Research background: Using enterprise social media (ESM) in the workplace has become an important channel for initiating communication activities for employees in the organization. However, some organizations reported that they did not obtain expected returns from their ESM investments. This outcome may be attributed to employee underutilization of ESM. Thus, exploring how employees use ESM is vital to improving communication efficiency. Research questions: 1. How does ESM support for contextualization affect employees' dependency relations with ESM? 2. How do dependency relations affect ESM use? Literature review: For professional communicators and other workers, dependency relations can enhance their media use behavior by channeling more useful information. In studying how professional communicators use a medium, researchers indicated that users' continuance intention rarely occurs without users' dependency on the medium, thus making media system dependency (MSD) relations critical for media use. Based on the MSD theory, we investigate how ESM support for cognitive and affective contextualization affects employees' understanding, orientation, and play dependency relations with ESM, and consequently affect work-related and social ESM uses. Methodology: We surveyed 258 employees of a large software development firm in China. Results and conclusions: Our findings suggest that technical and professional communicators who have not yet used ESM in their work may take the following steps: 1. explore ESM and their specific use by employees; 2. manage and control different information sharing among employees on ESM so as to satisfy employees' different goals; and 3. design and develop different ESM functionalities.

Digital media abound, so technical communicators must continually invent new ways to communicate in these new technologies. They must understand new media and find the most effective ways to use them. Using rhetorical and ethical theory, the authors of this book analyze the changes to professional communication provoked by technological advancement. The book offers case studies and analysis to demonstrate approaches to network interactions such as phatic communication, rhetorical interaction, social listening, and artificial-intelligence (AI) agents. This book is divided into two sections. The first details rhetorical and ethical approaches in communication; the second examines four “Cases of Network Interaction.” The first half of the book explains how rhetoric and ethics can be used to help create successful networked communication. The second half recommends how to apply rhetoric and ethics in specific workplace settings. Each chapter contains detailed subheadings and a helpful conclusion summarizing its main points, a feature sure to help students and novices digest the theoretical concepts presented. The summaries will also help readers who must quickly read and understand a specific topic without having to read the book in its entirety. This book provides a fairly general overview of the main issues influencing communication using digital media and new technology. It offers case studies and key concepts that could be applied to a variety of fields. This book could be used as an introduction to corporate communication across industries. It focuses on a few key rhetorical concepts; therefore, other theories such as postcritical approaches are not considered. This book introduces rhetorical theory applied to realworld cases. Doing so might help a wider range of readers see practical applications for it, even though the book does not offer rules, checklists, or guidelines to follow in networked communication. Nevertheless, the book clearly offers a comprehensible introduction to cases and considerations for professional communication and network interaction.

This book offers a hands-on master class in building effective data graphics using the ggplot package for the R language. While the implied audience is researchers in the social sciences, there is a lot of practical wisdom here for anyone who works with numerical data. This book treats both the theoretical principles of effective data visualization design (in the mode of Edward Tufte, Stephen Few, Alberto Cairo, and others) as well as concrete guidance on how to integrate such wisdom into a slick data-analysis workflow in the R ecosystem. This practitioner-oriented approach is a very welcomed addition to the literature. By covering both the whys and the hows of data visualization, this single volume swiftly equips researchers to build compelling graphics from their numerical data. The book itself is attractively typeset. One commendable feature is the direct integration of many graphics alongside the corresponding passage of text, by setting them in the wide scholar’s margins. This richly graphical approach makes the lessons engaging, tangible, and enjoyable to read. The book ends with a generous Appendix, which is a compendium of various productivity-oriented tips for working in the R and tidyverse ecosystems. This single volume represents an excellent entry point for those wishing to enhance their capabilities in data visualization. Much of the relevant theoretical work is covered explicitly, and the rest is clearly signposted. The software tools presented are mainstream, open source, and powerful, and the author’s enthusiasm for the ecosystem is infectious. There is only one topic that felt slightly overlooked: the importance of choosing appropriate ranges and divisions for the axes of a graph. Indeed, many of the figures in the book seemed a bit too cluttered with excessive gridlines and tick marks. These are minor gripes, though. Overall, the book is a welcome and timely volume that is full of practical wisdom for producing attractive and effective technical graphics.

Background: Professional communication instructors give profuse feedback on student writing in service or introductory courses; however, professional communication has traditionally borrowed feedback practices from first-year writing. In addition, professional communication instructors have relied on lore instead of data when giving students feedback. Literature review: Three recent studies examine the content of feedback comments given by professional communication instructors; nevertheless, these studies open questions about how professional communication instructors enact their pedagogical values when giving feedback. Research questions: 1. What do instructors value when teaching professional communication service courses? 2. What do instructors emphasize in their feedback? 3. To what extent do instructors' values align with the feedback that they give on students' writing? Research methodology: To answer these questions, this pilot study does close qualitative work to test interview questions and a coding scheme formed by inductive content analysis. I triangulated four interviews about instructors' pedagogical values with content analysis of their 599 feedback comments on students' writing. Results and discussion: The results reveal three implications: Rhetorical terminology may contradict the goals of professional communication, overly conversational or directive feedback may not give students tools to improve their writing, and borrowing pedagogical training from first-year composition may not prepare instructors to teach professional communication. Conclusion: Tensions between instructors' values and their feedback comments highlight a lack of consensus about professional communication's pedagogical values for the service course, particularly higher order values, such as audience analysis or purpose through giving feedback.

Background: Virtual teams are more and more common since the internet and mobile revolutions. Organizations are facing new challenges due to the lack of interpersonal relationships between the members of these teams. This study examines common team processes in an e-environment, relying upon two virtual team types: temporary and ongoing teams. Literature review: The aim of the review is to provide an overview of the challenges of such teams and to understand the complexity of team processes in such an environment. Research questions: 1. Does the type of virtual team have an impact on the quality of common team processes? 2. Can criteria be identified to determine which type of virtual team is more appropriate for given tasks? Research methodology: A quantitative test was conducted to compare the mean gaps between temporary and ongoing teams in trust, communication, and five collaborative processes. Then, by employing qualitative thematic analysis, we constructed a conceptual model to understand the reasons for these mean gaps. Results: Primary findings indicate that all but one of the tested processes achieved higher levels in ongoing teams rather than in temporary ones. Also, the more the collaborative process entails complex activities involving social bonds, the greater the gaps between the two team types. Conclusion: At the initiation of a virtual team, it would be best to focus on projects limited to elementary activities. If more complex team activities are anticipated, virtual team members should work together for an extended period.

"Bottlenecks: Aligning UX Design with User Psychology", written by David C. Evans and technically reviewed by Dr. Peter Meyers, informs "entrepreneurs, designers, developers, publishers, and advertisers" of the relationship between user psychology and UX design, stating that "digital innovations must survive the psychological bottlenecks of attention, perception, memory, disposition, motivation and social-influence if they are to proliferate" (p. xiii). Bottlenecks aims for readers to understand the psychological considerations that one must make when instituting digital memes, which are digital ideas, inventions, or particles of culture whose diffusion through a population can be observed (p. xiv). Overall, Bottlenecks is an excellent resource for anyone in a marketing, research and development, or design role at a company that produces digital memes.

Introduction: ABET has approved changes to the EAC's Criterion 3 that will take effect for the 2019-2020 accreditation cycle. Among many changes and rearrangements is the introduction of the term “engineering judgment” as one of the competencies that students must develop to prepare for professional engineering. Literature review: However, engineering judgment is not defined in the criterion, and although it is a ubiquitous concept in the philosophy of engineering and engineering education, little empirical investigation has been undertaken into the practice of engineering judgment. And there is even less conceptual or empirical investigation into communication's role in the practice of engineering judgment. Research questions: 1. What does engineering judgment look like in practice? 2. How does the sociotechnical situation affect engineering judgment? 3. What role does rhetoric have, not only in communicating judgments, but informing them as well? 4. How can teachers and practitioners in engineering and technical communication use these findings to facilitate better judgment in the classroom and at work? Methods: Using videotape and fieldnotes, the author examines the two sequences of decision-making from a student engineering design project. An ethnomethodologically inspired framework is used to exhibit the phenomenal details of “doing” engineering judgment. Discussion/conclusion: Data reveal that engineering judgment may be fruitfully understood by educators as not just a cognitive and individual ability to apply technical knowledge, but instead a capacity of participants to rhetorically establish common cause to interrogate and reflect on the relations between technical data and situations.

