| Using Problem Analysis to Support Decisions and Planning in Complex Processes | | BIBA | 3-14 | |
| Chris Hallgren | |||
| Hallgren argues that besides addressing the routine tasks users perform, adequate documentation must also anticipate the problems they will face when deciding which tasks to perform or when planning complex tasks. He illustrates the extra explanatory features of problem-centered documentation with three before-and-after comparative miniature case studies based on actual documentation passages. Accompanying Hallgren's article are 10 pages of detailed analytical commentary on his claims, in three evaluative essays by Stephen W. Draper, Arthur G. Elser, and Bob Waite. | |||
| New Guises for Recurring Problems in Documentation | | BIB | 15-18 | |
| Stephen W. Draper | |||
| Complex Problems: What's the Next Step? | | BIB | 19-22 | |
| Authur G. Elser | |||
| Documenting Complex Processes: Educating the User and Simplifying the Task | | BIB | 23-25 | |
| Bob Waite | |||
| Annotated Bibliography on Internationalization and Localization | | BIBA | 26-33 | |
| Emmanuel Uren | |||
| Summarizing years of practical experience in his notes and commentary, Uren systematically reviews the recent literature about internationalization and localization, briefly evaluating over 4 dozen articles and books along with many relevant standards (all grouped by operating system or platform where appropriate). "Localizing software," he explains with astute examples, "requires more than translating documentation and the [user] interface" into another language. | |||
| SIGDOC97 Conference Call for Papers | | BIB | 34-35 | |
| Karl Smart | |||
| News of the Profession: Thanks and WWW Usability Too | | BIB | 36-37 | |
| T. R. Girill | |||
| Computerized Workplace Writing | | BIBA | 2-9 | |
| Scott DeLoach | |||
| DeLoach critically analyzes every essay in the 1996 anthology by Patricia Sullivan and Jeannie Dautermann called Electronic Literacies in the Workplace, looking for insights on how academic training intersects with writing in industry. He finds that schools need to teach about time and budget constraints as well as drafting techniques if students are to be adequately prepared for work life. And he concludes that the open, egalitarian environment that writers seek when they move from school to work must be justified in economic terms if business practice is to change. | |||
| What's Going on in Indexing? | | BIBA | 10-15 | |
| Nancy C. Mulvany | |||
| While summarizing and evaluating the recent literature on indexing and its relevance to computer documentation, Mulvany defends three claims: (1) An index is one of the most important features of a manual. (2) Adequate indexes are produced by skilled professionals; they are not just computer-generated word lists. (3) Even in online documentation, professionally constructed indexes add value that cannot be duplicated by summarization software or text-search programs. | |||
| The Linguistics of Links: Hyperphoric Grammar Markups for HTML Documents | | BIBA | 16-21 | |
| David W. Norton | |||
| Just as linguistic clarity about traditional referencing features in text improves that text's usefulness, argues Norton, so can linguistic analysis of between-document ("hyperphoric") interactive links improve the usefulness of HTML documents. Norton undertakes that analysis and finds four distinct kinds of link. He then suggests how HTML browsers could exploit those link types to alter their labels and prompts to present more useful displays of online text. | |||
| Table of Contents Service for Instructional Science | | BIB | 22-32 | |
| T. R. Girill | |||
| SIGDOC97 Conference: The Theme, The Venue, and How to Learn More | | BIB | 33-34 | |
| Karl Smart | |||
| What is Text Really? | | BIBA | 1-25 | |
| Steven J. DeRose; David G. Durand; Elli Mylonas; Allen H. Renear | |||
| Document processing software always assumes one or another "model of text." The authors of this reprinted classic paper, originally published in the Journal of Computing in Higher Education in 1990, compare six different text models to argue that the intellectually strongest as well as the most practical is an "ordered hierarchy of content objects" (OHCO). This model also supports SGML. Accompanying this reprint are three commentaries that explore its assumptions and weaknesses. S. Selber contends that the OHCO model is "arhetorical" (pp. 26-31). C. Hill notes that HTML confuses the style and content issues raised here (pp. 32-35). And R. S. Dicks thinks the OHCO approach ignores the graphical aspects of text (pp. 36-39). In a closing response, the original authors retrospectively review their earlier claims and reply to each commentator's suggestions (pp. 40-44). | |||
