Kristin Pickering presents a valuable case study that focuses on how professional communicators and researchers make sense of the narratives and values between stakeholders who may be at odds with each other. This is especially important in land usage and environmental protection cases like the Grey Cliffs, where the practices of private citizens and government regulated organizations conflict. Through Pickering's well-structured case study, she shares a fascinating web of documentation practices, discourse expectations, and community narratives and how they affect the communication practices between organizations and communities.

Queer Techné: Bodies, Rhetoric and Desire in the History of Computing is a little book doing big things. Author Patricia Fancher presents a well-theorized recovery of both queer lives and the lives of women in the history of computing, something of great import to scholars in technical and professional communication (TPC). Fancher engages with queer theory, rhetoric, technical communication, historiography, archival studies, mathematics, computers, and engineering, resulting in a robust interdisciplinary work. At the center of the book is Alan Turing, a pioneering mathematician and gay man, but just as important are the people around him—his queer community and the women of the University of Manchester Computer Lab. Fancher uses queer and embodied techné to explore these communities and the writing that occurred within them. Through this, she presents a case that pushes back against popular narratives of Alan Turing as a solitary genius while also bringing forward the embodied human presence in computing and TPC.

PCOS Discourses, Symbolic Impacts, and Feminist Rhetorical Disruptions of Institutional Hegemonies. Marissa C. McKinley, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2023. 162 pages, $95.00 hardback, $45.00 ebook. Publisher’s webpage: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781666905519/PCOS-Discourses-Symbolic-Impacts-and-Feminist-Rhetorical-Disruptions-of-Institutional-Hegemonies.

The End of Genre: Curations and Experiments in Intentional Discourses, Brenton Faber. Cham, Switzerland: Palgrave MacMillan, 2022. 244 pages, $99 eBook, $129 softcover; $129 hardcover. Publisher webpage: https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-031-08747-9

Purpose: This study offers an in-depth review of the body of research articles on the topic of boundary spanning and the dynamic nature of different actors to provide a more comprehensive knowledge on different boundary spanning activities and their effects on performance, flexibility, and resilience in educational institutions. Design/methodology/approach: To address the limited research on boundary-spanning functions in education, this study employed a two-round systematic literature review (SLR). The first round, which included an analysis of 338 research studies, sought to identify boundary-spanning functions and their activities. Using data from 39 studies, the second round sought to examine the boundary-spanning function and the critical role that information transfer plays in enabling boundary spanning in education. Findings: This review of literature led researchers to draw the main variables/strategies that facilitate boundary spanning in education (leadership and instructional strategies; collaboration and networking; training and development; teamwork; and revised pedagogical approaches). Also, the review highlighted the importance of knowledge transfer in facilitating boundary-spanning functions. Originality/value: Researchers, practitioners, and decision makers looking to improve boundary-spanning activities by utilizing networks and knowledge transfer might use this systematic review as a source. It also provides various strategies of how boundary spanners and leaders can support and facilitate the function of boundary spanning in educational institutions.

This study presents a systematic review of the last decade of research published in Business and Professional Communication Quarterly , using PRISMA guidelines and bibliometric analysis. The review analyzes publication and citation trends, key contributors, and emerging themes. The research highlights how the field has evolved in response to global crises, technological advancements, and shifts in social dynamics. By exploring key themes such as virtual team communication, social presence in online learning, and the integration of emerging technologies, the study provides a comprehensive assessment of the journal’s contributions from 2014 to 2024. It also identifies future research directions.

