Modern communication technology has greatly increased the number of options we can choose among in a variety of evolutionarily important domains, from housing to food to mates. But is this greater choice beneficial? To find out, we ran two experimental studies to examine the effects of increasing option set-size on anticipated and experienced choice perceptions in the modern context of online mate choice. While participants expected greater enjoyment, increased satisfaction, and less regret when choosing from larger (versus smaller) sets of prospective partners (at least up to a point; Study 1), participants presented with a supposedly ideal number of options experienced no improvement in affect and showed more memory confusions regarding their choice than did those participants presented with fewer options (Study 2). Participants correctly anticipated that greater choice would yield increasing costs, but they overestimated the point at which this would occur. We offer an evolutionary-cognitive framework within which to understand this misperception, discuss factors that may make it difficult for decision-makers to correct for it, and suggest ways in which dating websites could be designed to help users choose from large option sets.

This paper opens with a summary of minimalist design strategies that aim to optimize user instructions. Next, it discusses three research efforts to further improve these strategies. The common focus in these efforts is the attention to people's goal-related management and control of attention, time, and effort. First, a comprehensive framework for designing procedures - the four components model - is described. The design principles for the goal component focus on supporting the user's goal orientation and goal setting. Second, two experiments are reported that studied the problem of when it is best to present conceptual information. When instructions employed a learning-by-doing approach, users clearly preferred a work-flow mode of presentation. This mode optimally exploits the user's momentary interest in conceptual information during goal-driven task execution. The third research effort concentrates on user affect in instructions. The main idea is that motivation and emotion play a key role in task appraisals and corresponding actions. After discussing theories and design approaches, an experiment is discussed in which instructions were optimized for affect. Good results for perceived relevance and self-confidence were found in all conditions. Presence of an affect-oriented co-user did not enhance these effects. The paper concludes that the contribution of the efforts extends beyond the minimalist framework from which they originated.

In addition to technical documentation, face-to-face helpdesks and telephonic helplines are a powerful means for supporting users of technical products and services. This study investigates the factors that determine user satisfaction with helpdesks and helplines. A survey, based on the SERVQUAL framework and questionnaire, shows that the SERVQUAL dimensions of customer satisfaction are not applicable in these contexts. Three quality dimensions were found instead: solution quality, the experience of the consultation, and, in the case of a physical environment, the so-called tangibles. Helpdesk customers base their overall quality perceptions mainly on their experiences during a consultation, while helpline customers focus strongly on the quality of the solution offered. The study also found a connection between the perceived helpline quality and the appreciation of the primary service.

<para xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> This tutorial introduces issues regarding dissemination of information and texts that can affect international intellectual property rights. Four areas of concern for technical communicators include: (1) US and international rules about the disclosure of ideas and inventions; (2) corporate policies about confidentiality; (3) the complexities of international enforcement of intellectual property; and (4) principles of keeping records, including laboratory notebooks, that show ownership (including ownership of business methods). The training approach stresses a multipart program that includes understanding the patenting process; understanding and supporting corporate policies; and participating in dialogue about situations involving dissemination of information. This training should prepare technical communicators to evaluate or to recognize when to seek help from counsel in evaluating whether information should be disseminated. </para>

This study investigated the impact of weblog use on individual learning in the context of university senior-level business education. As an emergent form of personal communication, weblogs enable people to publish their thoughts as webpages, and to share information and knowledge. Recognizing the potential impact of weblogs on knowledge expression and sharing, this research sought to empirically examine whether the continuous use of weblogs as online learning logs would affect student learning performance. The assumption was that effective use of weblogs promoted the constructivist models of learning by supporting both cognitive and social knowledge construction, and by reinforcing individual accountability in learning. Results from an Information Systems undergraduate course with 31 participants indicated that the performance of students' weblogs was a significant predictor of the learning outcome (while traditional coursework was not). Moreover, individuals' cognitive construction effort to build their own mental models and social construction effort to further enrich/expand knowledge resources appeared to be two key aspects of the constructivist learning with weblogs. Our results imply the potential benefit of using weblogs as a knowledge construction tool and a social learning medium

Firms that are trying to stay competitive in the current business environment often require the use of groups. The popularity of group work is tied to the promise of improved productivity via the pooling of information, knowledge, and skills. In recent years, group work has been expanded to virtual or distributed environments. However, there are questions about how aspects of group work-specifically group size and social presence-impact group members' ability to voice opinions. This study examines groups of two sizes in three distinct social presence settings: face-to-face, face-to-face using collaborative software, and virtual using collaborative software. This study finds that both group size and social presence affect individual instrumental voice, value-expressive voice, and the group interaction process. The results show that by increasing social presence through the use of collaborative software, it is possible to lessen the negative impact of increasing group size. These results should be of interest to the increasing number of organizations that are implementing virtual group environments.

