Now that intranets have become the new model for information technology systems, we can expect that more organizations will adopt online document review and editing procedures. This may be problematic for technical editors. Survey studies published in 1992 and 1995 found that most technical editors were still editing on paper most of the time even though an overwhelming percentage of them had access to computers and expressed a positive attitude toward using computers for editing-related tasks. In this article I review discussions of online editing in the technical communication literature to understand how online editing has been constructed within the discipline and why many technical editors remain loyal to traditional paper-based procedures. I discuss a recent call for emulating handwritten mark-up and author queries electronically and compare this “technical fix” with the collaborative online editing affordances of the latest word processors. I then discuss studies of online reading and composition whose results suggest that the materiality of hard-copy editing procedures may contribute to some inherent advantages over online emulations of such procedures, or at least foster the widespread perception that certain advantages exist for hard-copy editing. I conclude by urging an open-minded and flexible but also critical perspective toward online editing technology. Such a perspective should help make the move to online editing a more positive experience for technical editors. It might also help them define a higher-level role for editing in the information and document development process.

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.

Nostalgic Angels: Rearticulating Hypertext Writing. Johndan Johnson‐Eilola. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 1997. 272 pages. Persuasion and Privacy in Cyberspace: The Online Protests over Lotus Marketplace and the Clipper Chip. Laura J. Gurak. New Haven, CT: Yale UP, 1997. 181 pages. Fundable Knowledge: The Marketing of Defense Technology. A. D. Van Nostrand. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1997. 241 pages. Rhetoric and Pedagogy, Its History, Philosophy, and Practice: Essays in Honor of James J. Murphy. Ed. Winifred Bryan Horner and Michael Leff. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1995. 337 pages. Of Problematology: Philosophy, Science, and Language. Michel Meyer. Trans. David Jamison, in collaboration with Allan Hart. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 1995. 310 pages.

The authors report an investigation of the discourse practices of the “affiliated professions” of software engineering design. Lists of design issues generated by students in computer science and technical communication were compared to lists produced by experts affiliated with software engineering and by students entering an unaffiliated profession. The results suggest that (a) the affiliated experts addressed a more balanced set of issues, (b) the students in computer science looked more like the affiliated experts in their attention to technical issues and more like the unaffiliated students in their attention to human issues, and (c) the students in technical communication looked more like the affiliated experts in their attention to the human issues and more like the unaffiliated students in their attention to the technical issues. The results are discussed in terms of a landscape of highly clustered, fractured, and stratified affiliated professions over which students travel during their educational and professional careers.

Preface Introduction: Writing a History of Computers and Composition Studies 1979-1982: The Professions Early Experience with Modern Technology 1983-1985: Growth and Enthusiasm 1986-1988: Emerging Research, Theory, and Professionalism 1989-1991: Coming of Age: The Rise of Cross-Disciplinary Perspectives and a Consideration of Difference 1992-1994: Looking Forward Afterword Author Index Subject Index

Contents: Preface. Part I: Writing in the Material World. The Technology Question. Technology Studies. Part II: The Role of Technology in the Cognition of Literacy. Reading On-Line. Materiality and Thinking: The Effects of Computer Technology on Writers' Planning. Text Sense and Writers' Materially Based Representations of Text. Part III: The Social and Cultural Construction of Literacy Tools. Social Dynamics, or Scientific Truth, or Sheer Human Cussedness: Design Decisions in the Evolution of a User Interface. Constructing Technology Through Discourse with Ann George. Part IV: Conclusions and Future Inquiry. Historicizing Technology. Theorizing Technology.

Recent graduates of a degree program in professional and technical communication were surveyed to identify their current employment, their attitudes toward their academic preparation, and the professional courses they found most helpful. The history and curriculum of Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT's) eleven-year-old program in Professional and Technical Communication (PTC) is described, as well as the program's “professional core,” its Liberal Arts core, and its cooperative education requirement. The survey was modeled after a previous survey the authors conducted with members of the Society for Technical Communication. The results of both surveys emphasized the basics of writing and computer skills. The degree program alumni also expressed the desire for a “more practical” curriculum that placed less emphasis on theory. Anecdotal responses from the alumni provided a unique view of the field through the eyes of its newest practitioners.

Researchers in technical communication have recently begun to take advantage of the interactions taking place via computer-mediated communication as a rich source for research. Yet, although research in cyberspace is growing, there are few guidelines for researchers to follow. This article reviews three forms of technical communication research methods (ethnography, rhetorical analysis, and surveys) and raises preliminary issues to consider when using such research methods in cyberspace. These issues include privacy and author permissions.

As the speed of travel on the “Information Superhighway” accelerates, many small-to-medium sized enterprises (SMEs) do not effectively keep pace. SME computer resistors include 1) the slow-plodding neophyte computer users in the far right hand lane, 2) the firms curious about computerization but who are yet to make a purchase decision, idling in neutral on the access ramps, and 3) the business that purchases improper equipment and/or software and ventures onto the “road” without proper training and support, being run over by the speeding industry. In the information high-tech world of the 1990s it seems amazing that an estimated quarter of all small businesses still do not have their first personal computer. This article calls upon the innovators of the communications field to look in the rear view mirror to see the businesses left behind in the information expansion race. A model utilizing social learning theory defines a framework for road service [1], getting the small business “resister” up to the information superhighway speed limit.

