Digital Literacy for Technical Communication

21st Century Theory and Practice

Rachel Spilka

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2009
• ISBN:
  9781135236755
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Communication Studies
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

Digital Literacy for Technical Communication helps technical communicators make better sense of technology's impact on their work, so they can identify new ways to adapt, adjust, and evolve, fulfilling their own professional potential. This collection is comprised of three sections, each designed to explore answers to these questions:

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• How has technical communication work changed in response to the current (digital) writing environment?

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• What is important, foundational knowledge in our field that all technical communicators need to learn?

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• How can we revise past theories or develop new ones to better understand how technology has transformed our work?

Bringing together highly-regarded specialists in digital literacy, this anthology will serve as an indispensible resource for scholars, students, and practitioners. It illuminates technology's impact on their work and prepares them to respond to the constant changes and challenges in the new digital universe.

Part I
Transformations in Our Work

1
Computers and Technical Communication in the 21st Century

Saul Carliner

This chapter describes the impact of digital technology on technical communicators. It starts by describing how technology changed the jobs and job titles of technical communicators in one organization. Then it provides a broad history of the development of technology for technical communication and covers, as well, implications of the technologies on the work of technical communicators.

Note that this history has an admittedly personal dimension to it, and like all histories, this one reflects a particular point of view. It focuses on the role of the technical writer documenting software and similar high-technology products; that’s my background in this field and what I have experienced and know best. But such an emphasis has validity and value, especially if we consider demographics of the field of technical communication, which suggest that my experience represents that of the majority of technical communicators. According to my recollections of the membership demographics of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), the world’s largest professional organization for technical communicators between the 1980s and 2000s, when I was an officer of the organization and regularly received reports about our membership numbers, writers/editors accounted for well over 50% of the membership, and nearly 60% of the membership was employed in the high-technology sector, including computer hardware and software and telecommunications. The membership numbers I would receive later in the decade were similar to those in a survey I conducted in 1985 for my research methods course at the University of Minnesota of people attending the International Technical Communication Conference (as STC’s annual conference was once called). It’s true that technical communicators working in certain sub-segments of the field, like those writing military specifications and those working in scientific communication, most likely experienced a history that differs from the one described here. But although my general focus is on the technical writer working in the high-technology field, I also cover the effect of technology on people serving other roles in the development of technical communication products. Overall, the aim of this chapter is to provide a history that all readers of this collection will find useful, as they contemplate the impact of technology on their past, current, and future work in the field.

How Technology Affected Technical Communication in One Organization

One way to gain insight into ways that digital technology has changed the work of technical communicators over the years is to follow changes in technology and a corresponding change in job titles and responsibilities at one of the largest employers for technical communicators. The changes experienced within this computer manufacturer mirror those experienced by many other technical communicators, including those working for other organizations in the same industry, or in other industries, such as defense, government, medical devices, and hospitality. Table 1.1 (p. 24) summarizes the transition that I will be describing in this part regarding technical communicators’ jobs in this organization between the late 1970s and now.

Consider, first, the responsibilities of technical communicators at that company in the late 1970s (Davis, 1989). At that time, its primary products were mainframe and mini-computers serving large numbers of users and housed in large, specially cooled spaces. The primary difference between a mainframe and mini-computer was the number of users they could serve: mini-computers served only a few to several hundred users; mainframes served several hundred to several thousand users. The company manufactured computer hardware and developed nearly all of the software that ran on these computers. These systems were sold in low to moderate volumes to customers who would provide weeks of training to the staff that programmed and operated them. In turn, the computer manufacturer provided extensive on-site technical support and assistance, including the time-consuming tasks of setting up and customizing these systems.

In this environment, the primary job of technical communicators was to document the functions and features of these systems, kind of like a technical version of taking minutes at a meeting. The job titles of technical communicators—writer, editor, or illustrator—reflected their role in the production of technical content. These jobs were considered professional (that is, in practical terms, under the regulations of the United States and other jurisdictions, these workers were not eligible for overtime pay). Production was handled by a separate class of workers, called production assistants, who were considered para-professionals (that is, the job was classified under U.S. labor regulations as nonprofessional, so workers were eligible for overtime pay). The main qualification for the job of a technical writer in this environment was experience supporting and servicing products that were the subject of documentation. These workers developed competency in writing through training and on-the-job mentoring.

The primary task of these technical writers was to edit product specifications and make them usable as reference materials by technically astute users, who already received in-depth training and had easy access to this manufacturer’s technical support staff should issues arise that the documentation did not address. In a few instances, people were hired with formal training in technical writing, but during the 1970s, this employer typically emphasized technical knowledge over writing skill. Field experience with the product was also sought from editors and illustrators, though they, too, could expect to receive specialized training in those areas. Writers prepared their manuscripts by either marking up in handwriting earlier versions of published materials or typing extensive new or revised passages (either themselves or with the assistance of a typing pool). The production staff then retyped the content and prepared the materials either on a compositor (a special typewriter that prepares content for offset printing) or with an emerging class of software known as automated text processing systems. Nearly all of the material was published in printed form, though the first help systems appeared during this time. These systems were considered experimental in nature and supplemental to the user experience. (An all-too familiar help screen advised, “Help not available,” reinforcing the role of Help as a supplemental resource.)

