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.

This paper describes a five-year research project aimed at developing a corpus-based language support tool able to respond to the English writing needs of Japanese software engineers who do not speak English natively. Our research was based on recent developments in corpus and text linguistics. Since foreign readers often complain that English text produced by Japanese authors is difficult to understand because it is poorly organized and incoherent, we focused on the possibility of designing a writing tool that would provide discourse-level as well as sentence-level assistance. We collected a total of 539 sample English abstracts from four well-known technical journals and tagged them with linguistic and rhetorical information. Using this tagged corpus, an initial prototype was developed on a Unix-based workstation and a second one on the Web. The Web-based prototype was then evaluated in terms of its usability by engineers in Ricoh's Software Research and Development Group. They evaluated the final product positively. However, they expressed uncertainty about its ability to address their weaknesses in using transition words effectively as cohesive devices. In spite of unexpected difficulties, product improvement continues.

The article focuses on the use and misuse of models-both appropriate and inappropriate-in the report-writing practices of first year physics students, especially those from non-English speaking backgrounds. It analyzes the students' propensity to use any available text on a given topic as a source of model sentences. Examples of "copying" are provided and analyzed. It is argued that many forms of copying are legitimate learning strategies of novice writers, for the production of certain kinds of texts, but that this can become a problem when inappropriate models are used or when appropriate models are used inappropriately. Copying is discussed in relation to imitative learning and modeling as well as plagiarism, and some suggestions to improve teaching practice are made.

It is commonly accepted that writing instruction should meet the specific needs of writers and that students in scientific and technical fields benefit more by learning to write to match the requirements of their specific fields. A variety of models for writing classes have been proposed to meet these needs, from genre-based approaches to courses targeting specific disciplines to general courses serving a heterogeneous group of students from many disciplines. Although persuasive arguments can be made for discipline-specific writing courses, many writing courses for nonnative writers at U.S. universities operate with two key constraints. First, monetary and curricular limitations mean that students from a variety of disciplines are placed in the same course. Second, these courses are staffed by instructors who, while well-prepared in addressing language needs of nonnative writers, may know very little about the content and conventions of engineering and science. This paper discusses a writing course which works within these constraints and has been developed for graduate students who are early in their program of study. In the course, groups of students carry out an original research project as a vehicle to learn professional writing conventions common to research papers in a variety of scientific and engineering fields. In addition, students analyze written conventions in published articles within their fields to raise awareness of how general conventions are worked out in their individual disciplines. General principles for the course are discussed, and samples of successful research topics are provided.

When faced with the tasks of reading and writing a complex technical paper, many nonnative scientists and engineers who have a solid background in English grammar and vocabulary lack an adequate knowledge of commonly used structural patterns at the discourse level. In this paper, we propose a novel computer software tool that can assist these people in the understanding and construction of technical papers, by automatically identifying the structure of writing in different fields and disciplines. The system is tested using research article abstracts and is shown to be a fast, accurate, and useful aid in the reading and writing process.

This tutorial is an outgrowth of a classroom-based simulation project and should act as a general outline for using simulations in English for Science and Technology classrooms. The simulation was created based on an actual court case involving two software companies; however, the case was altered significantly to meet the needs of the students. Twenty-six Japanese students studying computer science at a university in northern Japan participated in the simulation. In phase one of the simulation, teams of students were required to make difficult decisions about the case in their role as company engineers. They subsequently wrote of their positions in teams. In phase two of the simulation, each student was required to preside over the related court case, judge between the two companies, and render a fair verdict in writing. The students' writing exhibited an understanding of the complexity of problems and sound reasoning for addressing such problems; therefore, the simulation-based curriculum was deemed highly successful. Furthermore, students remained engaged throughout the simulation, in part because they could see its long-term value.