An experiment was carried out to investigate whether it is useful to add system information to procedural information in instructional text. It was assumed that readers of instructions construct both a procedural and a system mental model, and that the latter enables the readers to infer possible missing information in procedural instructions. Moreover, it was assumed that system information would increase the cognitive load during reading and practicing, and that it would affect the appreciation of the instructions as well as the self-efficacy of the reader. The participants in the experiment read instructions and practiced with a fictitious machine before performing a number of tasks and answering a questionnaire. The results indicate that system information increased the cognitive load during reading and decreased self-efficacy, while the instructional text with system information was judged as more difficult. The effect on performance is limited: system information leads to faster performance for correctly completed tasks.

In order to improve the design of procedural instructions, technical writers need to know how users proceed when they are using them, from their initial reading, to execute described actions. Several kinds of activities are implicated, such as reading with understanding, action planning, carrying out specific actions, and executive control activities. This paper proposes that by taking into account design factors that affect these activities, technical writers can markedly improve the design of procedural documents. Thus, a model is suggested that combines information on how users deal with procedural documents when faced with new equipment and the mental processes involved in this interaction, together with document design recommendations aimed at enhancing the interactions between users, documents, and equipment.

The online work environment brings with it factors that can create problems in crosscultural interactions. Technical communicators, therefore, need to understand how cultural communication expectations can affect discourse in IVOs. This article overviews one area-contact-in which cultural differences could cause online communication problems. The article also uses the theory of symbolic interactionism to examine these problems and to posit strategies for avoiding them.

Innovation in a company's design process is increasingly a matter of cooperation between the company and its customers. New information and communication technology (ICT) possibilities such as electronic communication (EC) media generate even more opportunities for companies to collaborate with customers during the early stages of research and development. This exploratory study examined the design process of five Dutch firms and the cultural and communicative implications of cooperation in the design process between the supplier and the customer using EC media. We found that the selected use of EC media for communication between R&D and customers has a positive effect on the design process. We also discovered that the characteristics of the most suitable EC media depend on the design activity and that the corporate and professional cultures of both the company and its customers involved in the cooperation seem to affect the communication media used. Finally, the future use of new ICT in the design area is discussed.

The article describes how the role of an information architect increased in value and how that increased value changed the job description. It goes on to examine how blending knowledge occurs through shifts in terminology, imitation of another field, and selling new concepts.

Techniques for observing selection and reading behavior in professional documents, such as the thinking-aloud and the click-and-read methods, may affect the reading process to be observed. Such so-called reactivity problems complicate the use of these instruments in experimental research and usability testing. If their influence is unknown, any experimental results obtained with these instruments may be caused by the testing method. One way to detect reactivity effects is to compare different instruments in a series of experimental studies. In this initial study, we compared the thinking-aloud method, the click-and-read method, a combination of these two methods and a silent reading condition. Subjects read and judged a 53-page policy document in one of these conditions. We investigated whether or not different observation instruments caused specific differences in information selection, judgment and knowledge. Thinking aloud did not cause any differences in the selection of information. Both the thinking-aloud method and the click-and-read method affected the judgment task outcome. Thinking aloud led to many positive and few negative judgments, whereas silent reading led to many negative and few positive judgments. The results for the click-and-read method showed a tendency toward the same effect. Neither method affected the knowledge test results.

Uses a qualitative methodology to examine how discourse norms and socialization processes affect the development of technical requirements. Our exploratory investigation of how government personnel develop and review technical requirements indicates that discourse norms and academic technical writing socialization processes affect the technical writing process. Technical writers perceived that requirements in work statements became less precise as more requirements were coordinated in team-based designs. In essence, we found that, in team-based designs, interpretation conflict and technical diffusion were important dimensions when writing and coordinating technical requirements. Our findings suggest that collaborative technical writing is a complex and difficult process in team-based designs where integration and persuasion skills dominate.

The authors define international editing as editing documents for a multilingual readership or multinational distribution. They argue that international editing embodies and represents corporate global strategies, which directly affect editing choices. They describe three global strategies-ethnocentric, polycentric, or geocentric-and four categories of editing-linguistic, socio-cultural, political, and technical-on which editors can focus to produce business and technical documents that consistently align with corporate global strategies.

