Background: As all sorts of communications have substantially moved to the internet, volumes of literature on internet-mediated communication have emerged in professional and technical communication in different research paradigms, including studies on internet-mediated genres, which often have generic features beyond traditional conception and thus require updated understanding. This study systematically explores the emerging body of internet-mediated genre studies and identifies the specific genres that researchers have studied, the analytical components and research methods used, and conclusions reached to characterize the current state of the research. Research questions: 1. Which internet-mediated genres have been studied in existing literature (2005-2019)? 2. What affordances have been considered in existing studies on internet-mediated genres? 3. Which research methods have been used to study internet-mediated genres? Literature review: Major issues affecting prior studies of internet-mediated genres include inconsistent terminology used by researchers, the ways that affordances are considered, and the inadequacies of current genre analysis methods to explain features arising from those affordances. Methodology: Employing an integrative literature review, we conducted a systematic search resulting in 35 qualified studies published in journals indexed in the Social Sciences Citation Index between 2005 and 2019. Each was systematically analyzed to identify the genre addressed, communicative goal, medium, affordances addressed, and research methods used. Results/discussion: Three main types of internet-mediated genres-including email, website, and social media, and several subtypes-were identified, each distinguished by their medium and communicative goal. The affordances were either treated monomodally, mentioned as contextual information, or integrated into the analytical framework. Researchers relied on a variety of methods to study internet-mediated genres, with mixed methods most commonly used. Conclusions and further research: The data show that both the genres of interest and methods used to study them vary with time, suggesting that this area of research continues to evolve. Future studies could probe into a larger variety of internet-mediated genres with more diverse analytical components and methods.

Background: After a six-month training program in the Chilean public accelerator Start-Up Chile, entrepreneurs are asked to update a short pitch they wrote in the submission stage to appear in the program's online portfolio. Literature review: We reviewed relevant literature related to the pitch as well as research aiming to track changes within pitches. Research questions: 1. Which are the editing strategies used to change their pitch? 2. Do these strategies conform to specific discursive patterns? Research methodology: To answer the research questions, we designed an exploratory qualitative study to describe in depth the editing strategies used by two generations of startups, corresponding to 148 pairs of written pitches. In order to contextualize the results, we conducted two interviews with the program managers and analyzed the accelerator's official Playbook and Technical and Administrative Requirements. Results: We identified 10 editing strategies. Of those editing strategies, “Deleting technical descriptions” is by far the most common procedure. The identified patterns can be classified into two groups, those simplifying, hedging, and focusing on certain elements of the first pitch, and those adding and specifying information of the first version. Conclusions: We conclude by discussing the strengths of this methodological approach for understanding such edits and for supporting successful edits in accelerator programs, as well as the potential for better understanding entrepreneur coachability.

Medical practitioners and patients interested in technological advancements in the medical field will find Raymond Tong’s Wearable Technology in Medicine and Health Care intriguing, useful, and practical. Each of its 15 chapters is authored by experts from universities and research hospitals all over the world who discuss innovative health care devices that are changing the medical field for practitioners and patients alike. The book accomplishes its goal of informing readers about how new technology is changing the medical field by discussing the strengths and limitations of specific wearable technologies.

Writing scholarship has given a lot of attention to structures and lexical-grammatical features of texts in relation to discipline and the discourse community. More attention should be paid to where, when, what, and how academics write, because writing is at the heart of their professional lives. "Academics Writing: The Dynamics of Knowledge Creation" addresses this issue, drawing on literacy studies and socio-material theory. Exploring the writing practices of 16 British academics from three disciplines in nine universities through interviews, observation, and document analysis, this book provides deep insights into the socially situated nature of academics’ writing. It would be an informative and thought-provoking read for those who are engaged with academics writing, professional development, and higher education management.

Background: Although effective communication has been the most important attribute of success in the workplace, poor communication has hindered employees from performing well. This outcome worsens when communication occurs between cross-generational groups in an organization. Literature review: Prior research suggests that Millennials, who make up a large cohort of the population in workplaces, are technologically savvy, multitasking, and result-oriented but considered to be deficient in their communication skills. There exists a divergence between Millennials and previous generations in terms of their attitude, behavior, and value system. Research questions: 1. Is there a significant difference in the communication styles of Millennials and their predecessors in India? 2. Are Millennials communication deficient? 3. Do their Gen X predecessors lack the skills to recognize different generational preferences in order to effectively lead a multigenerational workforce? Research methodology: For this investigation, a 36-item questionnaire measured 12 interpersonal styles through three items each on a Likert-type scale. Results: The results presented in this study are not limited to generational stereotyping but rather claim to be accurate and context-sensitive. Millennials defied general stereotypes in several ways. The findings confirmed that although Millennials are different, they are not necessarily communication deficient. Conclusion: To flourish, Millennials and their predecessor and successor generations should strive to adapt to each other by avoiding stereotypes.

