A Day in the Life: Personas of Professional Communicators at Work

Eva Brumberger ; Claire Lauer Arizona State University

Abstract

This article uses personas to illustrate the range of technical communication knowledge work developed through its practitioners—to articulate the functions, characteristics, traits, skills, and workplace styles of positions someone in the field might pursue. Recent research has provided valuable data about the expanding and evolving skill sets of the technical/professional communicator. We build on that by triangulating the data from an analysis of job postings, a survey of technical communicators, and interviews and embedded observations of practitioners to develop personas of technical/professional communicators on the job. The personas can help students, programs, and practitioners understand and navigate the many types of roles that are available in the field.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2020-07-01
DOI
10.1177/0047281619868723
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (6)

  1. Communication Design Quarterly
  2. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Communication Design Quarterly
  5. Technical Communication Quarterly
Show all 6 →
  1. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication

References (28) · 4 in this index

  1. Usability testing essentials
  2. Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Brumberger, E. & Lauer, C. (2015). The evolution of technical communication: An analysis of industry job post…
  4. Brumberger, E. & Lauer, C. (2017). International faces of technical communication: An analysis of job posting…
  5. Chapman, C., Love, E., Milham, R., ElRif, P. & Alford, J. (2008). Quantitative evaluation of personas as info…
Show all 28 →
  1. 10.1007/978-3-322-99786-9_1
  2. Ford D., Zimmerman T., Bird C., Nagappan N. (2017). Characterizing software engineering work with personas ba…
  3. Computers and Composition
  4. Communication Design Quarterly
  5. Harley A. (2015). Personas make users memorable for product team members …
  6. Programmatic Perspectives
  7. 10.4135/9781848607941.n13
  8. What writing does and how it does it: An introduction to analyzing texts and textual practices
  9. Technical Communication
  10. Lauer, C. & Brumberger, E. (2016). Technical communication as user experience in a broadening industry landsc…
  11. College Composition and Communication
  12. 10.1016/j.apergo.2013.03.008
  13. McGinn J., Kotamraju N. (2008). Data-driven persona development. In Proceedings of the …
  14. Mears C. (2013). Personas—The beginner’s guide. theUXreview . Ret…
  15. Technical Communication
  16. The encyclopedia of human-computer interaction
  17. Pruitt J., Grudin J. (2003, January). Personas: Practice and theory. Retrieved from https://www.microsoft.com…
  18. Technical Communication
  19. Writing a professional life: Stories of technical communicators on and off the job
  20. Spillers F. (2017). Your personas are garbage without good user research …
  21. 10.1016/j.destud.2010.06.002
  22. usability.gov. (2018). Personas . Retrieved from https://www.usab…
  23. Young I. (2016). Describing personas . Retrieved from https://med…