A survey of 1000 undergraduate engineering students clearly revealed students' desire for two types of training in oral communication: training in presentation skills and in the skills of professional conversation. This article briefly describes the survey's design and results, and identifies the lack of conversational training for nonnative English speakers (NNS) as a previously unnoticed weakness in our curriculum. It traces curricular development in conversational training initiated in response to survey results, describes specific challenges to NNS posed by dialogue, and suggests exercises that can help NNS engineering students to improve their fluency and confidence in English conversation.

Different cultures misunderstand each other because they have varying views on basic human problems that each society must solve in order to continue as a coherent whole: their relation to authority, the relationship of individuals to society and between genders, and their ways of resolving conflict, including controlling aggression and expressing feelings. The paper considers one example of how a lack of intercultural knowledge can lead to difficulty in the classroom. It discusses collective versus individual societies and particularism versus universalism.

The cost effectiveness of Internet-based communications in the ever more fully networked business environment continues to drive the use of Web surveys for corporate information gathering. However, simply applying traditional survey techniques to the Web can result in significant shortcomings in the data so gathered. Recent research has been directed at these issues, within the context of Web surveys as a general research tool. We discuss the application of that research to the narrower organizational context. This article synthesizes from the literature on Web-based surveying and from the authors' own experiences. It suggests a design framework for managers and communications professionals interested in increasing the statistical validity of Web surveys deployed in an organizational context. The results of a recent organizational Web survey developed and administered within the framework guidelines support the efficacy of the framework.

Action research has been presented as a promising approach for academic inquiry because of its focus on real world problems and its ability to provide researchers with a rich body of field data for knowledge building. Published examples of action research, however, are hard to find in business communication literature. What are the reasons for this? I try to provide a basis for answering this question as well as helping other business communication researchers-particularly those interested in computer-mediated communication issues-to decide whether and when to employ action research. I offer a first-person, confessional tale-like account of an action research study of computer-mediated communication in groups. In order to focus on the lessons learned, my focus is on the process of conducting action research and not on empirical results. Some of the situations and related lessons discussed are somewhat surprising and illustrate the complex nature of action research. The doctoral research, conducted over four years in Brazil and New Zealand, highlights the challenges associated with action research's dual goal of serving practitioners and the research community.

Professionals, like technical specialists, have increasingly needed to engage in online communications such as email or posts to online discussion lists. As the amount of their writing has increased, rules for online writing, such as, "Make subject headings short and descriptive," have emerged. However, the extent to which such rules have become conventionalized, standard practice is not known. Consequently, the extent to which writers should concern themselves with following these rules is unclear. In this study, I examine eight rules in 11 handbooks for online writing, analyzing the frequency with which these rules are stated, the extent to which these rules are consistently stated, and the extent to which following the rules is justified. The results show that five of the eight rules are emerging as standard practice but that rules relating to greetings and farewells in emails, emoticons, and abbreviations are not yet standardized.

Free and easy to install, instant messaging is a great vessel for chance interaction. Isaacs et al (2002) of AT&T discussed the concept of enabling chance interaction through mobile instant messaging. Although their research involved heavy use of prototypes that are not yet widely available, it can help us realize ways of enabling chance interaction today. This article provides a theoretical understanding of the benefits of chance interaction, followed by a description of the Hubbub instant messaging system, custom built to enable such interactions.

This study explored strengths and limitations of table formatting choices by engaging twenty-eight participants in information searches in online tables, presented on a small-screen interface (Palm IIIc). Table length across conditions was held constant at three screens long (24 rows total) but varied from one to three screens wide (approximately 35, 70, and 105 characters per line). Target information was positioned in either the upper left, lower left, upper right, or lower right quadrants. Data collected were time on task, error rate, and level of participants' confidence in their answers. Experimenters found that increased horizontal scrolling imposed the heaviest burden on information search. This study supports restricting table widths to one screen on handheld computers. If necessary, however, tables can go to two screens wide without critical detriment to usability. While ruled line formatting is slightly better than interface character in providing visual support for the burden of horizontal scrolling, neither formatting option adequately compensates for the added burden.

