Issues

6:4: Diverse Technical Communication

An issue focusing on the issues of diversity within the fields of technical and scientific communication.

6:2: Defining/Positioning Technical Communication

Defining the field of technical communication, and clarifying its relationship to other disciplines is more difficult than one might imagine.

6:1: We Need to Talk

A small collection of articles about topics too-seldom discussed in our field, but which deserve closer examination.

5:2: Technology and Workplace Communication

Discussions of the significance of technologies to communication within the workplace.

5:1: Implications of Workplace Communication Technologies

Discussions about the significance of technologies to communication within the workplace.

4:2: Electronic Publishing

Technical communication's relationship to electronic publishing differs a bit from that of other fields, such as computer science or literature. The articles in this issue begin to articulate some of the implications of electronic publishing for our field.

4:1: Technology and Technical Communication

You'd think that technology would be an obvious part of technical communication. But there's more to consider than you'd think.

3:3: Reading the Present

Looking at present practices in technical and professional communication should inform both present and future 'best practices.' But we don't always examine every element of the present properly. This issue examines four aspects of present practice often underestimated.

3:2: Writing the Future

The status of technical communication as a profession has been a subject in debate in recent decades. This issue discusses how to address professional/practitioner dichotomies within the field of technical communication, how to increase our status within organizations and how should could and should imagine ourselves as a professional community.

3:1: Professionalism in Technical Communication

The status of technical communication as a profession has been a subject in debate in recent decades. This issue discusses how to address professional/practitioner dichotomies within the field of technical communication, how to increase our status within organizations and how should could and should imagine ourselves as a professional community.

2:4: Form and Content in Technical Communication Theory

Many technical communicators hear in the workplace that 'form' and 'content' are discrete elements. Subject matter experts often consider themselves providers of content, relegating technical communicators to mere addition of form or style to the substance. This issue rethinks that dichotomy, examining alternative theories which may explain our work better.

2:3: Reader-Response Theory in the 21st Century

For decades, technical communication theorists have grappled with the problem that readers don't all approach writings from the same perspective. In the 1970s, Reader-Response theory came to visibility and importance within theory in our field. This issue grapples with how to extend Reader-Response methodologies into contemporary and emerging challenges.

2:2: New Technologies' Implications for Technical Communication Theory

Many critics have argued that changes in any profession's material circumstances have implications for its theories and methodologies. This issue will examine what the Web, portable computing, and other emerging technologies might imply for future technical communication theory.

2:1: Positioning Technical Communication Between the Sciences and Humanities

Should technical communication be viewed primarily as scientific study, or is it better suited to the humanities? This debate, argued actively over the past twenty years, is still under way. This issue adds several new perspectives to recent discussion in the field.

1:1: Information Design in Technical Communication

If the field of technical communication is no longer solely concerned with technical writing, then the field needs a term to describe what it is that we do. 'Design,' with variants such as 'document design' and 'information design' have emerged in recent years as a more inclusive term for the aspects of tech comm which complement writing and editing. This issue discusses several topics surrounding information design in technical communication.