Technical communicators today must document complex applications used in complex environments. Information about users and use models is important under these conditions, especially if documentation will be presented on-line. Customer partnering, a method of information gathering that supplements surveys, contextual inquiries, usability testing, and interviews, provides one way of involving the users of complex applications in the design of information delivery systems. We used this method to help a client gather important information about user and use models and design a new information library for complex server computer systems.

Complex scientific graphics that reproduce well on paper may be difficult to display on computer because of the limited size and resolution of standard desktop monitors. This paper describes several methods for computer display of such large, dense graphics that preserve the usability of the graphics and support the ways users need to interact with the figures. Building on a simple structure of base panels and overlays joined by hypertext links, these methods provide ways of reorganizing figures into smaller graphical units that can be displayed easily, yet communicate all the information the original figure was designed to convey.

Acknowledgments Introductions Standard at the University of Texas by Alan W. Friedman Political Correctness, Principled Contextualism, Pedagogical Conscience by Evan Carton Canonicity, Subalternity, and Literary Pedagogy Pedagogy and the Canon Controversy by Jacqueline Bacon A Multicultural Curriculum: Diversity or Divisiveness? by Helena Woodard Rereading Texas History: Cultural Impoverishment, Empowerment, and Pedagogy by Louis Mendoza English Literature, the Irish, and The Norton Anthology by Rachel Jennings The Thumb of Ekalavya: Postcolonial Studies and the Third World Scholar in a First World Academy by S. Shankar Reclaiming the Teaching Assistant: Dissent as a Pedagogical Tool by Jean Lee Cole and Jennifer Huth Reading, Writing, Teaching: Principles and Provocations Warranting a Postmodernist Literary Studies by Gordon A. Grant III Knowledge, Power, and the Melancholy of Studies by Robert G. Twombly Collaborative Learning in the Postmodern Classroom by Jerome Bump Professionalism and the Problem of the We in Composition Studies by Nancy Peterson An Accidental Writing Teacher by Sara E. Kimball Having Students Write on Moral Topics: Legal, Religious, and Pedagogical Issues by James L. Kinneavy Bodies, Sexualities, and Computers in the Classroom Desire and Learning: The Perversity of Pedagogy by Kathleen Kane Learning and Desire: A Pedagogical Model by Edward Madden Gender and Trauma in the Classroom by Margot Backus Type Normal Like the Rest of Us: Writing, Power, and Homophobia in the Networked Composition Classroom by Alison Regan Rethinking Pedagogical Authority in Response to Homophobia in the Networked Classroom by Susan Claire Warshauer Here, Queer, and Perversely Sincere: Lesbian Subjects in the Department by Kim Emery Works Cited Index

The 1995 appearance of Microsoft's Bob interface directly poses the question of how anthropomorphic the human computer interface design should be. A historical approach to the question offers three important observations to designers: 1) that the impulse to anthropomorphicize technology has been longstanding and has been employed with artifacts other than computers; 2) that the normal evolution of technologies proceeds through an introductory phase during which a culture becomes acclimatized to the new technology; moreover, one of the methods by which cultures have traditionally become acclimatized to new technologies is through anthropomorphization; and 3) the perception of anthropomorphism in the human computer interface has been complicated by the fact that “computers” were, in fact, first people not machines. An historical approach to answering the interface design question posed by Microsoft's Bob interface suggests that designers productively accommodate the longstanding human impulse to anthropomorphicize new technologies.

E-mail privacy in the workplace has emerged as one of the most complex ethical and legal issues confronting corporate communication in the electronic age. The paper discusses the array of legal and ethical concerns of e-mail privacy in the workplace. Building on the existing body of knowledge on the topic, the results of a research study are presented which explore the similarities and differences in e-mail usage and privacy perceptions among management level and administrative level employees. The survey, which polled 337 working professionals, confirmed the popular belief that companies are not effectively communicating their e-mail monitoring policies to their employees. Finally, recommendations are made to corporate communicators on how best to forge an e-mail communications policy that can reduce the risk of disputes, incidents, and lawsuits regarding e-mail privacy issues.

The paper examines how public relations professionals are dealing with the potential for sabotage, rumors, and misinformation spread via the Internet by computer hackers. The author examines the public relations profession from a systems theory perspective and attempts to outline skills necessary for organizational survival in the new information age. Original data was gathered from a sample population of 41 (n=85 for a 48% response rate) public relations professionals from the membership directory of the Public Relations Society of America. The author concluded from the data that the majority of public relations professionals currently view the Internet as a one-way communication channel. In addition, the data supported the notion that public relations professionals are limited by their lack of understanding of the two-way communication potential of the medium, the speed and power of messages traveling in cyberspace, and the current legal climate as it relates to Internet activity.

Serial collaboration promotes the many possibilities of developing and revising student texts.

The paper explores the feasibility of using computer networks as communication survey research instruments. Also covered are the use of computers and computer networks in survey studies; a listing of the advantages and disadvantages of network surveys as compared with mail, phone, and fax surveys; a description of the development steps of network surveys; and a comparison of differences in network survey forms. Research issues are also discussed.

We identify various minimalist techniques and argue that, although these techniques can conflict with each other, together they provide a framework for designing computer documentation. A minimalist approach involves making tradeoffs within this framework rather than following a set of prescriptive techniques. Minimalism in this sense, is a pragmatic design philosophy aimed at the overall objective of "minimizing" obstacles to use. The framework covers the following design issues: word and page count, duplication, selective documentation of facilities, elaboration, task orientation, guided exploration, error recovery, and access.