As a technical writer I have come to see that the collaborative media landscape has started to change the way many B2C companies work with support information. It is companies producing software based consumer products that has taken the lead in this new way of approaching the customers. More and more companies in other product segments are starting to go in the same direction. But what happens to the technical writer when more and more customers are creating their own support information? The death of the technical writer has been proclaimed for several years. It is no wonder that one asks: What is the future role of the technical writer facing the challenges with collaborative media? That is also the research question for this thesis.To investigate this I have experimented with a method called scenario planning and scenario writing. In order to get a well-grounded base of trends to create the scenarios from I’ve concluded a rigorous empirical base. The following methods where used: In-depth interviews with practitioners in the technical writer field Content analysis of a support forum Email interviews with frequent forum users.It was clear that when implementing new media structures it also involves new challenges. These challenges could potentially also lead to new roles for the technical writer. The challenges I consider to be most important were; trust, transparency, motivation and information overload. To facilitate those needs and challenges roles like community manager, content curator and content strategist are needed.With those roles in mind I created four scenarios. Each with a different take on collaborative media (and one that actually ignored this emerge). The names of the scenarios are: The outcasts The insider matter Sharing is caring The third player

This dissertation examines the figures of the shaman and the cyborg, arguing that both act as intermediaries between the organic world of bodies and the artificial world of culture and machines. Using the sf of Robert Holdstock, David Zindell and Kathleen Ann Goonan as starting points, new forms of embodiment in the context of the cyborg and the shaman's shared narrative of radical boundary dissolution are critically and imaginatively examined. Throughout this thesis, the works of Deleuze and Guattari, Sadie Plant, Manuel De Landa, Erik Davis, Donna Haraway, Terence McKenna, and other speculative theorists who operate at the nexus of technological culture and the shamanic imagination serve as guidelines. / English Studies / M.A.

