Technical Communication Quarterly Jan 2019

One Word of Heart is Worth Three of Talent: Professional Communication Strategies in a Vietnamese Nonprofit Organization

Sarah Beth Hopton Appalachian State University ; Rebecca Walton Utah State University

Abstract

This article reports findings from a month-long research project in Vietnam working with the Vietnam Association for Victims of Agent Orange (VAVA). The authors found that VAVA did not always abide Western prescriptions for “good” technical and scientific communication yet were extremely effective technical communicators among victims and families. This article reports findings that call for an expanded definition of what it means to practice good technical communication, especially in understudied cultural contexts.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2019-01-02
DOI
10.1080/10572252.2018.1530033
Open Access
Closed
Topics
professional writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (8)

  1. Young (2025)
    Pandemic Communications Beyond Risk and Crisis: A Change of Course for Law Enfo…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Pennell et al. (2024)
    Survival and Distinctiveness: The Impulses Shaping the Communication Practices …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Agbozo (2023)
    Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis for Technical Communication Research
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Carlson (2023)
    “Who Am I Fighting For? Who Am I Accountable To?”: Comradeship as a Frame for N…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Silvestro (2023)
    “I Do Think We Did the Right Things at the Right Time to Generate the Right Buz…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
Show all 8 →
  1. Cardinal (2022)
    Superdiversity: An Audience Analysis Praxis for Enacting Social Justice in Tech…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Gonzales (2022)
    (Re) Framing Multilingual Technical Communication with Indigenous Language Inte…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Fraiberg (2021)
    Introduction to Special Issue on Innovation and Entrepreneurship Communication …
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication

Cites in this index (8)

  1. Jones et al. (2016)
    Disrupting the Past to Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Commun…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Agboka (2013)
    Participatory Localization: A Social Justice Approach to Navigating Unenfranchi…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Ding et al. (2013)
    Guest Editors' Introduction: New Directions in Intercultural Professional Commu…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Haas (2012)
    Race, Rhetoric, and Technology
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Agboka (2012)
    Liberating Intercultural Technical Communication from “Large Culture” Ideologie…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Show all 8 →
  1. Cardon (2008)
    A Critique of Hall's Contexting Model
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Hunsinger (2006)
    Culture and Cultural Identity in Intercultural Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Bosley (1993)
    Cross‐cultural collaboration: Whose culture is it, anyway?
    Technical Communication Quarterly
Also cites 14 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.3362/9781780440453
     ↗
  2. 10.1177/0306312702032002003
     ↗
  3. 10.5465/AME.1993.9409142061
     ↗
  4. 10.1177/0021943607301346
     ↗
  5. 10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199238804.001.0001
     ↗
  6. Martini E. (2012)
    Agent Orange: History, science and the politics of uncertainty
     ↗
  7. 10.2307/375964
     ↗
  8. 10.1093/ije/dyl038
     ↗
  9. 10.21310/cnx.4.1.16savetal
     ↗
  10. Sills P. (2014)
    Toxic War: The story of Agent Orange
     ↗
  11. Spivak G. C. (1999)
    A critique of postcolonial reason: Toward a history of the vanishing present
     ↗
  12. 10.1111/j.1475-3995.2009.00697.x
     ↗
  13. 10.21310/cnx.4.1.16wal
     ↗
  14. 10.2190/CPI
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 9 View in citation network →

Related Articles

  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication Apr 2026
    Stance in CEO Statements from U.S. and Vietnamese Banks’ Annual Reports: A Corpus-Based Cross-Cultural Study ↗
    Minh Hieu Nguyen
    multimodality professional writing
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Mar 2026
    “It's Hard to Show ROI When You’re Preventing Things from Happening”: How Impact Storytelling Frames Community Health Initiatives for Executive Audiences ↗
    Margaret Hsiao
    qualitative research multimodality technical communication professional writing multilingual writers
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 2026
    Toward a Justice-Oriented Professionalism: Lessons Learned From a Critical Service-Learning Project in a Professional Writing Course ↗
    Renea C. Frey; Jeffrey M. Gerding; Ethan Nichols; Danielle Stone
    service learning multimodality professional writing
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 2026
    Expanding Human-in-the-Loop: Critical Sensemaking for Technical and Professional Communication With Generative AI ↗
    Gustav Verhulsdonck; Jialei Jiang
    artificial intelligence professional writing multilingual writers
  5. Technical Communication Quarterly Jan 2026
    Evolving Information Design: Insights from Senior Experts in Technical and Professional Communication ↗
    Jason Tham
    multimodality technical communication professional writing