Background: Although agile and Scrum have been important frameworks in software engineering for over a decade, little research has explored how teams use Scrum language within their sprints. Literature review: Most explorations of Scrum communication have been collected through self-reported means. These studies are inherently unable to explore how Scrum teams use Scrum-centric language in their meetings in ways that adhere or run counter to standard Scrum practice. Research questions: 1. In what ways is Scrum reflected in the language used by team members in various sprint meetings? 2. What associations exist between the job title of team members and their use of Scrum language? 3. What does a discourse analysis reveal about the ways in which this team uses language to value and discount Scrum? Research methodology: For three sprints over 10 weeks, I recorded meetings of 27 Scrum team members. I transcribed these meetings, developed a codebook for assigning Scrum language categories, conducted an interrater reliability agreement on the data, completed a correspondence analysis on how Scrum language associates with meeting types and job titles, and conducted a discourse analysis to determine in what ways these teams value and discount Scrum. Results/discussion: Scrum language was found in all recorded meetings across all three sprints, with much language found in the planning meetings. Few associations existed between Scrum language and job title, suggesting that Scrum at this engineering firm is an egalitarian process. In addition, the discourse analysis revealed that this engineering firm valued User Story and Sprint Execution language while discounting Capacity and Story Pointing language. Conclusions: Although this group broadly adheres to Scrum practices about 68% of the time, this study finds that several current standard components of Scrum are routinely discounted. This exploratory study suggests that more research into the in-situ use of Scrum language in engineering workplaces is necessary to better inform engineering professionals about the communicative expectations of Scrum and to better enable engineering communication educators to prepare future engineers for Scrum realities.

In a world where mobile apps are a dime a dozen, Pablo Perea and Pau Giner give mobile app designers the tools and tips to design successful mobile apps, and they do so in plain language. The book targets designers, developers, and product managers. However, regardless of the reader’s background, the instructional information is communicated clearly. UX Design for Mobile addresses all aspects of making a mobile application, from designing the app to solutions to potential problems, and finishing with prototypes and usability testing. Experienced users may already have most of the information provided in the book, but they will gain helpful tips and fresh perspective from Perea and Giner. Readers new to the mobile app will find this book an important point of reference when starting each step of the app creation process.

Technologists, research scientists, communication professionals, and others involved in computer and internet technologies, including graduate students, will find this book both relevant and prescient. Readers interested in philosophy, futurism, or the fate of humanity will like it too. The book achieves its purpose of outlining, with salient references and a sense of history, the prominent strains of thought in the transhumanist and human enhancement communities - and their philosophical forebears - along with critical responses. The book stands out as a comprehensive, measured look at technology, its future, and its narratives. The author's well-researched, historical look at the stories we tell ourselves about the future—and, crucially, how those stories drive technological advances and policies—details the beliefs of transhumanism: where those beliefs came from and how they are driving the shape of our future. The author also balances the book with critical responses to each of these narratives. The book is focused more on the mythology of the future and technology, rather than on practical applications of any of the technologies discussed. Therefore, it would be most suited to a graduate-level course, or for consideration by policy makers and designers who are potentially influenced by these myths. The book’s value - and its contribution to its field - is in its scope and context, as well as its critical balance.

The IEEE Guide to Writing in the Engineering and Technical Fields is a concise manual for engineers, technical professionals, scientists, researchers, teachers, and students to improve their writing skills. Each chapter is short—ranging from 20 to 40 pages—and the entire book is 200 pages, including appendices. The book accomplishes its purpose of providing recommendations for writing activities and for "assessing the social situation of writing, then using that assessment to make writing decisions" (p. 5). Throughout the book, the authors offer short, manageable takeaway lessons to help readers make writing decisions and learn IEEE style for references. Compared to other engineering communication textbooks and manuals, this guide is short and manageable, yet its approach still considers the rhetorical and contextual dimensions of writing. Because it is brief, the guide does not explicitly cover ethics, risk communication, information graphics, presentations, and global or international communication. It also does not provide as many examples or complete samples of the genres and best practices discussed. Finally, as with other textbooks, some genres are missing, such as reviews, evaluations, and regulations. Nevertheless, these limitations do not diminish the value of the book in giving a concise and convenient overview of standard engineering communication genres and a rhetorically grounded framework for readers to use when writing in the engineering workplace. The book has potential for use in writing-intensive courses, where students must compose documentation for labs and projects, as well as for in-house training for employees. Its hybrid framework for making decisions as you write is flexible and can be applied to many different writing situations. Furthermore, the guide offers valuable, basic help on writing mechanics. It offers readers an approach to engineering communication that can help them think about the decisions that they make when they write and make thoughtful, informed choices in their writing.

Background: Knowledge workers have become “technologically-tethered,” increasingly using mobile and communication technologies to engage in work during nonwork or “after-hours” personal time. Literature review: Research has identified several individual- and organizational-level predictors of this after-hours technology-enabled work behavior and its primarily negative consequences. However, little is known regarding the behavior's potential benefits or the ways in which it is affected by technology characteristics. Research questions: 1. How do technology characteristics affect after-hours work connectivity? 2. How does after-hours technology use affect work-life balance? Methodology: We test our hypotheses with a survey-based research design involving 312 knowledge workers, and analyze our data with covariance-based structural equation modeling. Results: After-hours work connectivity increases when the technology affords lower levels of immediacy and greater levels of concurrency, rehearsability, and reprocessability. A post-hoc analysis reveals that workers who might be expected to have low levels of after-hours work connectivity-such as those who have children at home or whose employers have a high segmentation norm-have higher levels of after-hours connectivity than their counterparts when the technology has high concurrency. We also find support for a curvilinear (inverted-U shaped) relationship between after-hours technology use and work-life balance. Conclusion: Individuals are amenable to interweaving technology-enabled work with nonwork tasks when the technology facilitates asynchronous and user-controlled interactions. Furthermore, this interweaving has a positive impact on work-life balance, up to a point. We discuss the implications of these findings for research and practice.

Background: The primary goal of the current study was to conceptualize and operationalize social networking sites (SNS) skills for communication professionals. Literature review: The development of the definition and measurement instrument began with a critical look at internet skills literature. We propose a three-fold instrument for measuring SNS skills: communication, content creation, and strategic SNS skills. Research questions: 1. Which skills do communication professionals need to effectively use SNS? 2. Which SNS use-related factors contribute to the level of SNS skills? Method: We ensured that the proposed measures reflected typical SNS uses for communication professionals. All items in the instrument used a scale that contained statements about SNS skills, with answer formats that ranged from “Not at all true of me” to “Very true of me.” After the development of a first survey instrument, we conducted cognitive interviews that resulted in some amendments to the proposed skill items to improve clarity. The SNS skill scales and their characteristics were then tested in a pilot study. Results: The resulting instrument was refined in the final study among 203 German communication professionals. Conclusion: The findings suggest a recommendation for the use of a 15-item survey measure for communication, content creation, and strategic SNS skills in professional contexts. Our findings furthermore suggest that communication and content creation SNS skills are better developed than strategic SNS skills. Finally, several SNS use variables were identified as predictors of SNS skills.

