Classroom practices and approaches often rely on anecdotal evidence for implementation and effectiveness. Conducting small-scale, quasi-experimental studies can provide empirical evidence for the effectiveness of a classroom practice. In technical and professional communication, quasi-experiments tend to be underused compared to other research methods. This article introduces quasi-experimental research as a tool for instructors to use in their teaching approaches and practices by addressing two common fears that prevent them from conducting such research: the fear of doing it wrong and the fear of wasting time. The authors use case studies to explain key concepts, including the difference between quasi and true experiments, selection bias, and confounding factors, and discuss principles of quasi-experiments related to ethical considerations, data collection, and statistical analysis.

This study introduces social question-and-answer (SQA) documentation to technical and professional communication scholarship. It conceptualizes SQA as interactive, user-generated documentation and describes contextual information types within social how-to questions that initiate documentation. It also explores whether contextual information associates with answers that complete the interactive documentation. Results reliably describe 15 information types based on content analysis of 3,529 contextual information types from 500 questions. Exploratory statistical analysis suggests that askers may increase answerability by including less speculative thought, more error messages, and less general situation information. To facilitate complete SQA documentation, the study calls for additional research into question content and answerability.

For many, the academic job-search process involves experiencing rejection, self-doubt, and depression. And a common form of communication during this process—job-refusal letters—can reinforce these negative experiences. This article uses rhetorical genre analysis to study 131 academic job-refusal letters and the applicants’ perceptions of these letters. First it constructs a model of the common genre moves in the sample of letters, giving specific examples of variation in these moves. Then it correlates these moves with the applicants’ perceptions of the letters they received, analyzing the results for statistically significant variations in patterns of applicant perceptions. Based on these analyses, the author argues that the most typified genre moves do not contribute to applicants’ feeling valued. Instead, letters building goodwill through less typified moves and language are often more effective. Ultimately, he argues that we can make the job-search process more humane by attending to the specifics of the full range of interactions between applicants and institutions.

Alibaba’s Graphic Media (GM) is the first and only Internet content source that uses infographics to educate Chinese e-commerce merchants. This study investigates target audiences’ attitudes toward GM infographics. Two focus groups perceived GM as a practical information source that aided them in decision making and daily business operations. They preferred viewing graphics to texts and particularly favored statistical graphics. They also identified issues with viewing GM infographics on mobile devices. Based on the study’s findings, the author proposes three areas that communicators can address when designing infographics in similar contexts: content, usability, and overall visual appeal.

Medical cartography became an important data visualization tool in the 19th century. In this article, the author argues that early yellow fever maps invoked power and authority over diseased space through their visual conventions and scientific authority as statistical graphics as well as by visually reinforcing underlying Western ideologies about disease, illness, and health. Further, the creation of these maps established a visual precedent for invoking this authority that continues today. As public health continues to move toward a global health perspective in the 21st century, understanding how mapping constructs and shapes knowledge about disease, illness, and health will become increasingly important.

This experimental study investigates the impact of short-messaging service (SMS)—text messaging—on social connectedness and group attitude in student technical communication projects. It also investigates message types and communication medium preferences. Using a between-subjects design, the experiment compares two student groups: SMS only and non-SMS. The results indicated several statistically significant differences. Compared to students in the non-SMS group, students in the SMS-only group (a) communicated more, (b) felt more connected, and (c) sent more questions, answers, and nonproject-related messages. These results provide empirical evidence for using SMS in team contexts.

This article describes the authors’ progress in establishing the validity and reliability of the Listening Styles Inventory (LSI) following their initial report in an earlier study (Barker, Pearce, and Johnson). The LSI provides managers with a self-administered tool for determining their own perceived listening effectiveness. The authors examined the data provided by 359 respondents in diverse managerial groups using factor analysis, Cronbach’s alpha, Spearman’s rank order coefficient, structured interviews, expert observation, the Statistical Analysis System General Linear Model (GLM) procedure (analysis of variance), and a Tukey Student Range (honestly significant difference or HSD) test. The results yielded further evidence of the validity and reliability of the LSI as a self-administered diagnostic listening tool. The authors conclude that the LSI in its present form can serve as a guide for assessing a manager’s perceived listening effectiveness, but further research is needed to refine the instrument and to test other managerial groups.

The purpose of this study is primarily twofold: (1) to determine what factors, if any, are predictors of computer anxiety among business communication students and (2) to explore alternative teaching strategies suggested by the literature to effectively reduce computer anxiety in business communication classrooms. Participants consisted of 431 students enrolled in business communication courses during the 1995 spring semester at three state-supported universities in three southern states. Statistical analyses revealed that gender, keyboarding skill, age, socioeconomic status, and self-directedness are adequate predictors of computer anxiety in business communication students. Teaching strategies for reducing or eliminating computer anxiety in business communication classrooms are discussed.

Two widely disseminated approaches impose reductive boundaries on ethnographic research by privileging one context of meaning over other essential contexts. The first, emphasizing statistical validity, privileges the research community by recommending that the ethnographer's data analysis via coding agree with that of other raters from the research community. The second asserts that the ethnographer who comes closest to validity comes closest to presenting only the subject's point of view. Ethnography, however, comprises four essential, overlapping contexts: the phenomenal context (that which is observed/recorded), the site's cultural context (the subjects' outlook), the research community context, and the researcher's interior context, shaped by experience and education. Each of the four vantages has dominating tendencies, but if one does dominate to the exclusion of others, the reductive result is data-centered, thin description; subjects-centered groupthink; research community-centered groupthink; or researchercentered solipsism. Although all contexts of meaning are important, none should fully eclipse the others.

This study employed a listening effectiveness inventory to measure perceived listening ability among managers who were leaders in a professional management association in the United States and Canada. Analysis of variance results revealed statistically significant differences for training and gender. Those who had taken more than one listening training seminar or course scored higher on the inventory than did those who had had no listening training. Females perceived themselves as better listeners than males did. No statistically significant differences were found for age. On the whole, the inventory developed in this study may provide another dimension to measures of listening effectiveness.