Dissertation (PhD)--University of Stellenbosch, 2006. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: This dissertation is aimed at describing gender difference in publication productivity among South African academic authors, and to develop an understanding of possible reasons for these differences. It is argued that the lack of empirical knowledge of publication productivity of academics in South Africa needs to be addressed, as scientific communication through publication is one of the most central social processes in science. Moreover, one form of scientific publication, the peer-reviewed article, has become the single most important aspect according to which academics in South Africa and abroad are rewarded. The focus on gender differences is motivated by the fact that women have been strengthening their representation in South African HEIs, but not their proportional contribution to our country’s output of accredited research articles. A review of the past four decades of empirical and theoretical work on the gender gap in publication productivity leads the author to identify three sets of factors that may account for its existence: gender-socialised differences between women and men, women’s greater family responsibilities, and gender-related deficits in the academic workplace. However, none of these sets of variables by themselves satisfactorily account for gender differences in publication productivity, and they should not be considered independent from each other. The literature review is followed by a review of methodological considerations that need to be taken into account when studying gender differences in publication productivity. Against this background, the advantages and limitations associated with the first empirical project of the dissertation - a secondary analysis of SA Knowledgebase, an existing bibliometric database - are identified. This analysis is aimed at quantifying gender differences in the publication productivity of South African academic authors; at controlling for relevant variables (race, age, highest qualification, rank, institutional affiliation and scientific domain); and at investigating gender differences in the tendency towards joint authorship. The results show that South African male authors publish almost twice as many articles in accredited journals than women authors do, but that the latter’s contribution to the total scientific publication output of South Africa has increased from 16 percent in 1990 to 24 percent in 2001. Part of the gender gap in publication productivity can be explained by women’s younger age, lower qualification level and lower rank as a gender group, but not by any tendency among women to co-author less than men do. This project was complemented by the analysis of primary data collected from the CVs of and qualitative interviews with sixteen highly productive South African academics. This second project contributes to the development of a more in-depth understanding of the way in which men and women’s publication productivity is differentially affected, in a predominantly male milieu and across the span of their careers, by their family responsibilities, non-research academic roles, and gender-socialisation. The dissertation concludes with an integration of the literature review with the main findings of the two projects, on the basis of which recommendations are made for future research, and proposals are made towards rendering the measurement of publication productivity more sensitive to the gender differences highlighted by the dissertation. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Hierdie proefskrif het ten doel om genderverskille in publikasieproduktiwiteit van Suid-Afrikaanse akademiese outeurs te beskryf, en om ʼn begrip te ontwikkel van moontlike redes vir dié verskille. Daar word aangevoer dat ʼn gebrek aan empiriese kennis oor die publikasieproduktiwiteit van akademici in Suid-Afrika aangespreek behoort te word, aangesien wetenskaplike kommunikasie deur middel van publikasie een van die mees sentrale proses in die wetenskap is. Daarbenewens het een vorm van wetenskaplike publikasie, die eweknie-beoordeelde artikel, die enkele belangrikste aspek geword waarvolgens akademici in Suid-Afrika en oorsee beloon word. Die fokus op genderverskille word gemotiveer deur die feit dat vroue hul verteenwoordiging in Suid-Afrikaanse hoër-onderwysinstellings versterk het, maar nie hul proporsionele bydrae tot ons land se uitset van geakkrediteerde navorsings-artikels nie. ʼn Oorsig van die afgelope vier dekades se empiriese en teoretiese werk oor die gender-gaping in publikasieproduktiwiteit lei tot die identifisering van drie stelle faktore wat die bestaan daarvan sou kon verklaar: gender-gesosialiseerde verskille tussen vroue en mans, vroue se swaarder gesinsverantwoordelikheidslas, en gender-verbandhoudende tekortkominge in die akademiese werkplek. Opsigself verklaar geen enkele van hierdie stelle veranderlikes egter gender-verskille in publikasieproduktiwiteit op ʼn bevredigende wyse nie, en hulle behoort nie onafhanklik van mekaar beskou te word nie. Die literatuur-oorsig word gevolg deur ’n oorsig van metodologiese oorwegings wat in ag geneem behoort te word ter bestudering van gender-verskille in publikasieproduktiwiteit. Teen hierdie agtergrond word die voordele en beperkinge verbonde aan die eerste empiriese projek van die proefskrif – ʼn sekondêre ontleding van SA Knowledgebase, ’n bestaande bibliometriese databasis - geïdentifiseer. Hierdie ontleding van is daarop gemik om gender-verskille in die publikasieproduktiwiteit van Suid-Afrikaanse akademiese outeurs te kwantifiseer; om vir relevante veranderlikes te kontroleer (ras, ouderdom, hoogste kwalifikasie, rang, institusionele affiliasie en wetenskaplike domein); en om gender-verskille in mede-outeurskap te ondersoek. Die resultate toon dat Suid-Afrikaanse man-outeurs bykans twee maal soveel artikels in geakkrediteerde vaktydskrifte as vroue-outeurs publiseer, maar dat laasgenoemde se bydrae tot die totale wetenskaplike publikasie-uitset van Suid-Afrika vanaf 16 persent in 1990 tot 24 persent in 2001 toegeneem het. Deel van die gender-gaping in publikasieproduktiwiteit kan verklaar word aan die hand van vroue se jonger ouderdom, laer kwalifikasievlak, en laer rang as ʼn gender-groep, maar nie aan die hand van enige neiging by vroue om minder as mans met andere te publiseer nie. Hierdie projek is aangevul deur die ontleding van primêre data wat ingesamel is vanuit die CV’s van, en kwalitatiewe onderhoude met sestien hoogs-produktiewe Suid-Afrikaanse akademici. Hierdie tweede projek dra by tot die ontwikkeling van ’n meer in-diepte begrip van die wyse waarop mans en vroue se gesinsverantwoordelikhede, hul nie-navorsingsverbandhoudende akademiese rolle, en hul gendersosialisering in ’n oorwegend manlike milieu en oor die bestek van hul loopbane heen differensieel op hul publikasieproduktiwiteit inwerk. Die proefskrif sluit af met ’n integrasie van die literatuur-oorsig met die hoofbevindinge van die twee projekte, op grond waarvan aanbevelings vir toekomstige navorsing gemaak word, en voorstelle aan die hand gedoen word vir die meting van publikasieproduktiwiteit wat sensitief sou wees vir die genderverskille wat in hierdie proefskrif uitgelig is.

This aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which writing skills offered in the one-year intensive English course and in the 75 hour course of Speaking and Writing Skills, prepare students for academic writing in the subjects which are offered through the medium of English. The study focused on first year Economics and Management.