Fitter, Happier: the Eugenic Strain in Twentieth-Century Cancer Rhetoric (2024) by Lois Peters Agnew argues that American cancer rhetoric from 1900-1990 was built around eugenic ideology. Agnew says, "The tension between the need to acknowledge the real danger of cancer and the American insistence upon confidence and control lies at the heart of cancer rhetoric" (p. 5). This tension is delineated through a disability studies approach to analyzing historical documents regarding cancer and cancer patients. Agnew asserts that though cancer and disability are not synonymous, "the lens of disability studies can be helpful in understanding how cancer rhetoric establishes a pattern of normative responses to the phenomenon of disease" (p. 6). Her analysis of these responses relies on the work of disability studies scholars such as Rosemarie Garland-Thompson (1997), Jay Dolmage (2017), Sharon Snyder and Jack Mitchell (2015), Susan Sontag (1977), and Susan Wendell (2013), whose work helps to illustrate the overlap of disability, cancer, and eugenic rhetoric.

In working to put into practice the user-centered philosophies that are presented within the pages of UX Writing: Designing User-Centered Content , this book is worth reading, dog-earing, marking up, and possibly rereading depending on interest in learning more about any facet of UX writing/experience. Why? The short answer is that the authors, Tham, Howard, and Verhulsdonck, thoughtfully and strategically kick the book off with a basic yet necessary definition and perspective of user experience (UX) writing that works to set the stage for what UX writing really is and what influence it has on technical communication.

In User Experience Research and Usability of Health Information Technology , Jessica Lynn Campbell offers a guide on the design and implementation of usability studies to improve the user experience with health information technology (HIT). HIT is a broad and growing category, which includes applications such as telemedicine, electronic health records, and electronic communications between healthcare providers and patients. Given the increasing use of HIT, this is a welcome resource for both researchers and practitioners interested in improving user experiences and, ultimately, positive health outcomes. Campbell brings strong professional experience in the healthcare field, having worked in digital marketing, technical communication, and content creation roles. She is also an accomplished teacher and researcher within the technical communication and user experience disciplines. She draws on this diverse background to create a text intended for use by both academic scholars and healthcare practitioners.

No abstract as this is a book review.

Sandie Friedman Reznizki, Michal, and David T. Coad, editors. Dynamic Activities for First-Year Composition: 96 Ways to Immerse, Inspire, and Captivate Students. National Council of Teachers of English, 2023. A May 2022 New York Times article featured a graphic with the instantly recognizable design of the Harvard crest, but in place of the Latin “Veritas” […]

Grace Boulanger Knoblauch, Abby A., and Marie E. Moeller, editors. Bodies of Knowledge: Embodied Rhetorics in Theory and Practice. Utah State University Press/University Press of Colorado, 2022. Bodies of Knowledge: Embodied Rhetorics in Theory and Practice, edited by A. Abby Knoblauch and Marie E. Moeller, is an exceptional survey book for scholars invested in learning […]

Yuni Kim Ostman, Heather, Howard Tinberg, and Danizete Martínez, eds. Teaching Writing Through the Immigrant Story. Utah State University Press/University Press of Colorado, 2021. Building on a growing body of scholarship that advocates for student-centered approaches in composition pedagogy, Heather Ostman, Howard Tinberg, and Danizete Martínez advance a narrative-based framework in Teaching Writing Through the […]

Marie Pruitt Lewis, Lynn C. Pivotal Strategies: Claiming Writing Studies as Discipline. Utah State University Press, 2024. Disciplinarity has long been a concern of writing studies scholars. In an attempt to solidify the boundaries and status of the discipline, scholars have defined keywords, outlined threshold concepts, identified foundational texts, conducted large-scale quantitative analyses of books, […]

Hua Wang Vee, Annette, Tim Laquintano, and Carly Schnitzler, editors. TextGenEd: Teaching with Text Generation Technologies. The WAC Clearinghouse, 2023. https://doi.org/10.37514/TWR-J.2023.1.1.02. The rapid rise of AI, especially since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, has intensified debates about the role of AI tools in higher education. While some educators reject AI’s use—particularly in writing […]