Background: Successful team collaborations require psychological safety (PS)-a measure that addresses how individuals perceive their own behaviors in a team, allowing members to be comfortable being themselves. Technical communication curricula do not engage deeply with managing the socioemotional components of collaboration. Literature review: Scholarship addressing hundreds of teams with thousands of members concludes that psychological safety has a direct influence on task performance. Few studies track psychological safety across a team's lifecycle, and different professions exhibit a wide range of PS values. Extensive research indicates that collaboration can be improved by training. Research questions: 1. Will a targeted training intervention produce higher levels of psychological safety? 2. Does team duration affect teaming success as exemplified by psychological safety, satisfaction, and cohesion? Methods: Our multisite longitudinal study surveyed 215 students in 50+ short- and long-term teams to understand the effects of a specific training intervention (a PS learning module). Results and discussion: Training had no significant impact, but targeted training might still increase psychological safety. Short-term teams experienced significantly better psychological safety over long-term teams, and psychological safety improved the more time members spent in teams. Comparisons within longitudinal intervals were also significant, indicating that different team contexts influenced our results. Implications and future research: Results suggest that incorporating team-specific training may facilitate building a personal awareness of interdependence among team members. Moreover, research should account for contextual differences and use longitudinal team self-assessments. Future research should concentrate on identifying a range of viability for PS useful in benchmarking.

As technology evolves, the needs of users evolve, and "Wicked, Incomplete, and Uncertain: User Support in the Wild and the Role of Technical Communication" provides technical communicators, writing user-facing documentation, and instructors in technical communication a useful, insightful guide for what the future of technical communication could look like. The book succeeds in its purpose of demonstrating the problems facing technical communication and the ways that technical communicators can leverage the knowledge creation generated in user forums to solve those problems.

Background: The cognitive load involved in research article (RA) reading can be overwhelming for L2 novice readers. RA section headings can be used as signals to help novices focus on essential information related to their learning goals to reduce extraneous cognitive processing. There is a need to examine RA macrostructures to inform RA reading instruction. Literature review: RAs do not always follow the Introduction-Methods-Results-Discussion (IMRD) model. Previous research has examined the macrostructure of articles in disciplines such as computer science, applied linguistics, and pure mathematics, but few have investigated the macrostructure of economics RAs. Research questions: 1. Are there any sections frequently used in economics articles apart from the conventional sections? 2. If yes, what are the views of expert economics RA readers on the communicative functions and propositional content of the newly identified sections of economics RAs? Research methods: Eighty RAs were collected from five economics journals using stratified random sampling. Following Yang and Allison's macrostructure analysis method, we conducted an analysis of the overall structure of the RAs based on section headings and the function and content of each section. Results: Compared with the IMRD model, we found six new section types: Background, Theoretical Model, Econometric Model, Robustness, Mechanisms, and Application. Interviews were conducted to explore expert RA readers' genre knowledge on the newly identified sections. Conclusion: The findings can be useful for RA reading and writing instruction and future research on part-genres of economics articles.

Background: Environmental reporting is an indispensable part of the corporate social responsibility (CSR) report, which has become a main genre of nonfinancial disclosure for corporations. The present study explores how companies use metaphors to construct their role in the relationship with the environment. Literature review: Previous studies tend to focus on environmental metaphors in genres such as newspapers, blogs, and scientific discourse, but rarely attend to the genre of corporate environmental reporting. Research questions: 1. What metaphors are used by banking and energy companies to represent their role in the relationship with the environment? Are there similarities or differences across cultures? 2. What are their representations in terms of the corporate role, and what impacts do they have on the environment from an ecolinguistic perspective? 3. Why are these metaphors used for environmental communication? Research methodology: The study investigates a corpus of 180 CSR reports published by Chinese, US, and Italian companies with the framework of critical metaphor analysis combined with genre analysis, so as to approach metaphor use from a cross-cultural perspective. Results and conclusions: The study highlights both universal metaphors (manager, protector, and traveler) and culture-specific metaphors (the bee metaphor in Chinese, the steward metaphor in English, and the fighter metaphor in Italian) across three languages, which are used to represent the company's good intentions, caring attitude, and responsible behavior, contributing to building an environmentally responsible corporate image. Some of the metaphors seem useful in inspiring eco-constructive behavior, while others may bear eco-destructive connotations.