Much of the talk about the information revolution so far is just that-talk. A provocative mix of promises, hopes and hyperbole, some of it will come true over time. Most of it will not. Technology is moving at ever-increasing speeds, and predictions about technology are accelerating even faster. Yet practical needs and wants rarely keep pace. The purpose of this paper is to explore the disparity between the promises and possibilities of the information revolution. It examines the factors that traditionally affect new technologies, and the role of end-users in affecting outcomes.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Despite the media hype, it is not yet known if the new digital technologies of multimedia, interactive television, and the information superhighway will ever be accepted by the mainstream marketplace. If the information superhighway and interactive television are accepted, both benefits and dangers are inherent within the system. Depending upon who finances and controls the network and its contents, the system could be one of increased democracy and activism or one of government regulation or commercial self-interest and exploitation. The system could be one of active communicators or one of passive consumers. The information superhighway could unify the nation and eventually the world, or stratify people into the information rich versus the information poor. It is crucial for all people to learn about and understand the technology and understand how it could affect their lives.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Considers the social and political ideologies that affected the design of illustrations of the female body in English Renaissance medical manuals. Through a semiotic analysis, we examine medical illustrations explicitly tied to female bodies-anatomical illustrations of female genitalia, a clitorectomy and a hymenectomy-to show that the ways in which a body or surgical procedure was visually represented served to create the "other". We learn, by extension, how social and political ideologies affect the decision-making of modern-day technical communicators.

Academic engineers must write frequently on the job. But unlike others in academe, academic engineers have some writing problems that justify their receiving various kinds of writing support. The writing problems unique to academic engineers are that they often have little knowledge and experience in writing; they must produce a variety of documents, some of which affect not only their professional standing but also the academic standings of their engineering colleges; and some lack fluency and confidence in their writing because English is not their native language. The best solution for addressing the writing problems of academic engineers is to provide adequate writing training for engineering students. But given the already compacted curricula of engineering colleges, this solution is not realistic. The author presents some second-best solutions that can ease the writing problems of academic engineers.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The author examines three of the most important factors that affect readers' and writers' perceptions of clarity: precision, document accessibility, and corporate language context. Each factor is defined and examined in terms of its influence on clarity. The result is a better understanding of the multiple factors that need to be considered before one passes judgment on a document's clarity.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Electronic communication systems, such as a fiber-optic and telephone-delivered videotext service a videoconferencing capability, and a fax network, that have been used to improve the speed and quality of communication to 15000 employees dispersed throughout the state of Florida are described. The ways in which foreseeable changes in the state's demographics, the company's business environment, and emerging media technologies will interact to affect the evolution of the company's employee communication are described.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

It is pointed out that many organizations have decentralized their operations to respond more quickly to rapid changes in markets and technologies. Decentralization has legitimized crossfunctional communication and decision making at relatively low levels in these organizations as a means of improving the quantity and timeliness of information. However, decentralization can adversely affect an organization's communications unless a new communication system is designed as part of the altered communication process. It is suggested that working within a new approach to organizational change, called sociotechnical design, technical communicators can help define performance standards for new communication systems, including those integrated with computer-mediated information systems. The objectives of sociotechnical design are consistent with the language-action perspective of the modern office. That perspective asserts that language organizes work relationships and actions by means of conversations (or transactions) in which requests and promises are made among individuals and groups. These conversations are structured by procedures, policy guides, handbooks, training materials, and a host of other communications.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

The author maintains that oral presentations by a company's representatives affect its reputation and competitive position, and typically exhibit certain shortcomings. He describes these shortcomings and how they can be overcome by the application of good developmental techniques. He notes that many companies are providing their employees with professional help in developing oral presentations and recommends that all companies address this issue.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

Correction of errors is a major part of the editor's task. However, the definition of what is an error, and what is correct, is not clearcut; rule transformations and reader context can affect the dividing line between the two. The author examines the concept of error from phenomenological and rhetorical perspectives, and suggests a model based on communication economics.< <ETX xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">&gt;</ETX>

It is argued that, with today's growing emphasis on audience analysis in technical communication, there needs to be a sharper focus on the informational needs of various audiences; much empirical study is needed to provide a fuller definition and understanding of the nature of these informational needs and how they directly affect the writing done. Effective upward management communication is directly dependent on the quality of communication moving downward in the organization to the staff, and on how staff is made to understand the decision-making role and informational needs of the management reader. Of all the people involved in technical communications, the manager of the writers may be best equipped to determine the informational needs of readers, especially those of upper management. A brief review of two empirical studies conducted by the author demonstrates the value of such studies and encourages others to undertake similar studies.