Background: This paper offers a hybrid, place-based ethic drawn from multiple perspectives as a way to reinvigorate ethical thought for technical communicators. Literature review: Aldo Leopold's land ethic asks us to consider actions beyond our immediate surroundings. Martin Buber's dialogic ethics complement a land ethic and interrogate interpersonal communication. Anticipatory technology ethics recommends the integration of ethical discussions and decisions during the design phase of new technologies. Together, these three approaches inform a place-based ethic for technical communicators. Research questions: 1. How might we meaningfully merge the many ways that technical communicators from varying backgrounds approach ethics into a useful ethical model that considers human interaction, technological innovation, and physical place? 2. How might such a merged model, what we call a place-based ethic, affect technical communication design? Methods: We analyze cases including documents from radical environmental defense groups, a restyling of certain federal court rules from legalese into plainer language, the creation of mortgage documents suitable for consumers and industry professionals, and the action-research design phase of a locative mobile application about public art. Results and conclusion: The cases provide concrete examples of the components of a place-based ethic, and we conclude that designing with a place-based ethic includes actively acknowledging the value of the environment, seeking areas for dialogue among involved parties and celebrating dialogue where it occurs, seeking shared spaces, clearly stating anticipated outcomes, and usability testing for potential ethical issues.

Computers are now programmed to support emotion; we communicate with our computers as if the computer was another human, not a machine. As a result, user interfaces are being “cutesified” because people love and respond to cute things. This is the basic premise of Cuteness Engineering. Designers, developers, usability researchers, and graduate students will learn the history, key terms, problems, research findings, and international issues pertaining to cuteness engineering, and they will gain exposure to case studies from Japan and China. The book offers strategies and interviews with cuteness designers. This book serves as an introduction to the developing field of cuteness design in the user experience. It is divided into five main chapters, excluding the introduction and conclusion chapters. The first two chapters explore cuteness in Japan and China, the next chapter provides a taxonomy of cuteness, and the final two chapters consist of interview transcripts with user-experience designers. The next logical question the book addresses is “Why cuteness?” To answer this question on a broad scale, the authors use cross-cultural research to examine cuteness in different cultures. This research was used to create and validate their taxonomy of cuteness. However, this taxonomy is general and does not consider the culture-specific attributes of cuteness. To address this problem, the authors study the specific, attributes of cuteness in Japan, China, and the US. They hypothesize that cuteness varies among cultures. According to this theory, different styles of cuteness should be used in different cultures. At the same time, the authors also claim that cuteness can be universal and shared amongst a global audience. Since cuteness is considered a universal language, cuteness is a tool used to help close the gap between technologies, designs, and users. This contradiction limits the overall findings of this book. However, this limitation can be rectified by further clarifying the difference between the goals of cuteness itself (which are universal), and the goals of the individual styles of cuteness (which vary based on culture). Exploring this relationship between the purpose of cuteness and the styles of cute presents an opportunity for future research in cuteness engineering.

Background: Research suggests that communication instruction is particularly effective when situated in disciplinary courses. While studies show that this approach improves communication skills, less is known about how it enhances engineering learning. Literature review: Prior work includes approaches to integrating communication into engineering, studies of writing to learn, and explorations of the role of communication in identity development. Research question: How might the integration of communication instruction and practice into undergraduate engineering courses support engineering learning? Methodology: Because little is known about how communication instruction enhances engineering learning, we conducted an exploratory case study of an established integrated program in one European university. Participants included six engineering instructors, five engineering program heads, and six engineering students. Using interviews and focus groups, we explored the engineering-specific gains that faculty and students perceived from integrating communication assignments into engineering courses. Results: Our analysis yielded three salient areas of learning: 1. understanding disciplinary content, 2. selecting important information, and 3. justifying choices. While the first aligns tightly with writing-to-learn research, all three themes, in fact, bridge content learning and disciplinary literacy to enhance students' development as engineering professionals. Conclusions: Communication instruction can potentially support engineering learning through assignments that prompt students to select information in ways that are consistent with both disciplinary values and the needs of stakeholders, and make and justify decisions about approaches and solutions in ways that demonstrate sound engineering judgment.

Background: Online user networks are important points of contact for users who seek help from their peers rather than documentation. Literature review: The appeal of online user networks coincides with and seems connected to growing user interest in topicalized and tailored content, the production of which is inconsistent with the “craftsman” model of technical communication. Studies of online user networks indicate that community members may be practicing a different kind of technical communication. Research questions: This study examines an online user network for an open-source software product and asks how we can study online user networks, with the aim of identifying important people, practices, and relationships associated with the kind of technical communication practiced in those settings. Research methodology: Social network analysis is used to visualize the structural properties of an online user network, in order to identify central figures and their relationships to others. Verbal data-analysis techniques are used to find themes in their contributions. Results/discussion: People who are central to the structure of online interaction are important figures in the distribution of the technical communication effort. They engage users in reciprocal exchanges of information and they influence user practices. They are also important as brokers who link users and developers. Broadly, their conversational exchanges are a kind of distributed technical communication. Implications for practice: We learn what the practice of technical communication looks like in an online user network. By observing the work of participants, technical communicators can understand what it means to do technical communication and make user networks a more integral part of a broader documentation strategy. We see promising ways in which technical experts (e.g., software developers) can engage with users as well.

Introduction: With the growing need for intensive and online course formats, it has become increasingly difficult to determine what combinations of knowledge and skills that are important for both academia and industry can best provide students with the grounding for exploring the questions of global technical communication (TC) during their programs. About the case: The 7.5-week online global TC course at Arizona State University is divided into six theme-based units and a unit that focuses on a research/revision project. Situating the case: While over the last 20 years, excellent practical materials for teaching global TC have been published, there is a need for comprehensive course descriptions, particularly for courses in online and intensive formats. Methods/approach: The course was based on an extensive literature review of academic and trade publications. The course's effectiveness was analyzed based on final reflective discussion assignments and anonymous student course evaluations. Results/discussion: The literature review revealed six major themes that define global TC: culture and communication, the frameworks of culture, verbal communication, global content and technology, visual communication, and cross-cultural collaboration and audience work. Each unit addressed one of these themes. The course was well-received, and students started posing critical questions to explore in future courses. Conclusions: In our program, having a dedicated global TC course was very beneficial because it introduced students to concepts that they could further explore in other 7.5-week online courses. In addition, I present recommendations for adopting/adapting the course, as well as its limitations and suggestions for future research.

The author of this book builds a case for designers, marketers, and stakeholders in the global marketplace to incorporate multicultural and international considerations into all aspects of their products and services. The book demonstrates the long-term benefits of internationalization, and it provides useful information about cultural and technological trends across all continents. In addition, the author offers practical advice on aspects of localization that should be brought into research and design. Employing anecdotal observations about a variety of cultures and a small variety of case studies, the author largely succeeds in his endeavor to bring greater consideration for international concerns to the fore of user experience. This book serves as a strong argument for marketers and designers to incorporate internationalization into an organization’s design philosophy so that its products will benefit from the start. However, the book only demonstrates the need for internationalization; it rarely offers suggestions on how to address a large variety of needs at once. Nevertheless, Universal UX Design has merit. Given its emphasis on product design for international markets, the book can serve as supplemental reading for graduate courses in UX design and technical marketing.

Background: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports are one of the vehicles for developing corporate images, namely, the cognitive representation of a company perceived by the concerned stakeholders. It would be interesting to compare the CSR reports of companies of the world's two largest economies: the US and China. Literature review: Previous studies of CSR reports tend to highlight their lexicogrammatical, semantic, and functional features at the discursive level, but few studies have examined the cognitive images that companies intend to develop at the level of conceptual structure (knowledge representation). This study investigates metaphor use as a discursive and cognitive strategy for developing corporate images in Chinese and American CSR reports from the perspective of corpus-based conceptual metaphor analysis, particularly based on the concept of genre-specific metaphors, the metaphors used to conventionally construe notions for a certain communicative purpose achieved by a particular discourse community. Research questions: 1. What are the major concerns of Chinese and American CSR reports? 2. What are the genre-specific metaphors used to construe major concerns of Chinese and American CSR reports? 3. What do the genre-specific metaphors reveal about the corporate images of Chinese and US companies? Are there differences in developing corporate images between Chinese and American CSR reports? Methodology: We collected CSR reports of the top companies in China and the US, identified genre-specific linguistic and conceptual metaphors, and conducted comparative analysis of metaphor-based corporate images. Results and conclusions: The conceptual metaphors genre-specific to CSR reports are businesses are objects, business is war, business is a journey, and business competition is competitive games/sports. Furthermore, CSR reports of both countries share most genre-specific metaphor parings and thus nearly the same mappings, which contribute to building corporate images of being economically competitive, ethically cooperative, and environmentally responsible. Although both stress self-development and taking a leading position, American companies seem to pay more attention to external cooperation with others. On the other hand, Chinese companies seem to stress internal cooperation and a well-organized hierarchy. Admittedly, this study may be limited in terms of analyzing only genre-specific metaphors and not balancing sector types of the companies in the two corpora.