This investigation is concerned with the problem of Texas employers' inability to hire adequately trained technical communication personnel because Texas universities and colleges do not offer a bachelor's degree program for that career field. This study contains the results of five separate surveys that investigate the backgrounds and training of present technical communication personnel and the training desired by supervisory personnel. The study also recommends a bachelor's degree program in technical communication with three technological specialties: electronics, mechanical, and chemical/petroleum. Anticipated problems in setting up such a degree program and possible solutions to the problems are discussed in the study. The suggested freshman and sophomore curriculum could be used as a guideline for a junior college associate program.

Submitted by Filipe dos Santos (fsantos@pucsp.br) on 2017-09-28T12:41:45Z No. of bitstreams: 1 Valter Zotto de Andrade.pdf: 3866423 bytes, checksum: f9ed5f2ee6f4fd595aac2188da6242e1 (MD5) / Made available in DSpace on 2017-09-28T12:41:45Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Valter Zotto de Andrade.pdf: 3866423 bytes, checksum: f9ed5f2ee6f4fd595aac2188da6242e1 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2017-09-13 / This thesis is situated in the Reading, Writing and Portuguese Language Teaching research line of the Program of Postgraduate Studies in Portuguese Language at the Catholic University of São Paulo (PUCSP) and its main subject is the rhetorical organization and the textual sequences of the academic article abstract genre. This study starts from the hypothesis that the rhetorical units of the genre under study are primarily constructed by narrative and descriptive sequences. Guided by this assumption, we defined the following research question: What textual sequences are predominant in the rhetorical units of an academic paper abstract? The general objective of this investigation is reflecting on the compositional structure of the academic paper abstract and the textual sequences which compose it. In order to achieve this general objective, the following specific goals were defined: 1º) describe the rhetorical organization of abstracts from academic papers selected from three journals specialized in Language; 2º) identify and analyze the textual sequences present in the abstracts which compose the corpus; 3º) relate the two approaches in order to identify which textual sequences are predominant in the rhetorical units composing the analyzed corpus. The theoretical foundation wherein this study is based on is comprised mostly by the assumptions of socio-rhetorical (BIASI-RODRIGES, 1998; SWALES, 1990, 2009; BHATIA, 1993, 2001; MILLER, 2012; BAZERMAN, 2011), Text Linguistics and Discourse Text Analysis (MARQUESI, 2004, 2016; BONINI, 2005; HERRERO CECILIA, 2006; PASSEGGI et al., 2010; ADAM, 2009, 2011; SILVA, 2012). The corpus is comprised by 30 academic paper abstracts from the Language field, of which we selected 11, whose analysis we present for exemplification purposes. We established as categories for analysis the rhetorical units, academic paper structure and textual sequences. From a methodology perspective, this research is descriptive, of a qualitative approach and interpretative basis. The obtained results show the predominance of narrative and descriptive sequences in the rhetorical units presented in the analyzed abstracts / Esta tese se insere na linha de pesquisa Leitura, Escrita e Ensino de Língua Portuguesa, do Programa de Estudos Pós-Graduados em Língua Portuguesa da Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo (PUC-SP) e tem como tema a organização retórica e as sequências textuais presentes em textos do gênero resumo de artigo acadêmico. Nossa hipótese é que as unidades retóricas do gênero em estudo são compostas predominantemente pelas sequências narrativa e descritiva. Orientados por essa proposição, definimos a seguinte pergunta de pesquisa: Quais sequências textuais são predominantes nas unidades retóricas de resumos de artigo acadêmico? Temos como objetivo geral refletir sobre a organização retórica do resumo do gênero artigo acadêmico e sobre as sequências textuais que o compõem. Para alcançarmos esse objetivo geral, elegemos os seguintes objetivos específicos: 1º) verificar a organização retórica que ocorre em resumos de artigos acadêmicos selecionados de três revistas especializadas na área de Letras; 2º) identificar e analisar as sequências textuais presentes nos resumos que compõem o corpus; 3º) relacionar as duas abordagens, de modo a caracterizar as sequências textuais predominantes nas unidades retóricas que compõem o corpus analisado. O aporte teórico que embasa o estudo é constituído principalmente pelos pressupostos da sociorretórica (BIASI-RODRIGUES, 1998; SWALES, 1990, 2009; BHATIA, 1993, 2001; MILLER, 2012; BAZERMAN, 2011), da Linguística Textual e da Análise Textual dos Discursos (MARQUESI, 2004, 2016; BONINI, 2005; HERRERO CECILIA, 2006; PASSEGGI et al., 2010; ADAM, 2009, 2011; SILVA, 2012). O corpus é composto por 30 resumos de artigos acadêmicos da área de Letras, dos quais selecionamos 11, cuja análise apresentamos a título de exemplificação. Estabelecemos como categorias de análise as unidades retóricas, a estrutura do artigo e as sequências textuais. Do ponto de vista metodológico, esta pesquisa é descritiva, de abordagem qualitativa e de base interpretativa. Os resultados obtidos demonstram predominância das sequências narrativa e descritiva nas unidades retóricas presentes no gênero analisado