Introduction: As technical and professional communication (TPC) becomes increasingly networked, students must learn to work cross-culturally. However, these skills can be difficult to develop. We report on a service-learning project aimed at helping students write and design for an audience in India. About the case: The authors saw a need to provide course materials to practitioners in India that became an opportunity to involve students in global content creation. This teaching case reports on two courses designed collaboratively to teach design and communication skills through service-learning, while providing course content to Indian practitioners of TPC. Situating the case: Technical communication has a long history of teaching writing skills for the globalized workplace. Service-learning opportunities can engage students cross-culturally while encouraging them to think critically about audience awareness. This case extends the literature by reporting on how students learned principles of cross-cultural and accessible communication. Methods/approach: This study uses qualitative student reflection documents from two courses to answer questions about how service-learning opportunities shape student skills. Their responses illustrate the successes and failures in the course designs and provide strategies for instructors working on similar projects. Results/discussion: Students reported that their experiences helped them to think critically about audience awareness, synthesize skills in collaboration, engage flexibly with new technologies, and work through time constraints. Conclusion: We provide practical suggestions for implementing similar course designs at other institutions and information about implementing relevant technologies. It outlines adaptations for new teaching environments.

Background: Technical communication, business communication, and professional communication are potentially overlapping disciplines with open disciplinary questions. A comparative topical analysis of research topics can identify similarities and differences between them, addressing intellectual and physical concerns for each. Literature review: Recent topical analyses have been done for technical communication. Historical topical analyses have been done for business communication. Few professional communication topical analyses exist. Some studies were done 15 or more years ago, and one related comparative study exists. Research questions: 1. What research topics are unique to each of the disciplines of technical communication, business communication, and professional communication in a corpus of research abstracts spanning 1963-2017? 2. What topics are shared among the disciplines of technical communication, business communication, and professional communication in a corpus of research abstracts spanning 1963-2017? Research methodology: I used collocation analysis on the target phrases technical communication, business communication, and professional communication from a 4822-abstract corpus. I compared words collocated with target phrases to find words unique to a single term, those shared with two terms, or those shared with all three terms. Results/discussion: Findings identified science communication as a technical communication topic; other findings corroborated previous research. Business communication findings corroborated previous research and identified an emphasis on global communication. Findings show professional communication as a rhetorically flexible term that creates a space for emerging concepts and expands disciplinary boundaries. The three shared communication, pedagogy, international, and disciplinary concerns. Conclusions: The disciplines feature some overlap but maintain distinct research foci. Professional communication is a distinctive discipline that assists technical communication and business communication by incubation of emerging concepts.

Background: The ability to create a context is essential in writing the introduction of a research article (RA). This study explores the experience of engineering Ph.D. students in Australia, for whom English is an Additional Language (EAL), in using a problem-solution-based writing model to develop context-creating skills in writing RA introductions. Research question: What is the experience of engineering Ph.D. students in creating contexts through explicit learning of a problem-solution-based model for writing RA introductions? Literature review: Genre-based teaching is a common approach in the second language classroom. Recently, a genre-based approach for writing the introduction of engineering RAs has been proposed. The descriptive values of the model, PSP-CaRS, have been shown in corpus studies of published engineering RAs. However, its applicability has not been explored pedagogically. Methodology: Twenty-nine Ph.D. students were asked to respond to a questionnaire nine months after learning the model and reflect on their experience using it. The findings were then corroborated with data obtained from interviews, researcher observation, and writing samples. Results: The findings showed that the participants perceived PSP-CaRS to be useful and they continued using it after nine months despite some difficulties encountered in the writing process. Participants' responses showed that explicit teaching of PSP-CaRS formed the foundation upon which more competent skills to create contexts were developed through practice and integration of subject knowledge. Discussion: Explicit teaching using a model can impart the basics of genre awareness to students. Once students gained an in-depth understanding of the model by working through their difficulties, they developed better genre awareness, and used the model adaptively to visualize and write their RA introductions. Conclusion: The results confirm the usefulness of the proposed model and reveal how a continuing process of learning and practicing using the model helps students develop their skills to create contexts and enhance their genre awareness.