This book consists of a collection of narratives on the subject of scientific writing skill needs compiled by the author through more than 100 interviews with senior scientists, emerging (early career) scientists, and recent Ph.D. graduates, all of whom would be appropriate audiences of the book. It is an interesting amalgam of opinions from the scientific community about technical writing, its importance, the breadth of writing opportunities, and the authors’ enjoyment—or lack thereof. While oriented toward science, it could easily be expanded to the entire spectrum of STEM fields. Through her informal approach, the author achieves her purpose of exposing diverse opinions on the need for and acceptance of technical writing within the scientific community. While the book might not fit nicely into a technical writing course, it can provide valuable insight into technical writing needs beyond university undergraduate and graduate students. The author, through the use of interviews and narrative summaries, has provided a view of technical writing as accomplished by three levels of scientists, where personal opinions of the scientists are supported by the level of success achieved by the individual respondent. This book could be used for a course in technical writing in a number of ways, especially at the undergraduate level, either as a reference text or as the primary text for the course. To begin with, the material in the book is based upon the contributors’ years of experience. In some cases, that could mean many years of technical writing not only within a particular field of interest, but in other genres or subject matters, based upon the individual’s experiences. A professor teaching the technical writing class may have limited experience in the world of publishing papers, books, or other technical matter. An assignment for a class could be to pick one of the respondents in the book, and develop a detailed description of his or her beliefs and approaches to technical writing. Such an assignment could then lead into a class discussion on the importance of technical writing in one’s career as supported by the text.

Background: In Taiwan, the insurance industry has the highest willingness and the largest budgets to implement mobile technology. Companies must continuously monitor, evaluate, and redesign the mobile IT infrastructure during implementation because when employees gain more experience with using mobile IT to support work tasks, they present their preferences and progressive needs. Therefore, exploration of how mobile technology can support the diverse job roles and task characteristics in insurance companies that have implemented mobile IT is vital to improving the efficiency of mobile IT implementation and organizational capacity. Research questions: In insurance companies: 1. How are different mobile devices used differently by salespeople and office staff? 2. What are the differences in the attitudes of salespeople and office staff toward using mobile technology? Literature review: Previous studies that explored employees' usage of mobile technology suggested that those in different job roles have different mobile technology needs and usage behaviors. These studies support further comparison and investigation of the mobile technology requirements of salespeople and office staff in insurance companies. Methodology: A survey collected empirical data from 177 employees from insurance companies in Taiwan. The participants' demographic information, attitudes toward applications, perceived advantages, and willingness to use mobile technology were collected and analyzed. Results and conclusions: The results showed that the most important tasks supported by mobile technology were instant communication and information access; developing an organizational culture that supports using mobile technology in job-related tasks can increase employees' adoption of mobile devices; and smartphones are thought to have better mobility and more functions to support main job tasks than tablets. Based on the findings, this study proposes suggestions for practice and implications for future research.

Introduction: Faculty members have little time and usually lack expertise to provide writing feedback on lab reports. Sending students to a writing center, an existing resource on virtually all college campuses, could fill that gap. However, the majority of peer writing tutors are in nontechnical majors, and little research exists on training them to provide support for engineering students. Research question: Can peer writing tutors without technical backgrounds be trained to provide effective feedback to engineering students? About the case: Previously, sending students to the writing center was ineffective. The students did not see the value, and the tutors did not feel capable of providing feedback to them. To remedy this situation, an interdisciplinary training method was developed collaboratively by an engineering professor and the writing center director. Situating the case: Researchers have suggested that effective writing center help for engineering students is possible, and the authors have designed an interdisciplinary training method that has produced positive results. Supporting literature includes the use of generalist tutors, writing in the disciplines, genre theory, and knowledge transfer. Methods/approach: This was a three-year experiential project conducted in a junior-level engineering course. The assignment, a lab report, remained the same. Qualitative and quantitative data were collected from students and tutors. Results/discussion: Tutor feedback and student satisfaction significantly improved. However, a few students who were satisfied overall still expressed interest in having their reports reviewed by a tutor with a technical background. Conclusions: Interdisciplinary tutor training can improve the feedback of peer writing tutors, providing support for faculty efforts to improve student writing. The method requires minimal faculty time and capitalizes on existing resources.

This manual is ideal for engineers at all stages of their careers: from the freshman engineering student to the college professor to the CEO of a large corporation. It can be a valuable tool for universities to train undergraduate and graduate students and for companies to train their employees. It clearly accomplishes its purpose—it teaches best practices in engineering communication using real-world issues and genres. It also serves as a guide for undergraduate and graduate students.

Research problem: Despite the abundance of research into usability and user experience (UX), there is still debate about the relationship between both concepts. The user perspective is under represented in all discussions. This study examines the personal conceptions that users of electronic and software products have of usability and UX. Research questions: 1. How do users of electronic and software products conceptualize usability and UX? 2. What do they think is the relationship between both concepts? Literature review: We review the literature on conceptualizations of usability and UX and their relationship. The literature suggests that both concepts are still developing and that there are different views about their relationship. A personal-constructs research approach appears to be a fruitful way of shedding more light on this. Methodology: Twenty-one participants were asked to place up to eight products in a grid with two axes: usability (high-low) and UX (high-low). They then filled out a short questionnaire about the products. Finally, interviews were held about their decisions and their views on usability and UX. Results and conclusions: A weak positive correlation between products' usability and UX scores indicates that the relationship between both concepts is far from straightforward. An analysis of the four quadrants of the grid provides a first typology of products based on how users perceive their usability and UX. When reflecting on the relationship between the two concepts, most participants see usability as a part of or contributing to UX. Based on our findings, however, it seems risky to assume that usability is sufficiently covered by the overall concept of UX.

Background: Swales's Create a Research Space (CaRS) is a popular model for writing research article (RA) introductions. CaRS prescribes three broad moves-establishing a territory, establishing a niche, and presenting the present work. This study assesses the applicability of a problem-solution patterns (PSP) approach to facilitate Move 1 in CaRS by analyzing RAs in materials science and engineering. Research questions: 1. Is structuring an RA introduction using problem-solution patterns a common approach in published RAs in materials science and engineering? 2. How does PSP facilitate the setting of boundaries between territory and niche in these RAs? Literature review: Variants of CaRS have been widely applied to study RA introductions. Even though the 2004 version of CaRS has been deemed effective in describing the structure of RA introductions in a number of disciplines, its prescription of Move 1 may not be easily operationalized in teaching engineering research writing. For problem- or application-based RAs, the territory can be established with PSP while preserving other CaRS moves. Methodology: This exploratory study employs a text analysis approach to assess 30 RA introductions from three materials science and engineering journals. Results and discussion: PSP is found in most RA introductions. By integrating PSP into CaRS, the proposed model can capture problem-solution cyclicity as a build-up move for territory and niche establishment. Conclusion: Because problem-solving is central to engineering research, RA introductions can be structured using naturally-occurring problem-solution patterns. PSP-CaRS may serve as an effective writing model for RA introductions in engineering-related fields.