The iTour Project is an empirical study of the design of online interactive animated tours (iTours), and establishes a knowledge base for technical communicators and new media designers working in this area. The key objectives of this research were to understand the features of effective iTours; to explore the processes and techniques of designing and testing effective iTours; and to establish new praxis in new media design for technical communication. Design artefacts resulted from six key activities including: (1) Sub-project 1- RMIT Multimedia Online documentation with basic animation; (2) Sub-project 2- Online @ RMIT Orientation with some iTour animation; (3) Third-party iTour analytical review to deconstruct iTours and determine key elements; (4) Sub-project 3- Online @ RMIT iTours; (5) iTour Guidelines; and (6) A second, more comprehensive third-party iTour analysis to test the Guidelines. The outcome of the research is encapsulated in a web site that binds the artefacts of design sub-projects with a set of Guidelines. These Guidelines form a conceptual, structural and operational framework for iTour designers, and draw on the knowledge established while designing and testing iTours, analysing third-party iTours, and researching comparative fields. These fields include technical communication; new media; web; usability design and testing; and, to a lesser extent, software design and testing. The Guidelines, in conjunction with the knowledge base, were developed to facilitate effective communication through iTours. Through this research, the design action case study was established as a hybrid research approach: design research and action research are blended; and knowledge is situated within, and derived from, a case study. In support of design research, the PDIOR design cycles have been specified and include these phases: plan; develop; implement; observe; and reflect. The PDIOR approach combines design research and action research in a cyclical mode to explore technical communication and new media activities. Finally, eleven principles for designing effective iTours emerged from this research project. Articulation of these principles, in addition to the Guidelines, contributes new knowledge in the field for technical communicators, new media designers and others, who wish to engage in iTour design.

Nuo 1995 metų bankai pradėjo teikti savo klientams tiesiogines prieigas prie savo sąskaitų per internetą iš bet kurio pasaulio taško. Lietuvoje šios paslaugos vartotojų skaičius auga kiekvienais metais. Tačiau didėjant internetinės bankininkystės klientų skaičiui, daugėja ir su paslaugos vartojimu susijusių problemų. Viena didžiausių – vartotojų kompetencijos trūkumas naudojantis paslauga. Vieni nemoka atlikti paprasčiausių operacijų, o labiau patyrę vartotojai dažniausiai nebūna susipažinę su visomis internetinės bankininkystės galimybėmis. Darbe aprašomas bankininkystės žinyno modelis, sukurtas naudojant techninio rašymo principus ir pritaikytas atskiriems vartotojų segmentams. Modelio tinkamumas įvertintas atliekant eksperimentinį tyrimą, kuris susidarė iš virtualaus komandinio darbo projekto bei anketinės apklausos. / Since 1995 banks offer their clients direct access to bank accounts through internet from everywhere in the world. In Lithuania number of internet banking users is growing every year. During 9 months of year 2006, number of users has increased 24 %. More and more traditional banking features are implemented into internet banking and that makes internet banking complex. While the number of users keeps increasing, we have to face more problems too. In 2003 SEB Bankas carried out a research that indicated that one third of people do not use internet banking because they are not ignorant of this service. Beginners usually do not know how to perform basic features while advanced users are not familiar with the entire internet banking opportunities. The goal of this paper is to create an internet banking manual’s model that combines the principles of technical writing and will be adopted for separated user segments. Dual experimental research has been carried out to evaluate the created model.

This aim of this study was to investigate the extent to which writing skills offered in the one-year intensive English course and in the 75 hour course of Speaking and Writing Skills, prepare students for academic writing in the subjects which are offered through the medium of English. The study focused on first year Economics and Management.

Thesis (M.T.S.C.)--Miami University, Dept. of English, 2005. / Title from first page of PDF document. Document formatted into pages; contains [1], vii, 65 p. : ill. Includes bibliographical references.