The communication process has three main elements: the sender, the message, and the receiver. The sender's credibility and background relative to the message can affect the receiver. Differences between sender's and receiver's experiences and attitudes are also important in how a message is received. The words that comprise messages and the tones used to express them can vary the meaning and interpretation of messages. People differ in their susceptibility to persuasion. Emotion has an effect in persuasion but more important are the order of presentation and the believability and effectiveness of the sender. Those who know how to listen and pay attention not only stand out as beacons of courtesy but also have an advantage — by understanding what is expected of them — in preparing their messages for others.

Word processing is being adopted by an increasing number of companies and government agencies because it offers a method for coping with the increasing costs of administrative services. While word processing will not affect the technical aspects of an engineer's job, it will definitely influence the way engineering communications are produced. The author describes several specific areas of engineering communications that will be impacted by word processing. In addition, general information regarding the history of word processing, its principal applications, the basic types of systems being used, a typical system configuration, and some projected developments are included. A supplementary reading list is also provided.

Seven mathematical expressions are presented, with comments, for the guidance of technical writing by engineers and scientists. They determine when to write an interim report, when to write the final report, when to inform the higher echelons, how many extra readers could result from one more revision, what grade to give a revised version, how much reading time increases with increasing article length, and how various factors affect the science-world communication gap. The formulas stem from analogies between communication problems and solved problems in science and are intended to stimulate bread-boarding in technical writing.

This article offers specific guidelines to effective report writing: (1) It discusses the key issues in which top corporate personnel are most interested and explains how to present these issues in an informative manner; (2) it gives an organizational structure designed to facilitate report writing and to maximize reader interest by grouping ideas and concepts in a logical sequence; and (3) it details basic techniques on how to overcome writer's block, reinforce major points, and use charts, graphs, and illustrations to make a report visually appealing as well as easily readable.

Referees often disagree as to whether to accept or reject a manuscript for publication. Recent investigations have often focused on the study of standard rating forms that ask for appraisal of specified attributes of a manuscript. Scott asked reviewers to rate, on seven criteria, manuscripts submitted to the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. There was some agreement on most of the criteria; correlations were often significant but never large. Importance of the problem and adequacy of design and analysis seemed to affect evaluation most strongly. Whether the use of such a rating form will lead to greater reliability of referees' recommendations is an open question. There are many reasons why referees disagree, of course, and research in this area should be broadly based. The decision-making process of the editor is also very complex and should be the focus of empirical investigation.

The already existing and future economic atmosphere will significantly affect scientific publishing during the next several years. Distributors and retailers are joining what was essentially a one-component (i.e., the publisher-manufacturer) industry. The original product (the journal or book) is spawning a wide variety of secondary, derivative, and aftermarket information products. It is becoming possible to deal in machine-readable information equivalents, e.g., a scientist's current workbook entries, rather than with a post-experiment journal paper describing the research.

The concept of copyright has greatly changed through the years, both in importance and definition. The conflict of personal right of ownership versus the public welfare has grown increasingly complex in recent times. A familiarity with the historical perspective is necessary to understand these developments. Even today, the Copyright Revision Bill lies before Congress and long-awaited decisions will be made to shape events in the immediate future. These decisions will affect the student and the professional alike by their effect on the availability of materials to everyone. The ease and availability of present-day photocopying necessarily will affect the nature of the decisions. This paper gives an overview of the historical background, and status of present law, and the possible future role of copyright.

In any situation in which a written communication is produced, eight variables and three processes are present. The variables are the occasion, the author, the subject, the purpose, the supporting facilities, time, the communication itself, and the recipient. The processes are the preparation, transmission, and consideration and use of the communication. The success of the communication is governed largely by the effectiveness with which the author evaluates the situation and produces a communication appropriate to the attainment of his purposes within it. Fortuitous circumstances beyond the control of the author (and of which he may be unaware) may affect the likelihood that the communication will be successful.

The increasing availability of microfilm editions of journals in libraries throughout the world provides publishers with opportunities to reassess the traditional role of the journal in filling a wide spectrum of user needs. Publishers can now select media options which more precisely fit the needs of users and which result in significant cost reduction as well as producing additional revenues. For the American Chemical Society (ACS), the revenues produced are developed from the sale of the microfilm version of its back and current volume and from a photocopying license fee included in the pricing structure. With microfilm versions of journals becoming more widely available, editors and authors are encouraged to put material into the microfilm edition that might otherwise have been carried in the printed version. Every such transfer of a page is a saving of $60 to $100 per page less any page-charge revenue, it is possible to more sharply reduce the printed pages in a journal by moving toward the digest or short-paper concept. The savings in production costs could affect the whole pattern of pricing and lead to the elimination of page charges and to lower prices for individual users of the short form or digest journal.