Transcript Supplementing Your Reports: At Look at Front and End Matter

Writing Titles & Abstracts
by Jennifer L. Bowie
Writing Your Title
• Huff recommends:
–
–
–
–
–
Informative
Brief
Appealing to a larger group of readers
Making it interesting
Challenging reader expectations
What do you think?
Does this change for a presentation vs an
article and so on?
Example Titles: Good or Bad?
• He Surfs Like a Girl: Exploring Gender and
Sex Differences in Web Navigation (Bowie)
• Who We Are, Where We Are, What We Do:
The Relevance of Research (Hayhoe, TC)
• Toward a Meaningful Model of Technical
Communication (Hart & Conklin TC)
• Introducing Seniors to New Media
Technology: New Ways of Thinking For a
New Target Group (Schwender & Köhler
TC)
Example Titles: Good or Bad?
• The Rhetorical Minefield of Risk Communication
(Kostelnick JBTC)
• Surviving the Design and Implementation of a ContentManagement System: Do the Benefits Offset the
Challenges? (Pennington JBTC)
• Learned Correctors as Technical Editors: Specialization
and Collaboration in Early Modern European Printing
Houses (Malone JBTC)
• Online Education in an Age of Globalization: Foundational
Perspectives and Practices for Technical Communication
Instructors and Trainers (St. Amant TCQ)
• Immersion in a Digital Pool: Training Prospective Online
Instructors in Online Environments (Cook TCQ)
• Exploring Electronic Landscapes: Technical
Communication, Online Learning, and Instructor
Preparedness (Meloncon TCQ)
Informative Abstract
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Most common form of abstracts in articles
Stands alone in terms of meaning
“Capsule” or summary of the article
Sometimes just called a summary or abstract
Written for a general audience
Adds no new information
Presents information in this sequence:
1.
2.
3.
Identifies issue or need that lead to the report
Offers major findings from the report body
Includes a condensed conclusion and recommendations (if
any)
Informative Abstract: Example
Although there is myriad research about the Internet
and the web, there is limited research on sex and
gender differences in web use, especially regarding
navigating websites. As a step towards
understanding possible differences, I draw from an
extensive research study on sex and gender
differences in web use. From this study, I present
three key areas of sex differences and two key areas
of gender differences in web navigation and two key
areas of gender differences. Along with these
differences, I provide several implications for web
design. I recommend technical communicators
consider not only these differences, but other
possible differences to better create truly “users”centered design.
Descriptive Abstract
•
•
•
•
Describes the article
Focuses on nature and extent of article
Presents a broad view
Helps readers determine if they want to
read the abstract
• Offer no major facts or results from the
original
• Focuses on methodology not results
Descriptive Abstract: Example
Sex and gender differences in web
navigation methods are examined in a
usability testing-based research project
A Look at Some Abstracts
Exploring Electronic Landscapes: Technical Communication, Online Learning,
and Instructor Preparedness
Lisa Meloncon University of Cincinnati
Instead of focusing on technologies of online delivery, specific course design, or
reporting on the successes or lessons learned of an online or distance education
course, in this essay I focus on the readiness of technical communication
teachers for teaching in online settings. Using ideas gleaned from cultural
geography, specifically the concept of reading and interpreting landscapes, I
develop a framework for instructors to determine their willingness, readiness,
and preparedness to teach online. The final section of this essay provides an
example of using this framework based on my explorations into my readiness to
teach online. I find that self-selection for online instruction is a critical step in
developing powerful instructional settings and allows technical communication
teachers to cross or remove existing boundaries within their own pedagogical
practices.
Technical Communication Quarterly 2007, Vol. 16, No. 1, Pages 31-53
A Look at Some Abstracts
Immersion in a Digital Pool: Training Prospective Online
Instructors in Online Environments
Kelli Cargile Cook Utah State University
This article argues that the online environment is optimal for
teaching prospective instructors how to develop and implement
online courses. To support this claim, the author draws on
hypertext theories to define the online course archive as a
constructive hypertext and to describe the work the course
archive is able to do when used to instruct prospective online
instructors. The claim is further supported through a quantitative
and qualitative analysis of a course archive.
Technical Communication Quarterly 2007, Vol. 16, No. 1, Pages
55-82
A Look at Some Abstracts
Learned Correctors as Technical Editors: Specialization and
Collaboration in Early Modern European Printing Houses
Edward A. Malone University of Missouri–Rolla
The technology of movable type in early modern Europe created new
communication challenges (e.g., typographical errors) for book
producers. These challenges were greater with books written in learned
or foreign languages or about scientific or technical subjects. Printers
experimented with different strategies to ensure correctness, but the
best solution came from delegating jobs to specialists. Freelance
scholars were employed by authors, printers, and booksellers to correct
books before publication, and some of these learned correctors were
early versions of technical editors. Their history may offer insight into
current communication concerns, such as the role of learned correctors
in our present technological age.
Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Vol. 20, No. 4, 389-424
(2006)
A Look at Some Abstracts
Introducing Seniors to New Media Technology: New Ways of Thinking For a
New Target Group
Schwender, Clemens; Köhler, Christoph
As adults get older, they face somatic (such a eyesight, hearing, motor control) and
cognitive (such as information processing, memory, multitasking) restrictions.
These restrictions also affect the reading and understanding of technical
documentation. In a three-phase program, we investigated the documentationrelated problems of seniors and developed solutions.
Phase I: We read and discussed a chapter of a handbook for a mobile phone with
older adults to find out where the problems were.
Phase II: We reformulated and redesigned that chapter with another group of
seniors.
Phase III: We tested the final version against the original with yet another set of our
target population.
Briefly, the three phases of the test revealed that on the somatic level, seniors need
an appropriate font size. On the cognitive level, they need clearly structured
information and less computer terminology. Most likely all audiences would
benefit from these changes.
Technical Communication, Volume 53, Number 4, November 2006, pp. 464-470(7)
The End