Introduction: Virtual reality (VR) has gained popularity across industries for its ability to engage users on a level unprecedented by print or 2-D media; however, few guidelines exist for the use of VR technologies in technical and professional communication (TPC) curricula. To address this need, this experience report details the study of a recognizable and adopted set of VR devices to promote understanding of the ways in which emerging VR technologies provide new approaches to pedagogy. Literature review: Drawing from literature in computer science, communication studies, and anthropology, as well as embodiment and phenomenology, the authors provide a historical account of VR development. About the study: Using three concurrent case studies and qualitative interviews, the authors share their deployment of three low-end to high-end VR devices: Google Cardboard, Google Daydream View, and HTC Vive. Using a modified heuristic, the authors assess the functions, features, and uses of the devices; showcase current or potential deployments; and for triangulation, provide a user study of two devices. Results/discussion: VR immersion can provide students with a deeper understanding of course content; immersion in future workplaces can give students an initial vision of their project and profession; concepts can be seen from new vantage points; and user themes include felt experience, sense and sensibility, agency and autonomy, and constant identities. Together, these themes provide an entry into discussions of designing VR content for technical and professional communication. Conclusion: The authors discuss limitations to VR integration and provide resources so practitioners might implement VR in engaging and relevant ways.

The book succeeds in informing its audience about how poorly designed products can anger, sadden, exclude, and even kill those who use them. The authors also effectively explain what designers can do to avoid and fix these mistakes. Includes concrete, compelling, real-world stories and testimonials as evidence of how tragic design directly impacts people’s lives, and it offers practical recommendations for altering tragic design practices.

This book examines the multimodal rhetoric of scientific arguments as they have been expressed in professional journals over the course of the past century. Through a series of chronologically ordered case studies, the author applies and develops a syncretic model for understanding scientific argumentation, which he articulates in Part 1 of the book and which relies heavily on major concepts in rhetorical theory. By applying the model to the case studies, the author demonstrates how rhetoric can provide the analytical machinery needed to grapple with the multimodal means used to create scientific arguments. In Part 2, the focus is a groundbreaking 1912 publication in the field now known as X-ray diffraction crystallography, specifically a set of X-ray photogram images included in the article that would help scientists at the time gain a better understanding of both the nature of X-rays and the atomic structure of crystals. Parts 3 and 4 present the book’s more interesting (from a multimodal perspective) case studies in terms of how arguments are assembled, circulated, and reassembled over time. In Part 5, Chapter 12 examines the rise of Photoshop as a material affordance for scientific arguments and the ethical dilemmas that this rise has precipitated. Chapter 13 provides description and tabular analysis of the use of videos in published scientific arguments, from an era when VHS tapes were mailed with journal issues through the YouTube era. It is in these chapters where the salience of and potential for the author’s model becomes clearer: As the use of multimodality rises in scientific arguments through the use of new technologies, new and better means for understanding how arguments are conceived, assembled, and circulated are needed both for authors and for teachers. Both audiences would benefit from reading Assembling Arguments. The book does not have a specific engineering focus, but it does provide a broad framework for professional communicators, teachers, and students to consider and improve visuals and multimodality in document design.

This book provides a thorough examination of the role of ethics in design and engineering. Drawing from a wide variety of cases, the author argues that ethics are already embedded in an engineer’s design decisions and offers engineers and technical and professional communicators (TPC) methods for thinking through the implications of design decisions. The book succeeds in illustrating how ethics is embedded in every design decision. The author notes that the aim of this book “is to show that ethical considerations enter into all design solutions and thus are integral to the intellectual core of engineering.” The target audience is engineering students and faculty. However, more general TPC readers and educators will find parallels between his discussions of ethics and morals with TPC’s usability concerns.

Despite the migration of letters and memoranda to electronic media, these documents are still occasionally written as hard copy and transmitted through the post, especially during risk situations. In two recent environmental situations, such letters were sent in 2014 to residents in Newark, NJ, who were affected by the discovery of high levels of lead in their school water and in 2016 to residents of East Chicago, IN, who were affected by the discovery of lead under their homes. In each of these situations, letters were sent to residents whose reactions ranged from fear in Newark to anger in East Chicago. In neither case did residents act as requested. However, in 2011, residents in Morgan City, MO, whose land would be flooded by the opening of the Morganza Spillway, followed the instructions they received and evacuated. Research questions: This study examines the failure of citizens and community institutions to respond positively, if at all, to requests transmitted in hard copy that are related to risk situations. It poses the following research questions: 1. Do commonalities exist among the rhetorical decisions made by the writers of letters to which readers responded positively in a risk situation? 2. If so, do these decisions differ from those made by writers of letters to which readers objected or disregarded the requests made? Literature review: Research related to rhetorical analyses of primary documents transmitted in hard copy between engineers and managers prior to and during risk situations was surveyed. In addition, the literature related to rhetorical analyses of primary messages transmitted electronically prior to and during risk situations was also examined. Methods: A rhetorical analysis of the letters focused on the writers' efforts to consider readers' reading patterns and styles, prior knowledge, need for background information and details, and the economic, political, and psychological context in which readers read the letters. Results: The results indicate that the Newark and East Chicago letters are writer rather than reader-based, the writers failing to consider the readers' reading patterns and styles, to provide necessary information, and to recognize the context in which the readers read the letters. On the other hand, the letters related to the Morganza Spillway are reader-based, providing the necessary information at the beginning of the correspondence, as well as providing sufficient details to enable readers to take the actions required to safeguard themselves and their families, businesses, and homes.

This study aims to delineate the rhetorical organization of research article (RA) discussion sections in an engineering discipline and explore the variations that distinguish discussion sections of high-impact and low-impact RAs. Research questions: What is the rhetorical organization of RA discussions in chemical engineering? What are the similarities and differences in the use of rhetorical moves and steps in RA discussions of high-impact and low-impact articles? Literature review: Some studies have been conducted using Swales' move analysis with regard to the identification and textual comparisons of RA discussion sections. However, it remains to be determined whether RA discussions of the high- and low-impact articles within a single discipline display the variation in rhetorical patterns. Research methodology: A total of 40 RA discussions published between 2005 and 2015 were chosen based on five-year journal impact factor and citations of the articles in which they were published. Swales' move analysis was used to compare rhetorical moves and steps in both sets of RA discussions. Results and discussion: The study identified the rhetorical organization of RA discussions in the field of chemical engineering. The findings indicate that discussion sections of high-impact articles tend to make use of the “comment on results” move. Explanations of the similarities and differences in the employment of moves and steps are provided. Implications of the findings are discussed.

Background: Undergraduate engineering students often receive insufficient support when crafting résumés. Most notably, there is often a lack of disciplinary-specific instruction and a lack of emphasis on the persuasive function of résumés. Ultimately seeking to strengthen instructional materials, this study investigates a way to quantify the quality of engineering résumés, focusing specifically on the use of disciplinary discourse. Research questions: How do engineering résumés exhibit disciplinary discourse? How can disciplinary discourse be quantified as a way of promoting strong engineering résumé writing and professional development skills? Literature review: This project builds on research exploring the qualities of effective résumés. It extends on work establishing disciplinary differences in desired résumé qualities, as well as work characterizing résumé writing as an opportunity for professional identity development. Grounded in activity theory, this project seeks to elucidate the “rules” of effective engineering résumés at the lexical level. Methodology: This project analyzed a corpus of 31 engineering résumés through both qualitative and quantitative means. Résumés were initially ranked via a rubric, then coded for disciplinary discourse according to the American Association of Engineering Societies' Engineering Competency Model. Disciplinary discourse scores were then analyzed through descriptive statistics. Results and conclusion: Significant differences in the use of disciplinary discourse were found among strong, moderate, and weak résumés. Though these results are not generalizable due to the small corpus size, they indicate that disciplinary discourse may be a fruitful area for future research on résumés and the development of pedagogical materials.