| The OHCO Model of Text: Merits and Concerns | | BIB | 26-31 | |
| Stuart A. Selber | |||
| Markup Meets the Mainstream: The Future of Content-Based Processing | | BIB | 32-35 | |
| Charles Hill | |||
| Third Commentary on "What is Text Really?" | | BIB | 36-39 | |
| R. Stanley Dicks | |||
| Further Context for "What is Text Really?" | | BIB | 40-44 | |
| Steven J. DeRose; David G. Durand; Elli Mylonas; Allen H. Renear | |||
| Performance Systems Technology and Computer-Based Instruction (Part I) | | BIBA | 45-55 | |
| Gloria A. Reece | |||
| Although performance support and computer-aided training are not the same, they share many goals, techniques, design criteria, and research publications. In this comprehensive literature-awareness essay, Reece uses a careful conceptual survey (and comparison) of these fields as the means to review the professional societies, annual conferences, web sites, published case studies, and prime reference material relevant to both areas. | |||
| SIGDOC97: Lodging and Registration Details | | BIB | 56-63 | |
| Karl Smart | |||
| The Wired Neighborhood: An Extended Multimedia Conversation | | BIB | 1 | |
| Bob Johnson | |||
| A Descriptive Summary of The Wired Neighborhood | | BIB | 2-3 | |
| Becky Graham | |||
| Hitting Home: Communication Technologies and the Everyday | | BIBA | 4-7 | |
| Becky Graham | |||
| This is the first of three related, comparative review essays in which students or teachers of rhetoric analyze Stephen Doheny-Farina's book The Wired Neighborhood (Yale, 1996). Graham focuses on the social implications of networked computing, giving special attention to Doheny-Farina's claims about the possible negative effects of networking on local schools (because of distance education) and on work-place organization (because of telecommuting). | |||
| What Computer Networks Can't Do | | BIBA | 8-10 | |
| Mike Rubingh | |||
| In this second of three related, comparative review essays, Rubingh draws many striking parallels between Doheny-Farina's skeptical claims about computer networks and the similarly skeptical claims about artificial intelligence presented by philosopher Hubert Dreyfus in his 1972 book on What Computers Can't Do. Both authors argue that overlooking the importance of geography and physical place leads to serious conceptual problems with computers and with their simulations of real-life activities. | |||
| The Wired Neighborhood: An Online Conversation | | BIBA | 11-15 | |
| Nancy Allen; Ann Blakeslee | |||
| Allen and Blakeslee construct this third in a series of three comparative review essays in dialog format, so they can conversationally undermine some of Doheny-Farina's pessimism about computer networks. They contend that not only do networks promote geographically scattered professional communities whose members could not otherwise collaborate easily, but networks also sometimes reinforce natural, local communities (towns or school districts) as well. | |||
| Interview with Stephen Doheny-Farina | | BIBA | 16-19 | |
| Stephen Doheny-Farina | |||
| Author Doheny-Farina comments on all his Wired Neighborhood commentators in an interview that immediately follows the three review essays. | |||
| Performance Systems Technology and Computer-Based Instruction (Part II) | | BIBA | 20-25 | |
| Gloria A. Reece | |||
| In this second part of her comprehensive literature-awareness essay (Part I appeared in the August issue), Reece completes her comparison of the two title topics by summarizing several decades in their parallel literature. One detailed table surveys the history of hypertext systems. A second catalogs dozens of journals related to instructional technology. And two other tables graphically summarize key PST and CBI functions and roles. | |||
| A Seven-Dimensional Approach to Graphics | | BIBA | 26-37 | |
| Danny Dowhal | |||
| In the course of this introductory conceptual tour for documentation professionals, Dowhal perceptively and systematically explains, contrasts, and illustrates the design value of points (pixels), lines (vectors), shapes, 2-D graphics that simulate 3-D graphics, true 3-D models, simulated motion, actual animated graphics, and visual material enhanced with emotion, sound, or human interaction. | |||
| Table of Contents Service for Journal of Business and Technical Communication | | BIB | 38-44 | |
| T. R. Girill | |||
| SIGDOC98 Call for Participation | | BIB | 45-49 | |
| Phyllis Galt | |||