The business climate in general, and the environment for technical communication in particular, changed considerably by the mid-1980s with the growth in number of types and customers for the company’s minicomputers and, more significantly, with the introduction of the company’s best-selling personal computer. Although the mainframe computer remained popular, the other products not only provided significant revenue, but also served different markets and, in turn, changed the nature of technical communication. Mini and personal computers were sold in large volumes to customers who had little or no computer experience. The organizations purchasing these computers invested the least amount needed to train their staffs in managing computer operations—and designated only a few key staff members to such roles.

With such large numbers of customers to serve, the company changed its approach to technical support. It provided only essential support and shifted responsibilities like setting up and customizing computers and troubleshooting computer problems to its increasingly novice users. Customers who needed more support had to pay for it through service contracts or on an as-needed basis.

In addition, although the company continued to develop software that ran on these computers, the increasingly specialized use of computers ultimately brought about an increasing number of software applications that were developed by third parties (that is, by other companies), and called third-party software to address these market niches. Some of these market niches were highly specialized, such as membership organizations, medical and dental offices, tax preparation, and the petroleum industry. Other market niches focused on specialized uses of computers, such as forecasting, creating and managing databases, and creating, managing, and preparing

Table 1.1 Transitions in the technical communication job at a large employer of technical communicators

information for publication, an area then known as word processing and desktop publishing.

Both the change in markets for computers and the rise of word processing and desktop publishing led to profound changes in the work of technical communicators in this organization. The primary responsibility of technical communicators shifted from documenting the functions and features of products for use by highly trained, well-supported computer professionals, to explaining how to perform key tasks with the systems to computer novices and others who (the company assumed) would develop, at best, limited expertise with computers. To address this changing need, the company replaced its specialty-based job classes of technical writer, technical editor, and technical illustrator with a single job title: information developer (Davis, 1989). Information developers were supposed to serve as advocates for computer users and to supply their versatile base of skills (writing, editing, and illustration) to explain products, services, and their uses to users. In response to this new mandate, information developers experimented with new modes of simplified and user-centered communication, such as task-oriented writing, wordless instructions, and online help systems (which became increasingly common each year of the decade). Adding to the challenge, this U.S.-based company grew substantially outside of its home country, and increasingly needed to translate and localize its systems and their documentation. As a broader response to less sophisticated users working in a widening range of contexts, these information developers tried to influence the design of the systems so that they would pose fewer barriers to users, and to assess the overall usability of systems shipped to market. In essence, these information developers saw themselves as the user advocates.

Although product and technical expertise continued to be highly valued, because the new job emphasized synthesizing information in context and using a variety of communication skills to create technical content, the preferred job candidate for information development positions had a university degree in technical communication or a similar field. The company occasionally hired experienced people with product and technical skills and then retrained them as information developers, but this happened during difficult economic periods and was primarily an effort to maintain employment opportunities for these redeployed workers, not to bring technical skills into the information development group. All information development jobs were classified as professional, except for those in probationary (entry-level) positions.

At this time, the rise of word processing and automated publishing also affected the way that information developers prepared content. Increasingly, information developers prepared their own material for production, entering it in text processing systems themselves rather than marking up drafts and typing insert pages for others to retype. Furthermore, the text processing system used in this company involved a complex text markup language. In such systems, information developers use tags to indicate different parts of the text, like <p> to indicate a paragraph and <h3> to indicate a third-level heading. These systems contrasted with the popular PC-based word processing and desktop publishing used elsewhere at the time. The PC-based systems did not involve tags. Instead, they let users see the text exactly as it would be printed (called What-You-See-Is-What-You-Get, or WYSIWYG) systems. In contrast, at the company, text processing software worked on a mainframe computer, sometimes with the use of PCs that emulated mainframe terminals; the PCs would be connected to the mainframe computer and the image on the screen would then appear like that of a mainframe terminal rather than that of a PC screen. This use of a text-processing system reflected the company’s significant investment in these mainframe-based publishing systems. Although the company continued to maintain a production staff (whose job titles did not change during this period), its size dwindled as technical communicators increasingly handled many production tasks themselves.

By the late 1990s, the shift from mainframe computers to PCs was complete, and the Internet had emerged as the primary means of communicating online. The market for mainframe and mini-computers had changed significantly by this time. Although demand still existed, customers increasingly used these mainframes to manage large networks of PCs. Similarly, although the company still manufactured PC hardware, it had long ceded the PC software market to other companies. The hardware market had become increasingly competitive and price-sensitive. That is, customers now assumed that, for the most part, product quality did not vary among brands, so they chose their PCs based on price; not surprisingly, consumers tended to prefer the lowest priced computer.

To survive in this environment, the company increasingly moved to providing specialized services to customers. For most customers, “receiving services” meant that the company would provide all of the computer equipment and software needed in the organization, and then, for an additional fee, would manage that network of hardware and software, as well as write and manage specialized software needed within the organization (this software was called customized applications, because it was intended for use only within one organization).

The job of the technical communicator underwent another round of profound changes in this period. In addition to working within product development groups to prepare materials for users, technical communicators worked at client sites to document these installations and customized applications. Even among those who worked in product development groups, the technical communicators tended to work within two broad categories of assignments. Some became designers of the experiences ...

Table of contents

• Contents
• Foreword
• Preface
• Introduction
• Part I Transformations in Our Work
• Part II New Foundational Knowledge For Our Field
• Part III New Directions in Cultural, Cross-Cultural, Audience, and Ethical Perspectives
• Editor and Contributor Biographies
• Author Index
• Subject Index