Research problem: Studies by the American Institute of Medicine and the European Health Literacy Survey describe considerable levels of either inadequate or problematic health literacy. This health literacy problem is intensified when frontline healthcare practitioners must rely on printed education materials to compensate for the lack of time to instruct patients about their health management. Applying plain-language guidelines to health promotion materials may increase their effectiveness, particularly for patients with low health literacy. Research questions: 1. In what ways have plain-language guidelines been applied in health information materials for patients with varying degrees of health literacy, according to recent studies? 2. Have studies found that materials that apply plain-language guidelines are effective in health information promotion? Methodology: This article presents the findings from an integrative literature review of research into the use of plain language to promote health literacy. The systematic review identified scholarly, evidence-based studies that included reference to the use of plain-language guidelines. This article describes the detailed selection process and characterizes the corpus of articles along four dimensions: objectives, methodology, plain-language guidelines used, and findings. Results and conclusions: The review identified 13 articles that explored the use of plain-language guidelines in health literacy promotion. Analysis of these articles demonstrates that plain-language guidelines could play a strategic role in educating patients. Use of plain language could help healthcare practitioners to communicate critical and sometimes very complex health information effectively.

Research problem: Interest in plain-language communication has been growing in many sectors of business and government, but knowledge about its development is scattered and in need of synthesis. Research questions: 1. How did plain language in the US evolve to gain acceptance by industry, government, and the public? 2. In what ways have advocates changed their vision of plain language? Literature review: My review identified a corpus of more than 100 publications relevant to the history of plain language from 1940 to 2015. Methodology: I evaluated the literature on plain language to identify milestones, events, and trends between 1940 and 2015. I focused on the evolution of plain language and on ways that practitioners altered their perspective of the field. Results: Between 1940 and 1970, plain language focused mainly on readability. During the 1970s, some practitioners began to employ usability testing. By the mid-1980s, there was a widespread sense that plain-language advocates had shifted priorities from readability to usability. Between 1980 and 2000, advocates broadened their vision-beyond word- and sentence-level concerns to include discourse-level issues, information design, and accessibility. Between 2000 and 2015, advocates continued to worry over their old questions (“Can people understand and use the content?”), but also asked, “Will people believe the content? Do they trust the message?” By 2015, plain language had gained significant momentum in business, government, medicine, and education. Conclusions: Plain language evolved over the past 75 years from a sentence-based activity focused on readability of paper documents to a whole-text-based activity, emphasizing evidence-based principles of writing and visual design for paper, multimedia, and electronic artifacts. Plain-language practitioners expanded their concerns from how people understand the content-the usability and accessibility of the content-to whether people trust the content. In addition to a narrative about the field's evolution, I offer a Timeline of Plain Language from 1940-2015, which chronicles the field's highlights. Together, the narrative and timeline offer a fairly comprehensive view of the current state of plain language and allow those with an interest to dig deeper.

Background: Although plain language is almost universally promoted by teachers of professional writing, editors, and communication professionals, some have argued that the effects of and preferences for plain style in written messages differ among groups of individuals. Research questions: 1. Do professionals prefer plain style? 2a. Do preferences differ for different categories of style? 2b. Do preferences differ for different groups of workers? Literature review: Style, the word- and sentence-level elements in a written text, is a critical element of plain language. There is evidence that plain style, however, affects readers differently based on their level of subject matter knowledge. Plain style is even criticized by a few. There is a long history of tensions surrounding linguistic prescriptivism, the notion that one manner of language use is superior to all others. Further, readers' preferences for writing style, plain or otherwise, may not be consistent across occupational positions, education levels, nationalities, personality types, or genders. Research methodology: We conducted a quantitative study of preferences for two major style categories (conciseness and word choice) using an online survey instrument. The student-recruiter technique provided us with usable responses from 614 working adults in the US. Using that data, we calculated proportions of respondents, with confidence intervals, who chose the plain-style options. We also used statistical tests to explore associations between preferences and respondent characteristics. Results and conclusions: Our findings support an overwhelming preference for plain style among US professionals who are native speakers of English. Reader preferences were stronger for elements associated with word choice than with conciseness. Those with lower education levels and blue-collar occupations had lower preferences for plain style. The study had two major limitations: 1. We investigated only two aspects of plain style rather than the full range of elements that make up plain language. 2. Our data-collection instrument presented readers with an artificial rather than an authentic reading experience. Future research may investigate the role of personality on stylistic preferences and the attributions readers make about writers based on their style.

Background: In policy and law contexts, plain-language practice and research tend to focus on the benefits of plain language for specific nonexpert or public audiences. However, as plain-language use has proliferated, documents targeted for revision increasingly include those with insider and expert primary audiences. This study investigates the effects of plain-language revision on insider audiences following the adoption of a revised city charter in a Midwestern US city. Research questions: 1. How does plain-language revision affect the way that insider city-government users make sense of the city charter? 2. How does plain-language revision affect the way that insider city-government users act on the city charter? Literature review: Plain language-a strategy that writers use to make texts more effective for users-is historically and ideologically associated with helping public or vulnerable audiences to access complex information. This core priority toward public or nonexpert audiences is important; however, it has also resulted in a limited understanding of the full scope of plain-language audiences, especially in contexts where insider and expert audiences are primary users. Methodology: This study, informed by genre theory, is a qualitative case study in which textual artifacts and interview data were collected and analyzed using a two-cycle qualitative coding process. Results: The analysis showed many effects, nearly all positive, for insiders and experts. Conclusions: This article focuses on two areas of impact: charter authority and user practices. I explore these areas, which include improved navigation, organization, and processes, through the concept of interplay between the unrevised and revised charters.

Background: This study examines the generic structure of corporate social responsibility (CSR) reports, which are becoming standard practice for corporate communication of social and environmental performance beyond financial disclosure. Literature review: Genre theories provide a framework for exploring genres contextualized in different cultures. Based on the English for Specific Purposes approach of genre analysis, this study compares the move structure of CSR reports in Italian, Chinese, and English from a corpus-based perspective. Research questions: 1. What are the main moves used in CSR reports? 2. Are there any cross-cultural similarities or variations in terms of generic features? Methodology: Combining genre theories with concepts from Systemic Functional Linguistics, we designed an observational framework for move identification. Based on a 15-move scheme, we annotated 18 CSR reports for comparative analysis. Results and conclusions: The CSR report is characterized by rhetorical recursivity and hybridity of speech acts: beyond “reporting” and “presenting,” it is also “demonstrating,” “evaluating,” and “committing.”As a globally established genre, it presents noticeable generic similarity in different languages, suggesting that the communicative purposes of CSR reports are recognized by different cultures. The top six moves in the Performance-reporting section of the CSR reports present identical trends in terms of extensiveness ranking in all three languages. Cross-cultural variations mainly involve the use of optional moves, such as the dominant use of the move “Presenting individual cases” in the Chinese sample. The observational framework for move identification may also be transferable to other genres. The limitations of this study include the sample size and the absence of an author survey. Future research could investigate the CSR report from a diachronic perspective, to explore how its genre structure has developed over time.

Research problem: In the current information age, people are increasingly accustomed to sharing their special interests online and are influenced by the relationships developed from that sharing. The purpose of this study was to better measure peer influence in these online communities. Research questions: 1. How can peer influence in online communities be measured in a way that comprehensively incorporates peer-based characteristics, the homophily effect, and the structural position of a user in the network? 2. Is the method proposed in this study superior to other existing methods? Literature review: Previous literature on measuring online user influence can be classified into two streams: 1. Those that focus on the intrinsic characteristics of social media players to measure peer influence; 2. Those that address social network structure. Relevant computing algorithms include Topic-Based PageRank, Quality-Structure index, and so on. Although the first stream considers afocal peer's intrinsic characteristics, it overlooks the interpeer attraction in terms of similarity and discrepant knowledge among peers. The second stream mostly stresses the structures of social networks to measure network-wide peer influence but underestimates the effect of interpeer attraction that may leverage every diffusion step of peer influence through the network. To fill this research gap, this study proposes a new method of measuring network user influence that incorporates peers' intrinsic factors, interpeer influence factors as homophily effect, and network structure. Homophily refers to the degree to which pairs of individuals who interact are similar with respect to certain attributes. Methodology: From the communication sender-receiver perspective, we developed a computable method that incorporates peer-based characteristics, the homophily effect, and the structural position of a user in the network to measure the social network user influence. Two empirical studies were subsequently conducted in a social network service-based online community and an online professional logistics community to verify the effectiveness of the proposed method. Results and conclusions: The empirical results show that our proposed method provides higher prediction accuracy of user influence rank in an online community than the other existing methods. These findings lay a foundation for future theoretical exploration and provide a useful tool for targeting influential users in online communities such as blogs, bulletin board systems, and forums.