Important challenges faced by inexperienced academic writers include how to present an appropriate stance when commenting on their own research or on work by others, and how to successfully acknowledge and engage with readers’ needs, queries, and perspectives. This study investigated how well 22 new graduate writers from L1 and L2 backgrounds were able to convey stance and engagement in literature review assignments prepared for a graduate writing course. They claimed little or no prior knowledge in this skill area before taking part in 12–14 hours of instruction and practice where stance and engagement strategies were a core component before submitting reviews of approximately 1000 words. Analysis of post-instruction texts and students’ reflective comments revealed that students’ declarative knowledge had progressed, and that most were able to display an adequate or satisfactory level of proficiency in their writing. Based on these findings, I hypothesize a trajectory of stages of writers’ skill learning of stance and engagement strategies that acknowledges its complexities and the need for extensive practice to develop procedural skill. This proposed pathway makes explicit the fact that learning by novices is likely to progress incrementally, together with advances in their knowledge and self-confidence as academic writers and members of their disciplinary communities.

The study hypothesized that employees better receive messages containing inclusive forms. A review of the existing literature on inclusive language and its impact on employee well-being and organizational innovation was conducted. As studies worldwide show, inclusive language can: enhance the sense of belonging to an organization, provide a sense of security, and increase engagement. Inclusive language can lead to higher levels of employee creativity and innovation, and also reduce the likelihood of burnout. In our study, we examined whether inclusive language is understandable and can influence the organisation's perception and employee engagement. To this end, we tested three versions of a message: exclusive, non-inclusive, and inclusive – on a sample of 1375 working individuals using the Computer-Assisted Web Interview (CAWI) method in collaboration with IPSOS. Contrary to popular belief, inclusive language was not perceived as more difficult to understand. However, it did influence the assessment of the organization's friendliness. The study indicates that inclusive language can be a valuable asset for organizations.

Globalization and advancements in technology have driven the rise of global virtual teams (GVTs), a trend accelerated by COVID-19. While prior literature highlights the significance of GVTs and digital communication, recent trends in the roles of communication and culture are understudied. This article reviews 51 empirical studies from the past decade to explore the interplay between communication, culture, and GVT operations. Key findings include managing cultural differences through communication, team cohesion challenges, the role of communication tools, and the impact of human factors on GVT performance. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed to guide future research and global team management.

Voice and Tone Strategy: Connecting with People through Content by John Caldwell is an addition to The Content Wrangler series from XML Press, published in 2020. The primary goal of Caldwell's work is to give readers a straightforward and applicable content development process—the Vertical Voice and Tone Framework (p.10)—and subsequent implementation. In the book, Caldwell centers an argument for authentic connections with users through a value-centered approach to design, drawing from his experience in the industry as a strategic developer in brand voices for well-known companies such as TurboTax and QuickBooks. Caldwell's four key concepts, framed as "building blocks," support the Vertical Voice and Tone Framework, which is a goal-driven, four-part framework that aims to create an improved or new voice and tone strategy for individuals or brands looking to revisit what it means to connect with an audience in their professional practice.

Interrogating Gendered Pathologies , edited by Erin A. Frost and Michelle F. Eble, presents an illuminating and diverse critical study of the complex gender discrimination that historically and presently affects doctor-patient relations and medical institutions. The text's goal is to acknowledge these issues, instigate discussion, and aid in finding potential pathways to policy change.

Kate Crane and Kelli Cargile Cook's edited collection on User Experience as Innovative Academic Practice offers case studies in technical and professional communication (TPC) pedagogy that premise around user experience (UX) design as an integrated and proactive academic practice. TPC has a rich history of UX-specific scholarship that focuses on creating holistic user experiences and conceptions such as experience architecture (Potts, 2014), design as advocacy (Rose, 2016), and participatory design (Muller, 2009). These are consistently weaved throughout the book. Crane and Cook define UX as a "theory and practice that emphasizes the need for functional products that integrate the users' needs and experiences" (p. 10). This collection features exploratory studies that discuss key methods and approaches for facilitating UX-inspired curricular design by framing student-users as co-creators in the process.