For technical communicators wanting to learn how to enact social justice, Technical Communication After the Social Justice Turn: Building Coalitions for Action by Rebecca Walton, Kristen R. Moore, and Natasha N. Jones is a useful and insightful guide. The book successfully achieves its purpose of introducing technical communicators to social justice scholarship and practice after the social justice turn within the field of technical communication. To successfully achieve its purpose, the book provides technical communicators with methods of understanding oppressive structures in their daily lives and then establishes a theoretical framework for understanding social justice. Using this information, Technical Communication After the Social Justice Turn directs technical communicators toward stances of activism, intersectional awareness, and coalitional action. The book’s contribution to the field is that it serves as a comprehensive introduction to social justice after the social justice turn in the field of technical communication and that it anticipates and addresses questions and criticisms that both readers and researchers may have. This book will be a great asset for anyone looking to understand technical communication after the social justice turn and ways to address social justice issues in various situations, including day-to-day interactions and the workplace.

Background: Engineers increasingly work and advance their careers in international business settings. As technical managers, they need management and technical skills when working with different stakeholders with whom they may not share a common first language. Studies have revealed that informal oral communication skills are of prime importance for global engineers who face challenges in building shared meaning and formulating clear messages in meetings with non-native speakers of English. This article proposes that studying the use of multimodal resources (spoken language, gaze, gestures, and objects) in meetings can unpack how work tasks are accomplished in business through different communicative strategies. Literature review: This paper focuses on engineers' and technical managers' needs and challenges in professional and intercultural communication where English is used as a business lingua franca (BELF) in multimodal meetings. While multimodal conversation and discourse analytic studies highlight the dynamic nature of meeting interaction, previous technical and professional communication and BELF research on multimodality is limited. Research questions: 1. How do technical managers use multimodal resources to articulate their ideas in BELF meetings with their peers? 2. How does the use of multimodal resources contribute to the construction of shared meaning in explanatory, consensus-seeking, and solution-finding communication? Methodology: This study reports on two case studies and multimodal discourse analysis of video-recorded meetings among technical managers and their peers in four companies. The use of multimodal resources is analyzed in explanatory, consensus-seeking, and solution-finding communication. Results and conclusions: In BELF meetings, assemblages of spoken language, gestures, tools, whiteboard, and documents contribute to constructing shared meaning. This study has implications for global professional and engineering communication. Future research should further examine multimodality in BELF meetings.

Background: Early-stage accelerator programs teach new entrepreneurs how to identify and exploit venture opportunities. In doing so, they implicitly teach these new entrepreneurs how to develop and iterate claims. But since this function of teaching persuasion has been implicit and generally unsystematic, it is unclear how well it works. Literature review: We review related literature on the venture development process, value propositions, and logic orientation (Goods-Dominant vs. Service-Dominant Logic). Research questions: 1. Does an entrepreneurship training program implicitly teach new entrepreneurs to make and iterate persuasive claims? 2. How effectively does it do so, and how can it improve? Research methodology: We examine one such accelerator program via a qualitative case study. In this case study, we collected interviews, observations, and artifacts, then analyzed them with thematic coding. Results/discussion: All teams had received previous entrepreneurship training and mentoring. However, they differed in their problem and logic orientations as well as their stage in the venture development process. These differences related to the extent to which they iterated value propositions in the program. Conclusions: We conclude with recommendations for improving how accelerator programs can better train new entrepreneurs to communicate and persuade.

In the modern workplace, technical roles often have overlapping responsibilities. Therefore, it is essential for professional communicators to familiarize themselves with these roles to facilitate a collaborative and cooperative work environment. Stull’s UX Fundamentals for Non-UX Professionals: User Experience Principles for Managers, Writers, Designers, and Developers is a beneficial book for professionals, students, and anyone interested in user-experience (UX) design and research. The book’s purpose is to teach beginners the fundamentals of UX by making the content accessible, although the effort sometimes fails in the denser chapters.

"Scientific and Medical Communication: A Guide for Effective Practice" serves as a comprehensive resource for readers who want practical information about writing and publishing in two related academic fields. S.A. Mogull combines studies in scientific and medical communication (SMC) and interviews with journal editors, and information from journal websites to create an inclusive view of the process. Mogull's audience is novice scientific and medical researchers, so the tone and information are well suited for undergraduate and introductory graduate research methods courses. More experienced researchers may also find the volume useful as a handbook filled with reminders and checklists that their teams can use to ensure effective communication of their research. Scientific and Medical Communication is an outstanding contribution to research methods pedagogy. Mogull effectively combines scholarly research, recent examples, and personal experience to create a volume that should support the needs of students and instructors alike.