Communication skills are crucial to the successful completion of an information system (IS) project. The ability to interact with all potential stakeholders in an organization, to clearly document requirements, and to effectively express ideas has long been recognized by researchers and practitioners as critical success factors. This study examines how communication skills of IS professionals during a development project are viewed by three different stakeholders. Specifically, each of three stakeholder groups is examined to determine the extent to which a gap between expectations and perceived performance leads to lower satisfaction of the system of the users, lower perceived job performance by IS managers, or less career satisfaction for the IS professionals. A matched survey indicates that user satisfaction and job performance ratings by managers are related to a perceived failure to meet expectations, but that IS professionals do not relate career satisfaction directly to a lack in these skills. Organizations looking for success in the IS function must take steps to improve the communication skills of the IS professionals to the level expected by other stakeholders.

It can be argued that process redesign has a long history, going as far back as Taylor's (1911) scientific management and reaching its peak in the 1990s with business process re-engineering. Throughout most of its history, operational-level approaches to process redesign maintained a focus on "workflows," or the chronological flows of activities in processes. It is argued in this paper that while this makes some sense in materials transformation processes whose final product usually is a tangible manufactured item (e.g., a car engine), this orientation is fundamentally inconsistent with the communication-intensive nature of the vast majority of processes found in organizations today. This paper attempts to show that a focus on communication flow representations and methods is likely to lead to better process redesign outcomes than is a focus on representations and methods in connection with "workflows." It does so by developing a set of research questions based on the communication flow optimization model and answering those questions in the context provided by three process redesign projects conducted at a defense contractor in the US.

Reviewers of technical documents must often work with nonnative speakers (NNSs) of English. Drawing on research in cross-cultural pragmatics and institutional discourse, we discuss linguistic patterns that document reviewers are likely to use when commenting on NNS writing. We anticipate miscommunications that may arise from some of these linguistic patterns, especially when a reviewer attempts to be both clear (so that the writer understands the comments) and polite (so that the reviewer maintains positive working relations with the writer). We recommend specific linguistic strategies that allow reviewers to balance clarity and politeness most effectively when communicating with NNSs.

A writing-for-translation intranet site can provide technical writers with the information and training needed to meet their particular goals at any given time. By using systems theory as a design concept, such a site would make information easy to find and could allow technical writers to review training materials at their own pace. Organizations using such a mechanism can, in turn, cut translation costs by reducing the amount of time translators spend reviewing documents and querying authors for clarification.

The search for fundamental laws, unfortunately, has seldom, if ever, been applied to professional communication. Most how-to books on the subject seem content with long lists of phenomenological principles. Useful as each of these might be, a long list of them will always be hard to assimilate, at least without some perception of a simpler underlying logic. This article proposes three fundamental "laws of professional communication," on the model of Asimov's three laws of robotics. It motivates them on the basis of a simple premise, illustrates them with examples of oral, written. and graphical communication, and discusses their precedence and their subordination to a zeroth law.

This paper looks at the collaborative design activity involved in a design experiment of an electromechanical plunger. Much of the coordination was achieved through Internet-based communication. As mechanical and electrical researchers involved in the design project, we discuss the information exchanges highlighted by our different professional cultures and relate how these exchanges lead us to propose some methodology to improve the efficiency of virtual meetings. Moreover, we show the need for new communication tools, ones dedicated to specific tasks that are not currently supported, especially shared concept formalization among technical experts.

Traditional in-class writing assignments often fail to engage students effectively. This problem may be compounded when students are forced into group projects, where a student may rightly feel that he or she could complete the entire assignment more effectively alone than the whole group could working together. In an attempt to alleviate these concerns, I assigned my university science writing class-half Professional Writing majors, half science majors and minors-the creation of an interactive, electronic murder mystery game. The students used PowerPoint to create linked slides in which the clues and cause of death were scientific information. While working on this assignment in class, a number of students forgot the time and kept working long after class was over. Several students reported losing track of time and place when working on the game at home.