Research problem: The purpose of the study was to fill gaps in our knowledge about technical editors' work practices and perceptions, knowledge that might be useful for teachers and practitioners, as well as current and prospective students. Research questions: (1) What work activities do technical editors engage in? (2) How do people become and progress in careers as technical editors? (3) What do technical editors perceive about the complexity of their work and its value to themselves and others? Literature review: The literature review focuses on previous surveys of technical editors, which have tended to focus on technology-related issues and been largely limited to samples obtained from the Society for Technical Communication.Methodology: A link to an online survey was sent to 32 professional organizations for technical and other professional, nonliterary, and nonjournalism editors. The leadership of each organization was asked to forward the link to its members; 12 complied, with a resulting 253 respondents. Responses to closed-ended questions were tabulated, while responses to the open-ended questions were analyzed thematically.Results and conclusions:The results revealed a broad range of job titles, disciplinary and professional fields, genres and media, editing-related tasks, and extent and type of collaboration. Respondents perceived as useful several forms of academic preparation, personality traits, and attitudes. About half the respondents had become editors through deliberate preparation during college (direct route) and half had not (indirect route). Thus, one implication of the results is that college students majoring in the sciences and other technical fields (indirect route) might be attracted to complementary minors and certificate programs in technical communication/editing. The sample was obtained from among a broader range of technical editors than samples used in previous surveys but was relatively small and, therefore, nongeneralizable. Future surveys should strive for a larger sample size and include questions about a wide range of demographic variables that can be correlated with the independent variables.

Introduction: Stereotypes about generational cohorts have been spread widely among current literature; this study challenges those stereotypes and provides a simple method for managers to learn how to effectively communicate with, motivate, and retain employees, no matter what cohort they belong to. Research questions: (1) Do people in a particular generational cohort behave according to the stereotypes assigned to their cohort? (2) Do people in a particular generation believe that the stereotypes assigned to their generation are accurate? Literature review: Current literature promulgates generational stereotypes and encourages managers to learn about the differences of each cohort so that they can tailor their communication to each cohort. Knowing the differences allegedly provides managers of technical communication teams or any team with more effective strategies to communicate with, motivate, and retain members of each cohort. Much of the literature examined was not based on rigorous research, and some that was rigorous and empirical claims there are more similarities than differences among the cohorts. Methodology: The findings from this study are based on answers to surveys from 107 participants and semistructured interviews with eight of those participants who were employees at a software company or were students or employees at a local university. The findings challenge the stereotypes found in the current literature, specifically concerning longevity in a job and workplace compliance. Conclusions, limitations, and future research: Managers need to learn more about individual employees rather than relying on stereotypes of generational cohorts when communicating with employees. Learning about individuals is simple and can foster more effective communication, which will enhance employees' job satisfaction and engagement, and ultimately employee retention. As the research reported in this study shows, these are crucial variables to consider about a person's tenure in a position and workplace compliance behavior but are not included by most when studying generational cohorts. Further research could help us learn how managers can best develop employees and recognize and reward employees' workplace achievements.

This case study reports on the experiences of designing and assessing the effectiveness of a faculty development program on writing across the curriculum (WAC). The report focuses on the question: What are the key components of an effective faculty development program to integrate WAC into engineering and scientific courses taught by faculty in those disciplines? Situating the case: Two main models of WAC implementation exist: direct instruction, which uses writing specialists to deliver instruction to engineering and science students, and the department-centered model, which instructs faculty in engineering and scientific disciplines to teach writing as part of technical courses. How the case was studied: A report of the experiences of the authors and the feedback from the participants. About the case: The workshop was aimed at teachers in various disciplines and covered these main topics: fundamentals of writing theory and pedagogy, writing assignment design and assessment, and situating writing assignments in courses across the disciplinary curriculum. It took place over 10 weeks during a 15-week semester and included large- and small-group meetings, consultations with the members of the university WAC program, and peer review of writing assignment drafts. Conclusions, limitations, and suggestions for future research: Key challenges in developing the workshop included designing ways to bridge the conceptual gap between the participants' and WAC instructors' understanding of the role of writing in disciplinary courses, limited time available to the participants, and scheduling challenges. The workshop was given seven times. Most of the faculty participants (90%) generally found it to be very effective or effective. Studies of workshops with larger populations of trainees are suggested.

This book examines some of the many struggles that various programs in the field have endured in light of the "Great Recession" and shares the faculty’s initiative to take action to ensure the sustainability of their programs. Eleven essays written by 20 different contributors from a range of institutions assist in successfully achieving the book’s purpose—namely, providing methods and models for how academic programs can “do more with less” in an age of austerity. Program coordinators and those who teach program assessment should take heart in knowing that they do not face these challenges alone, and they might use this book to brainstorm and identify solutions for their programs.

Research problem: Gamification is a concept that originates from the digital media domain. It includes a process of enhancing a service using game design elements in nongame contexts. Although much research exists on gamification, very few studies focus on the application of gamification in the enterprise. Research questions: (1) How do managers currently use and experience gamification as a communication medium? (2) Why is it that few instances of gamification exist in enterprise management? (3) Is gamification's own branding somehow cannibalizing itself in enterprise applications? Literature review: We reviewed gamification literature in the workplace and looked at the applicability of game design elements within the enterprise culture. Enterprise gamification is still considered uncharted territory, and more research on gamification in the enterprise is needed. But existing research studies support our claims that there is high potential for enterprise gamification that needs to be explored. Methodology: Observations were made during fieldwork with an exploratory interview research approach. These observations were put to test via an online psychological single-blind controlled quantitative experiment conducted with 198 survey respondents to investigate the effect of branding on gamification and its perception in the enterprise context. Results and conclusions: The results show that using the “gamification” brand clearly drives lower rates of perceived acceptance of the concept, whereas using an “unbranded” version of the same gamification concepts results in comparatively higher rates of perceived acceptance and a general willingness to adopt within the enterprise context. The results also confirm that “interest” and “branding” are interrelated, and that gamification faces higher rates of resistance, lower rates of adoption, and lower success rates in the enterprise compared to other fields. Thus, enterprise gamification may not be correctly branded, and our research recommends the use of a set of procedural, prepackaged best practices, in the form of an implementation framework, to guarantee optimal design and implementation.

Research problem: Business-to-business contracts are complex communication artifacts, often considered “legal stuff” and the exclusive domain of lawyers. However, many other stakeholders without a legal background are involved in the negotiation, drafting, approval, and implementation of contracts, and their contributions are essential for successful business relationships. How can we ensure that all stakeholders in the global business context-whatever their native language or professional background-easily and accurately understand contract documents? This study suggests that integrating diagrams in contracts can result in faster and more accurate comprehension, for both native and non-native speakers of English. Literature review: We focused on the following research topics: (1) ways to integrate text and visuals to create more effective instructions, since we conceptualize contracts as a type of business instructions; (2) cognitive load theory, as it may help explain why contracts are so hard to understand and why text-visuals integration may ameliorate their understandability; (3) cognitive styles, as individual differences may affect how individuals process verbal and visual information, thus allowing us to explore the limitations of our suggested approach; (4) the English lingua franca spoken by business professionals in international settings, their needs and challenges, and the fact that pragmatic approaches are needed to ensure successful communication. Methodology: We conducted an experiment with 122 contract experts from 24 countries. The research participants were asked to complete a series of comprehension tasks regarding a contract, which was provided in either a traditional, text-only version or in a version that included diagrams as complements to the text. In addition to measuring answering speed and accuracy, we asked the participants to provide information about their educational background, mother tongue, and perceived mental effort in task completion, and to complete an object-spatial imagery and verbal questionnaire to assess their cognitive style. Conclusions: We found that integrating diagrams into contracts supports faster and more accurate comprehension; unexpectedly, legal background and different cognitive styles do not interact with this main effect. We also discovered that both native and non-native speakers of English benefit from the presence of diagrams in terms of accuracy, but that this effect is particularly strong for non-native speakers. The implication of this study is that adding diagrams to contracts can help global communicators to understand such documents more quickly and accurately. The need for well-designed contracts may open new opportunities for professional writers and information designers. Future research may also go beyond experimental evaluations: by observing this new genre of contracts in vivo, it would be possible to shed light on how contract visualizations would be perceived and interpreted in a global communication environment.