Research problem: With the extensive use of the internet, cyber language management has become a critical issue for international organizations (IOs). IOs' language choices on their official websites represent the very interests of member nations and form a key factor in organizational image construction. However, research on IOs' cyber language management is rather limited. Literature review: Previous studies examined the use of different languages on websites of large corporations, state institutions, and organizations that aim to reach linguistically diverse populations, but discussions of language management of international organizations generally focus on traditional offline language policies. This article attempts to examine the choices of languages on IOs' official websites. Research questions: 1. What languages are used on international organizations' official websites? 2. How do intergovernmental organizations differ from nongovernmental organizations in such language choices and cyber language management? Methodology: Data from the official websites of 50 intergovernmental organizations (IGOs) and 20 nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) were collected, and both qualitative and quantitative approaches were adopted to analyze the data. Results: The findings show that English is the dominant language on IOs' official websites, and is especially preferred by NGOs; inconsistency of IOs' cyber language policy is found among the languages used on specific pages, e-documents, and the general available languages; and IGOs' language choices are more diversified, unified, and standardized than NGOs'. Conclusion: Accordingly, the effect of technology on IOs' language policy is further analyzed, and suggestions for IOs' language management are presented concerning the linguistic ecology at supra-national levels.

Research problem: Cultural differences may be increasingly important in technical communication. Research is needed to investigate differences in document design practices and user preferences. This study examines cultural differences between Chinese and Western manuals for household appliances. Literature review: Earlier studies identified a wide range of possible differences between Chinese and Western documents, but the findings are not consistent and do not provide more generic perspectives on cultural differences. Possible reasons are the diversity of the documents used, the rather informal research designs, and relatively small sample sizes. Research question: To what extent and how do Chinese and Western manuals for household appliances differ from each other in terms of content, structure, and use of visuals? Methodology: To overcome these shortcomings, a quantitative content analysis was conducted, comparing 50 Chinese manuals and 50 Western manuals for household appliances. The coding scheme was based on earlier research findings and focused on content, structure, and the use of visuals. Results and conclusions: The results show that the content of Chinese manuals is less strictly confined to the function of user support than that of Western manuals. Compared to Western manuals, the structure of Chinese manuals appears to be fuzzier and less rigid. Regarding visuals, Chinese manuals contain more non-instrumental, entertaining illustrations than Western manuals. Underlying these differences is a more general distinction between highly instrumental Western manuals and more flexible Chinese manuals. These differences seem to point to two cultural dimensions: holistic versus analytic thinking and analog versus digital cultures.

Background: The lab report is a commonly assigned genre in engineering lab courses; however, students often have difficulties meeting the expectations of writing in engineering labs. At the same time, it is challenging for engineering faculty to instruct lab report writing because they are often under-supported in writing pedagogies and usually unfamiliar with the extent of students' prior writing knowledge. Literature review: Literature on technical communication in engineering addresses the importance of a rhetorical approach to writing instruction, as well as an emphasis on genre. Extending this literature, research into writing transfer provides valuable insight for better understanding how undergraduates negotiate the engineering lab report as a new genre within this distinct rhetorical context. Research questions: 1. How effective is a transfer-focused writing pedagogy in supporting students' understanding of the genre conventions of engineering lab reports? 2. How does the transfer-focused writing pedagogy impact students' writing quality in five categories (rhetorical knowledge, organization, evidence, critical thinking, and disciplinary conventions)? 3. What are the rhetorical features that engineering students improve or struggle with the most with lab report writing? Research methodology: Four engineering instructors and two English instructors participated in this study to design and develop the lab report writing instructional module, and implemented the module materials into their engineering lab courses. The module, consisting of lab report writing instruction and assessment resources, shares a rhetorical approach and foundational writing terms with first-year composition courses to emphasize a writing-transfer pedagogy. We collected and analyzed undergraduates' lab report samples to evaluate the impact of the module on students' writing performance. Two sets of lab reports were collected for analysis: the sample sets before (control), during the 2015-2016 academic year; and after (experimental) implementation of the module, during the 2016-2017 academic year. Results and conclusions: Data collected via pre- and post-implementation writing artifacts show that a rhetorical approach to teaching lab reports helped students better understand the expectations of the lab report as a discipline-specific genre, and it developed students' understanding of the rhetorical features of engineering writing. The pilot module positively impacted the quality of students' lab reports, a finding that suggests that using a transfer-focused writing pedagogy can successfully support the transfer and adaptation of writing knowledge into gateway or entry-level engineering laboratory courses.