Information and communication technology (ICT) studies have a wide scope of application, particularly in their attention to the communicative interaction among human beings above and beyond man–machine interaction. The topic of human communication and culture for ICT is a timely one. While studies to date have focused largely on the technical communication aspects of ICT, this special issue proposes to innovate in its emphasis on the impact of the interaction of professional culture, rather than national or corporate, and new media on communication, with particular attention to economic ICT.

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 coauthors' 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 he primary entry in the Author Index.

This article presents an overview of how the Internet has changed the way employers advertise vacancies and the way technical communicators search and apply for these openings. First, I explore the evolution of how employers have used the internet as a tool for identifying the best candidate for the job. Next, I review seven specific online recruiting strategies used by employers today. Finally, I describe major mistakes made by online job seekers and offer advice on how best to avoid or minimize these blunders. Included is a list of useful job search resources for technical communicators.

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.

With the development of new technologies, and particularly information and communication technologies (ICTs), teams have evolved to encompass new forms of interaction and collaboration. By focusing on the communicative dimensions of global virtual teams, this paper demonstrates that e-collaboration is more than a technological substitution for traditional face-to face collaboration. It places special emphasis on the importance of structuring activities for balancing electronic communication during e-collaboration (i.e., videoconference, email, chat session, distributed use of group support system) to bridge cultural and stereotypical gaps, to increase profitable role repartition between the participants, and to prevent and solve conflicts. During the past four years, the authors have developed a project involving hundreds of participants from different national cultures working together for six weeks on a specific project. In this paper, we present our experiences and draw conclusions, giving special attention to the structure of the electronic communication required to support efficient virtual teaming in education and industry.

As the wave of globalization washes over geographical boundaries, the world steps into the era of a new knowledge-based economy with governments striving to encourage innovation in industry especially through national systems of innovation. A national system of innovation (NSI) is considered important because how a nation utilizes and exploits its NSI will determine whether it can compete and ride the wave of globalization or be carried by it and thrashed onto the shores of the new economy. This paper seeks to highlight the linkages developed for enabling communication among the various NSI stakeholders for achieving goals in one such effort, viz. the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) Cluster of Malaysia. The MSC offers a vision to create a global multimedia climate through an integrated environment of interlinked elements and attributes. The government of Malaysia, realising the significance of the NSI as a way to better utilize, exploit, and enhance systems, is making efforts to this effect. The efforts include bringing together various stakeholder organizations under the "Multimedia Flagship Applications" to develop flagship applications. This is for the development of information technology applications to pave the way toward a knowledge-based economy. The MSC Cluster is presented here as a physical manifestation of the NSI, and it gives an idea as to how policy makers can design linkages for communication among the various stakeholders to further national innovative performance and competitiveness in general.

One of the reasons that people who seek out information on Web sites may often feel powerless is that when they do not find what they are looking for, their own tacit sense of what they know is not validated. If tacit knowledge is not calculated for in the design of a Web site, it puts the people navigating the site in the position of passive observers. The primary reason for this can be found in the rigid organization schemes in place on many sites. Manuals that offer methods for designing Web site architectures could be much improved if they suggested steps to replicate what is known in knowledge management circles as an "enabling environment.".

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 coauthors' 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 he primary entry in the Author Index.

Professionals involved in the creation of text-based communication face a number of challenges. These include overburdened and often uninterested users juxtaposed with the writer's desire to communicate relevant topical information. Uninvolved users are likely to ignore the message. This may be exacerbated by increases in text length designed to increase the amount and/or detail of information to be communicated. An experiment was conducted to examine the effect of rhetorical figures in text headings as to how users read and process the text (hereafter readership, as used in marketing). To the extent that higher levels of text readership increase user knowledge and skills, enhance topic-related attitudes, and facilitate beneficial topic-related behaviors, higher readership should yield desirable communication outcomes. Headings with rhetorical figures were hypothesized to enhance readership, particularly under conditions generally associated with relatively low readership, namely, lower perceived information relevance and longer text. Results generally support rhetorical figures' abilities to enhance readership, especially with longer texts.