...

I am unconsciously afraid to so much as look at the methods section.

[breathe]

current affirmations

The list is done and formatted [# of sources = 124. Current weight: 114].

[breathe]

The references are done and formatted.

[breathe]

I will soon attain release from this endless cycle of revision.

[breathe]

The methods section is standing between me and a fine bottle of Boone's farm.

[breathe].

sometimes

Sometimes you didn't really love the person and sometimes you "didn't really love the person". Then I gently freed the scarf from the door but no one moved.

the end is near

This analysis of hacks directly responds to recent calls for technical communication research in new, non-workplace sites (Tebeaux; Savage; Kimball) as well as to Johnson’s (1998) call to broaden technical communication scholarship in the area of computer documentation by examining informal documentation written by users (p. ). Furthermore, an analysis of hacks will promote the ideal of interdisciplinary and multidisciplinary research in technical communication (Johnson, p. 14) by participating in underlife studies, an area of interest for surrounding fields.

sample paragraph with blur

A particularly striking consequence of the narrow emphasis on the workplace in technical communication is that technical communication is the only field in the social sciences that has yet to develop underlife as a legitimate area of study. The term underlife refers to communicative acts that “employ unauthorized means, or obtain unauthorized ends, or both” to undercut prescribed organizational norms (Asylums, p. 189) and is associated with an early move in sociology research to examine off-the-record or “deviant” communication in organizations (cite Goffman). In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the fields that “nourish” technical communication (Johnson, p. 13) such as composition studies (Brooke, 1987), literacy studies (Beall and Trimbur, 1993; Moje, 2000) and industrial-organizational sociology (White, 1983) began to investigate forms of underlife that are found within, or are related to, more traditional research sites: list examples. Explain hackers and hacks with Bob as implied imaginary reader [cf fjr’s advice]. Incorporate the phrase “cooperate interdisciplinarily with” to show that TC is a big loser for its failure to join in.

sample paragraph at angle

After the surge of critical and theoretical studies in the early 1990s, the narrow emphasis on the workplace in technical communication has become the occasional focus of critique. Three researchers have proposed the examination of new, non-workplace sites: Tabeaux’ (cite) historical research analyzes women’s domestic technical writing in the English renaissance, with a focus on the professional status of midwifery; Savage (2003) calls for an examination of technical writing in “alternative” workplaces such as contractor-client relationships and home offices; Kimball, who ventures furthest from the workplace context, calls for research of extra-institutional documentation in “dangerous” cases such as computer hacking, fraud, and terrorism manuals [p. 2 -- check]. However, with the exception of Tabeaux, whose historical investigation of the professional status of midwifery and on the working conditions of midwives retains obvious ties to the traditional emphasis on workplace studies in technical communication, these calls for research in non-workplace sites remain unanswered: no actual historical or empirical research in technical communication has ventured outside of the workplace into new and “dangerous” sites.

sample paragraph

Hilary Anne Ward
English 9990: Preparation for the QE

The history of technical communication is primarily a history of writing at work. Since its inception as a writing course within the engineering department of agricultural and mechanical (A&M) colleges founded by the Morrill Act (1862; 1877), technical communication has struggled to attain legitimacy as an academic field by positing theories, methodologies, pedagogies and ethics that “can be applied to the workplace” (Anderson). When the first technical writing courses began within engineering departments in 1908, the term technical writing referred to the workplace writing of engineers; the corresponding “Engineering English” courses emphasized “the usefulness of English in advancing the professional practice” of engineering (Harabager). Then, as the Taylor system of “scientific” management (1895-1947) lead to fine-grained specialization in the engineering workplace, including the separation of clerical and managerial from manual labor, technical writing differentiated from engineering and grew into an aspiring communications profession comparable to radio broadcasting and journalism [cite Longo]. The academic field of technical communication instituted graduate-level courses to support the profession; after World War II, technical communication programs had migrated from engineering departments to the Rhetoric and Compositions programs within English departments in which technical communication is new most often housed (Connors).