Transactions of the Royal Society, in London in 1665.This journal published papers shared at meetings and served as a permanent record of those contributions to knowledge.Peer review in those days was essentially the acceptance of a person's credentials for election to the Society.Since that time, and especially during the past 50 to 75 years, peer review has evolved into the process of double-anonymous vetting of manuscripts by expert reviewers that we take for granted today for the vast majority of technical and professional journals.In our own time, our own discipline, and our own journal, we rely on rigorous peer review to ensure that only the highest quality content in the field of professional communication appears in these pages.This process of peer review relies on the knowledge and the good graces of reviewers who undertake this important and time-consuming task with only the thanks of the editor and the TRANSACTIONS' readers as payment.

Background: Although some have noted that combining technical and marketing content is precarious, technical communication professionals are increasingly involved in content marketing, which includes the creation of white papers. Literature review: The little existing literature on white papers provides conflicting guidance about managing the combination of technical and marketing content. Both soft-sell and hard-sell marketing approaches have been recommended. One source of such inconsistent guidance may be the lack of agreement about definitions. Research on print advertisements has described hard and soft selling as multidimensional rather than binary aspects of persuasive appeals. Research question: Which dimensions of hard and soft-sell appeals are predominant in white papers? Research methodology: To complete our descriptive study, we collected a corpus of documents labeled as white papers in TechRepublic, and then selected and trained three raters to complete a series of judgments about dimensions of persuasive appeals in the corpus. We aggregated those ratings, calculating the mean and standard deviation for the dimensions to describe their distribution across the corpus. Results/discussion: Overall, hard-sell dimensions were more prevalent than soft-sell dimensions. However, the soft-sell category of “implicitness” was also dominant. Conclusion: Our results demonstrate the value of treating hard and soft selling as multidimensional, complementary, and combinatory marketing appeals that allow, for example, a single white paper to be both “subjective” (soft sell), and “precise” (hard sell), or both “creative” (soft sell) and “informative” (hard sell).

This book posits that there is a lack of social justice coverage in today’s engineering curriculum. The authors’ fundamental premise is that, while some social aspects may be covered in engineering courses, the general approach to engineering subject matter presents only the technical details, not other aspects. The book examines how culture and other social issues are a part of engineering practice. The authors want to get educators thinking, as well as changing and making courses and programs more aware of cultural, political, and social issues. The authors assert that the social impacts of the engineering curriculum are hidden and generally ignored. The book opens an interesting discussion of social justice and engineering professionals. The underlying message is that professional engineers—and the engineering curricula being taught—are not emphasizing the inclusion of social justice within those programs. Current curricula include social justice as only a minor component in the training of engineers, with the technical aspects overriding social needs except in small doses. The book addresses a truly significant problem to society: Who bears the responsibility of ensuring that social injustice is addressed and corrected? The authors provide thoughts and insights, but the solution is very complex and cannot be solved with one book. Each person needs to accept the responsibility of correcting injustice where they can. Understanding the problem may still not provide a solution that prevents social injustice completely; it’s a start. Introducing a semester course on social justice is insufficient, but it may foster changes in other curricular offerings. Such introductions and changes will take time. Regarding limitations, it would have helped to make the case if the book did more to address potential naysayers. Professors in engineering who do not see the importance of the matter might claim that the engineering curriculum already meets accreditation requirements, and therefore, they might justify not making changes by saying that accreditation agencies must believe that social justice is being adequately covered.

About the case: Female entrepreneurs play a significant role in new business creation, yet women's entrepreneurship stories remain largely absent in professional communication research. Therefore, a need exists to “give voice” to female entrepreneurship stories, and this exploratory case examines the unique identities that three female entrepreneurs express in their narratives. This case asks how three female entrepreneurs reconciled the discourses of entrepreneurship, gender, and culture to construct a unique entrepreneurial identity in their reflective narratives. Situating the case: Professional communication has only recently begun to explore entrepreneurship communication, and little of that literature explicitly investigates women's experiences. This case, by comparison, uses three conceptual categories-entrepreneurial identity, gender identity, and cultural identity-to explore how three women negotiated their workplace identities. Methods: We recruited three women who self-identified as technology company entrepreneurs, each from a different culture, and recorded their oral narratives about their entrepreneurial journeys. Three raters independently coded data drawing on dimensions extracted from prior literature to build “identity curves” for each narrative. Results: Analysis suggests that each participant negotiated discourses of entrepreneurship, gender, and culture differently, with the greatest divergence appearing on cultural codes, and the least divergence appearing on gender codes. Conclusions: Based on these results, we suggest that future research should begin with the assumption that no single “entrepreneurial identity” exists for female entrepreneurs, and more broadly that professional communication research should foreground differences among individuals rather than attempt to aggregate individual experiences into homogenous characterizations.

