothesis: Among UK-based analysts, typically British communication features often yield a more positive effect than the features that are typical of the Dutch-based statements.

This book covers most of the uses of the dot in history, including its use for bulleted lists, in an ellipsis, and in codes, musical notation, mathematics, and computers. While those who like trivia may enjoy the book, those looking for something more focused and scholarly will have to sift through many pages of pointless information to find that speck of gold.

The editors present a collection of 16 essays focusing on the state of assessment in technical and professional communication.