The book’s 11 chapters consider the importance of theorizing, initiating, and sustaining relationships between academia and industries that employ graduates of those programs. The editors argue that a strong future for the field depends on more research into shared interests. Through asking both spheres to take action, Carolyn Rude’s Foreword clarifies that the audience for the book is both academics and industry professionals. Comprehensively, the book fulfills its goal to initiate a conversation; it is a sourcebook that explores multiple contexts and lenses. Therefore, readers looking for a practical resource for initiating partnerships with businesses and industries can easily identify and select the chapters relevant to their situation.

Background: Patient-centered care emphasizes care coordination and communication through active involvement of patients, their families, physicians, and other professionals to improve decision making. Smart telecommunication technology and the Internet of Things, such as wireless-sensor-network-based smart home healthcare systems (WSN-SHHS) facilitate communication and collaboration among these different roles. Research problem: Despite the great potential of such systems to improve the quality and experience, and lower the cost of health care, the technology has not been widely adopted partly due to an inadequate understanding of user expectations, needs, and preferences. This study addresses facilitators and barriers with regard to WSN-SHHS adoption by identifying important sociotechnical, cognitive, affective, and contextual factors. Research questions: What are the main facilitators and barriers of patients' adoption of WSN-SHHS? How can we contextualize a generic technology adoption model for WSN-SHHS that takes into account unique characteristics of the domain? Literature review: We surveyed the literature in WSN-SHHS research and application, technology adoption theories, and the pleasure-arousal-dominance emotional state model. We discovered that WSN-SHHS research has focused on technology development but has given little attention to the issue of patients' adoption. Methodology: We used a mixed method design that combined an interview and survey over two studies. Participants were recruited from home healthcare agencies in the eastern US. In semistructured interviews, we collected data from 15 home healthcare patients and medical professionals, and analyzed the data using Kvale's approach. In our online- and paper-based surveys, we analyzed the data from 140 respondents using partial least square. Results and conclusions: We identified several new constructs in relation to WSN-SHHS adoption, including human detachment concerns, privacy concerns, life-quality expectancy and cost concerns. In addition, we confirmed the constructs from the general adoption model. Based on the findings of the qualitative study, the researchers created a research model. The quantitative study provided empirical support for the model, which has substantial predictive power accounting for more than half of the variance in WSN-SHHS adoption. In particular, our findings reveal that human detachment concerns rather than performance expectancy is the strongest predictor of patients' adoption of WSN-SHHS.

Technical communicators, engineers, and designers in the automotive industry, as well as researchers with expertise and interest in this book. It provides provides a framework for better understanding and explaining the ecological, economic, and political stakes invested in contemporary culture’s use and valuation of automobiles. The book constructs an ANT-inspired framework for rethinking automobility. In the manner of similar projects, such as Thinking with Bruno Latour in Rhetoric and Composition that establish ANT as a primary mode of analysis, the book achieves its purpose of recovering terms from ancient rhetoric—techne, kinesis, energeia, hyle, logistikos, metis, tyche, and kairos—for the purpose of demonstrating how they always, already accommodated analysis of human and nonhuman agents involved in activities, such as transportation use and design. For this reason, the book could serve as useful reading in courses on professional communication as it pertains to transportation or ANT, and as food for thought for automobile industry professionals.

Research problem: Readability equations are widely used to compute how well readers will be able to understand written materials. Those equations were usually developed for nontechnical materials, namely, textbooks for elementary, middle, and high schools. This study examines to what extent computerized readability predictions are consistent for highly technical material - selected Society of Automotive Engineers (SAE) and International Standards Organization (ISO) Recommended Practices and Standards relating to driver interfaces. Literature review: A review of original sources of readability equations revealed a lack of specific criteria in counting various punctuation and text elements, leading to inconsistent readability scores. Few studies on the reliability of readability equations have identified this problem, and even fewer have systematically investigated the extent of the problem and the reasons why it occurs. Research questions: (1) Do the most commonly used equations give identical readability scores? (2) How do the scores for each readability equation vary with readability tools? (3) If there are differences between readability tools, why do they occur? (4) How does the score vary with the length of passage examined? Method: Passages of varying lengths from 12 selected SAE and ISO Recommended Practices and Standards were examined using five readability equations (Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level, Gunning Fog Index, SMOG Index, Coleman-Liau Index, and Automated Readability Index) implemented five ways (four online readability tools and Microsoft Word 2013 for Windows). In addition, short test passages of text were used to understand how different readability tools counted text elements, such as words and sentences. Results and conclusions: The mean readability scores of the passages from those 12 SAE and ISO Recommended Practices and Standards ranged from the 10th grade reading level to about 15th. The mean grade reading levels computed across the websites were: Flesch-Kincaid 12.8, Gunning Fog 15.1 SMOG 12.6, Coleman-Liau 13.7, and Automated Readability Index 12.3. Readability score estimates became more consistent as the length of the passage examined increased, with no noteworthy improvements beyond 900 words. Among the five readability tools, scores typically differed by two grade levels, but the scores should have been the same. These differences were due to how compound and hyphenated words, slashes, numbers, abbreviations and acronyms, and URLs were counted, as well other punctuation and text elements. These differences occurred because the sources for these equations often did not specify how to score various punctuation and text elements. Of the tools examined, the authors recommend Microsoft Word 2013 for Windows if the Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level is required.

Research problem: The purpose of this study is to examine the effects of the cultural intelligence of a dyad (a team of two persons) on its global virtual collaboration processes and outcomes. Research question: Does a dyad's cultural intelligence have an effect on global virtual collaboration processes and outcomes? If yes, which effects does that cultural intelligence have? Literature review: We review literature on the management of cultural diversity in global virtual collaboration and cultural intelligence. The literature suggests that cultural diversity in global virtual teams is mainly managed with rigid approaches, which are ineffective in many situations. Leveraging cultural intelligence has the potential to improve global virtual collaboration. However, its effects at the team level or in a virtual setting are not yet clear. Methodology: We used a collaboration simulation with 70 participants recruited from two public universities in China and Germany to study the effects of cultural intelligence. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through questionnaires, voice recorders, and computer logs. Bale's interaction process analysis was used to code the voice recordings, and ordinary least-squares regression was used to test the hypotheses. Results and conclusions: The results indicate that cultural intelligence has an effect on global virtual collaboration; the lower cultural intelligence and the higher cultural intelligence in a dyad exert different effects on global virtual collaboration. Specifically, the lower cultural intelligence significantly influences the frequency of collaborative behaviors, which further influence group satisfaction. In contrast, the higher cultural intelligence significantly influences the deliverable quality. The findings advance the understanding of the effects of cultural intelligence at a dyad level and on proximal behavioral outcomes. The study has practical implications for global virtual collaboration practitioners and collaborative virtual environment designers. The study is limited by using student subjects and a self-report measure of cultural intelligence, as well as by examining global virtual teams in their simplest form. Future studies are suggested to examine contingency factors on the relationships between cultural intelligence and global virtual collaboration processes and outcomes.