This book is a practical guide for pursuing US federal funding for research. The book is intended for new investigators in the early stages of their career, who are new to grants, or unfamiliar with the structures, priorities, and processes that govern the funding landscape. Rather than merely providing an overview of these processes, the authors aim to help investigators “understand how to work the process to [their] advantage” (p. xi). The book succeeds by offering a detailed overview of the federal funding process while simultaneously explaining how new investigators can use this knowledge to position themselves for success. Hilton and Leukefeld are experienced researchers who have worked as grant and contract administrators for the National Institutes of Health (NIH). As a result, much of the content reflects NIH policy and practice. Investigators pursuing NIH funding will find this guide particularly useful, and investigators who are pursing funding from other federal sponsors (e.g., the National Science Foundation) will find that many of the book’s recommendations are transferable.

Introduction: This tutorial article explicates some of the 2017 updates to the 1991 Common Rule. Implemented in January 2019, these changes impact the evolving landscape of research with human participants in the US. The introduction provides context for the article as well as framing research questions. Key concepts: These include a brief definition of research for the purposes of the article; a discussion of the foundational ethical principles of autonomy (respect for persons), beneficence, and justice; and a brief overview of the recent policy revision process and its impact on scholarship in the field. After establishing this context, readers are provided five key lessons from the policy revisions. Key lessons: The lessons for researchers working with human participants include discussion of the impact of policy changes in the Common Rule associated with broad consent, single Institutional Review Board (IRB) mandate/cooperative review, updated exemptions, modified definitions of vulnerability, and international research. These are all contextualized within a specific example for professional communication researchers. Implications for practice: Although educative efforts are underway at both the federal and institutional levels, it is important for disciplines and researchers to understand how policy changes will impact the IRB review process. Attendance to the infrastructures that guide our research design and development warrants attention.

Introduction: Given the importance of visual communication to technical communicators' work, 40% of undergraduate programs in technical and professional communication require a document design course. However, document design pedagogies such as structuring peer review are still being researched, and popular textbooks do not provide instruction about how to facilitate this important pedagogy. About the case: An adapted form of studio critique was used to provide students with design feedback. Situating the case: Studio critique literature and document design peer review scholarship were used to devise an adapted critique, which I implemented in my course. Methods/approach: Twenty-five undergraduates were surveyed, and 23 were interviewed about adapted critique. Results/discussion: Results were favorable but recommend extending critique time, better facilitating participation, capturing feedback effectively, focusing the presentation, evaluating feedback, and requesting revision plans. Conclusions: Future research includes expanding the study to other courses and online environments.

Problem: Few frameworks exist for building content strategies around user-generated content. We present a framework for building content strategies that enable user participation in the development and delivery of content. Key concepts: For this framework to be successfully implemented, this implementation team needs a working knowledge of user-generated content strategy, or the development of strategies for the creation, publication, and governance of useful, usable content that encourage user participation. The framework also requires an understanding of the relationship between content models and technologies. Finally, practitioners utilizing the framework must also understand the role of content moderation in facilitating development of user-generated content. Key lessons: Our framework for user-generated content strategy specifies three main practices: 1. Developing a content strategy that enables interactions among administrators, moderators, users, types of content, and technologies within a given network; 2. building content models within technologies so that all interactions flow seamlessly; and 3. using content moderation to ensure that users are empowered to contribute content while respecting quality guidelines. Implications: Though there are challenges to facilitating user-generated content that unites organizational goals and user goals, the use of a framework like ours can benefit organizations that want to make user-generated content a core part of what they do.

Background: Previous research on user-generated content in technical communication focused primarily on non-traditional forms of technical communication outside of traditional institutions and organizations. User-generated content from the forum StackOverflow provides rich knowledge and stories behind problems faced by web and software developers. This study explores how technical communicators engage in this knowledge-rich content specific to web and software developers. Our findings provide insights into how researchers, instructors, and practicing technical communicators might leverage user-generated forum content in their work. Literature review: Previous research examined how user-generated content is a form of technical writing and technical editing. Furthermore, some research in technical communication has examined how technical user forums present a type of user-generated content to which technical communicators might add value. However, no research on user forums has explicitly examined how technical communicators engage in user forums to gain subject-matter familiarity or expertise. This study seeks to explore how technical communication students engage in user forums to troubleshoot coding problems. Research questions: 1. Are technical communication students able to successfully solve unfamiliar coding problems using user-generated content posted on the StackOverflow website? Are they able to identify the conceptual knowledge needed to solve the coding problem? 2. When learning about new, unfamiliar technical content, how do technical communication students search for information and decide which forum content to engage with? 3. Do technical communication students make meaning and actively fill knowledge gaps when they engage in new, unfamiliar technical content on StackOverflow? 4. After searching and reading through user-generated forum content to troubleshoot a coding task, do technical communication students feel confident enough in what they learned to teach someone else? Results: Most participants were unable to solve any of the coding problems using StackOverflow. Those who did successfully troubleshoot the coding problems exhibited more active scanning when selecting a search thread and made meaning of thread content more closely. Conclusions: Actively engaging and making meaning of thread content reveals insights into the stories behind the thread. These stories provide important details and clues for gaining subject-matter familiarity, but users must actively engage in meaning-making to access the stories and fill knowledge gaps. Practitioners and instructors can leverage content on StackOverflow to better understand coding problems. StackOverflow threads, along with other user-generated forum content, also give instructors insight into technical audiences and can be leveraged to teach students how to use primary research to better understand audiences. Researchers can continue to study how novice users interact with user-generated content by investigating how confidence levels affect meaning-making.