Academic integrity continues to concern educators worldwide. Furthermore, general guidelines for ensuring academic integrity do not seem to encompass all the angles that are required to be taken into consideration when exploring the factors that contribute to multicultural students’ decision to adhere to the norms and values of academic integrity.  This literature review focuses on how academic values can be unified through academic integrity, and specifically explores factors and perspectives of utilising academic integrity to unify academic values when teaching academic writing. The dimensions of academic values explored in this paper are: a) beliefs and attitudes of multicultural undergraduate students and the theory of planned behaviour (TPB), b) the value of academic performance in academic writing classes, c) exploring the development of multicultural students’ authorial voice while maintaining academic integrity, and d) using technology to encourage academic integrity in academic writing classes. Over 56 identified sources were chosen carefully to ensure unbiased approaches to the issues of academic integrity and development of academic writing skills. The authors explored the issues from a variety of perspectives. The gap noticed in the review of literature is the disconnection between academic values and academic integrity. The authors make recommendations for future research.

This article reports on a scoping review of the literature exploring the alignment between behavioral and linguistic units in L1 and L2 writing. Behavioral units in writing were assessed using keystroke logging measures of pauses, bursts, and revisions. Linguistic units were operationalized based on lexical and syntactic definitions from the literature. Nine empirical studies met the inclusion criteria. Most of these studies focused on L1 English writing by adult participants, although some explored other first languages, such as German, Dutch, and French. The identified L2 studies focused exclusively on English. Due to the limited number and high heterogeneity of the studies, no definitive conclusions can be drawn. However, meaningful links between behavioral and linguistic units were detected. In addition to confirming some previously known phenomena, the studies provided new evidence on online processing during pauses, revealed certain idiosyncrasies in L1 versus L2 writing cognition, and offered new insights into the nature of revision. We provide a critical interpretation of the results, propose new research directions, and recommend solutions.

Deflective Whiteness weaves together an anti-essentialist analytic across mediated rhetorics; its transmedia methodology is a novel and notable approach to thinking through the intertextual nature of racial formation in the era of “new racism” by studying the ideological functions of decontextualization, the superficial representation of Black and Latinx identity politics used to secure White dominance.

At a time in history when we are faced with an authoritarian, misogynist, racist, imperial regime that has actively dismantled higher education in the USA, what does it mean to stand as an academic witness against the consolidation of white supremacy, of imperial regimes, of the normalization of gender, race, caste and class violence, of religious fundamentalisms and climate disasters, economic dispossession and the carceral state within and beyond the walls of the academy?In this special issue devoted to Transnational Feminist Rhetorical Studies, contributors mobilize critical race theory and transnational feminism to bear witness to the deeply violent, neoliberal, eurocentric narratives of the US academy that objectify, erase, and colonize minoritized international communities from the Global South.Using feminist autoethnography and counter-storytelling, these courageous authors develop complex, theoretically provocative analyses of a variety of rhetorical landscapes in the academy mapping the academic journey of a queer South Asian educator (Saurabh Anand); speculative linking and corporeal rhetorics--the body as the site, producer and consumer of labor in transnational feminist rhetorics (Florianne Jimenez); transnational counterstories and autoethnographies of Bangladeshi women (Abantika Dhar and Ridita Mizan); challenging female fragility and objectification of hegemonic narratives of refugees using counter-storytelling by Syrian Muslim women refugees to develop genealogies of agency and resistance (Nabila Hijazi); and finally, Sarah Cathryn Majed Dweik and Bernadita Yunis Varas' compelling autoethnographic, theoretically and historically grounded analysis of Palestinian feminist survivance rhetorics bearing witness to the profound impact of the occupation, colonization and genocide of Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza.In speaking back to racist, colonial, objectified hegemonic knowledges normalized by the US academy these young scholars illustrate the profound significance of bearing witness to injustice, just as James Baldwin and many others stood witness to racism and white supremacy.