<p>  </p> <p>Science by its very nature is a networked discipline. Experiments and research build off of past experiments and research. Labs are collaborative spaces where many individuals work together with an array of technologies and other infrastructural elements. Much of the work of network building in science is done online as scientists communicate with each other and with the public on platforms like Twitter. But how do science communicators work in these online, digital spaces to build their networks and communicate? What kinds of rhetorical choices do science communicators make when they share research or reach out to connect with others? How do social media, networking, and other technologies influence those choices? What kinds of networks are created in these online, public discussions? In this study, I draw from actor-network theory and assemblage theory methodologies to begin answering these questions. Using snowball sampling, I recruited 12 climate science communicators from three network clusters: Purdue scientists, scientists whose work was highlighted by the nonprofit Black in Environment, and science writers for NASA. Drawing from choices I observed in the Twitter writing of participants, I then spoke with each participant in a discourse-based interview, inviting them to reflect on the choices they made as they wrote online. </p> <p><br></p> <p>The resulting conversation indicated the nonhuman (such as technologies) and human influences on their online discourse. Our discussions also revealed how participants used rhetorical strategies around identification and emotion to better appeal to their specific audiences. With identification, they not only asked themselves how an audience might react to their writing, but also engaged in internal dialogue with their imagined audiences and used conversational language. With emotion, participants emphasized the importance of humor and positivity as strategies by which to make online spaces more appealing and welcoming. This study offers four takeaways from the data: (1) science communicators should be aware of and take control of the networks that surround them; (2) public science communication should still be specific and directed at smaller audiences; (3) science communication—especially in online public spheres like Twitter—should not shy away from engaging with emotion; and (4) those of us who teach writing can (and should) teach writing as a networked process. </p>

<p>  </p> <p>This dissertation explores multimodal composing strategies enacted by technical and professional communication (TPC) writers during and post-COVID-19 period. The researcher presents an investigation into a course unit project and pedagogical approach framed around the idea of multimodal composition in an upper-division professional writing class with transnational students majoring in management, economics, health science, aviation technology, mathematics, computer engineering, accounting, consumer science, biology, and agronomy in a large research university in the Midwest. This study advocates a multimodal approach to teaching writing in its expanded sense with multimodal career unit project assignments in multiple media and modes, including resumes/CVs, personal statements, LinkedIn profiles, video profiles/resumes, job position analyses, and rhetorical and mode analyses. This project presents implications for instructors of technical and professional communicators who are aiming to develop and update their curricula and teaching pedagogies situated in multiple modes across global audiences, for multiple purposes, and in a variety of media.</p>

This dissertation examines the historical technical publications of the United States Army from 1775-2004. Historical research in Army technical communication reveals the persuasive characteristics of its technical publications. Elements of narrative, storytelling, and anthropomorphism are techniques writers used to help deliver information to readers. Research also reveals the design techniques writers adopted to unite the situated literacies of the troops. Analyses of print, comic, and digital media expose the increasing visualization of information since the eighteenth century. The results of such historical research can be applied to new media designs. Automating processes captured in paper-based technical manuals and adding intelligent functionality to these designs are two of many possible design options. Research also dispels a myth concerning the history of modern technical communication and illustrates the development of many genres and subgenres. Modern technical communication was not born of World War II as many scholars suggest, but was a legitimate field in eighteenth-century America. Finally, historical research in Army technical communication shows the systematic progression of a technological society and our increasing dependence on machine intelligence.

This is an interdisciplinary master's level thesis that explores links among technical writing, training manuals, surveillance, and anti-union rhetoric used with service workers in select American chains and franchises. Brief histories are provided, including those of technical writing, the rise of unions in America, and how technical writing became inextricably linked with labor. A major shift occurred in the 20th century when workers began interacting less with products and more with the public. The research focuses on training manuals, techniques, and rehearsed dialogues of McDonald's, Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Whole Foods, Panera, and Publix, though similar organizations are referenced. Service worker language, uniforms, and store decorum are sometimes analyzed for their rhetorical content. The idea of a single, technically written training manual in the service sector is a misnomer; training is delivered through a pastiche of manuals, videos, computers, apps, flipcharts, and on the job training. Unions are avoided through franchising (and therefore eat outlet not possessing enough workers to organize), creating conditions of high turnover rates, rhetoric, and use of euphemism. Global corporations are likened to "superfiefdoms," with service workers equated to modern serfs. If the world has evolved into supercorporations, it is argued then that the Publix employee-owned model may be the best approach and the most dignified of all. The technical writing and instruction in state-sponsored and federalized school pedagogies, which emphasize drills and compliance, may be culturally linked to the training found in these entry-level service jobs, and more academic study exploring these links is called for.

Women are currently underrepresented in the Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how this underrepresentation translates to a gender gap in the field of technical communication and how this gap causes women to challenge the predominant objectivist paradigm in the field. Through an investigation of peer-reviewed journal articles, periodicals, critical theory, and articles published in online magazines such as Slate, I identify the gendered nature of modern technology and discuss to what extent a shift in the predominant paradigm has occurred in the professional arena. In looking at several theoretical approaches and contemporary examples, I conclude that a significant paradigm shift has not in fact occurred due to an underlying, culturally promoted sexism. Additionally, I conclude that neither new approaches in the technical communication classroom, nor attempts to increasingly include women in the technological fields will result in a significant paradigm change by themselves. I also point to a need for further meaningful research in how sexism influences the professional world as well as a more thorough conversation regarding a fundamental shift in workplace relations between the genders.

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