Designing for Life offers a thorough background in advances in technology that have improved the human condition. The book details the history of technological development as well as recent advancements and their implications for the future. The authors want designers to think about human perception and experience as the foundation of design best practices, and they achieve this goal by including multiple citations to help designers and researchers follow up with additional reading.

Background: The participatory web complicates professional communicators' goals of providing accurate, usable, and trustworthy content, especially for health and medical topics. Professionals can better reach their audiences by understanding individuals'purposes for using e-health. Literature review: Previous literature has shown the need for audience analysis in e-health, and has called for personalized, nuanced, and contextualized methods for developing audience-centered content. Professional communicators in e-health can use personas as a strategy to help account for users' diverse, evolving, and extra-institutional purposes in accessing e-health, whether that content is professionally-generated or user-generated. Research questions: 1. What are patients' larger information-seeking contexts? 2. For what purposes do patients use e-health? 3. How can professional communicators leverage this deepened understanding of their audience's purposes to improve their content? Methods: In-depth interviews were conducted with seven community members who self-identified as e-health users. They were asked about their larger health information-seeking practices, specific instances of using e-health, and website preferences. Results: Participants use e-health among other sources including medical professionals. They use an array of e-health sites, including professional and user-generated sites, and have diverse purposes in using that array of sites. Conclusion and implications: The results suggest that professional communicators deepen their audience analysis to account for informational context, emotional context, and the diverse and shifting purposes of their users. Heuristics for professionals are provided to develop purpose-driven personas.

The reviewers feel that what makes "Digital Justice: Technology and the Internet of Disputes" so valuable is its relevance to a wide range of professional and nonprofessional applications, including healthcare, technology, e-commerce, social media and social relationships, law, and the workplace. Readers who use digital media for organizational and business communication can benefit from Digital Justice and its insights into disputes, access to justice, and the influence of digital media on barriers to justice. Ethan Katsch and Orna Rabinovich-Einy address the emerging disputes brought by the advancement of technology as well as the ways that these disputes could be resolved or prevented altogether. There has yet to be a dispute resolution and prevention process that works flawlessly in all cases, but the authors provide valuable insight toward what issues need to be addressed, as well as how and why these issues affect users involved in disputes.

Background: In this article, we address the use of metatags as a form of community knowledge formation and gatekeeping within digital platforms. Situating the case: The subReddit KotakuInAction is a well-known hub of the GamerGate community on Reddit, but one that has avoided the bans common to other aggressive subReddits and GamerGate communities on platforms such as 4chan and GitHub. We contextualize the aggressive nature of the subReddit and the reasons why participants' uses of metatags are meaningful for understanding subReddit culture and moderation practices. Methodology: To better understand the destructive behavioral patterns of KotakuInAction, we coded for the frequency of certain behaviors, such as linking and tagging, as well as the shift in certain keywords and vocabularies between the front facing or predetermined tags and the user-customized or admin-altered tags. We also examined how tags shifted over time and whether certain users dominated particular tags. About the case: What we found was a hybrid culture on KiA that applied Chan culture values and flaming, but increasingly localized the behavior to KiA rather than direct readers out of the site. We also found key shifts in topics away from gaming and activism toward broader complaints about social justice. In addition, we found that a tiny core group of nine influencers (out of tens of thousands of users) accounted for 20% of the top conversations. Conclusions: We suggest a closer examination of how communities self-organize around meta naming structures. Knowledge of this activity can help with predicting and engaging with aggressive and hostile communities by describing how topics shift over time, how they adapt to platform moderation, and who the influencers within a community might be.