Publications Management

Essays for Professional Communicators

O. Jane Allen, Lynn Deming, Lynn H Deming

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• eBook ISBN: 9781351864749
• Topic: Languages & Linguistics
• Subtopic: Publishing
• Index: Languages & Linguistics

"Publications Management: Essays for Professional Communicators" is a collection of essays designed for use in academic programs in technical and professional communication and for communication professionals in the workplace. The contributors include publications managers in the workplace and academics who teach in technical and professional communication programs. Their multiple perspectives offer a broad introduction to some of the important issues publications.

PART I

Communication and the Manager

Publications managers, like other managers in an organization, must communicate effectively with upper management and with their own staff. And because they are communication professionals, they often are seen as a resource for advice on communication matters throughout an organization. The three essays in this section deal with some of the specific intraorganizational communication challenges encountered by managers of publications units.

The first chapter, by the late James W. Souther, professor emeritus of technical communication, University of Washington, points to the increased responsibllity publications managers have assumed in the last decade, in part as a result of computer technology. In “Managing Technical Publications: A Growing and Changing Responsibility,” Souther responds to common misconceptions about the relationship between technical and publications staff responsibilities and suggests an effective approach for directing the writing/publishing processes, an approach that encourages collaboration between technical and publications staff.

Publications managers are necessarily concerned with interpersonal communication within the publications unit. They may also find themselves contributing to improved written and oral communication throughout an organization. In “Designing Noise Audits to Improve Managerial-Employee Communication,” Renee B. Horowitz and Robert V. Peltier, professors in the Department of Manufacturing and Industrial Technology at Arizona State University, suggest ways to combat psychological noise in manager-employee communication. They provide a checklist that can be used to audit noise levels and improve communication.

Another challenge for the publications manager is conducting cost-effective meetings. According to Marian G. Barchilon, assistant professor in the Department of Manufacturing and Industrial Technology at Arizona State University, meetings often fail to produce the right results. In “Technical Communication Models that Ensure Productive Meetings,” Barchilon notes the increasing importance of meetings in the business environment and provides models for well-structured agenda and meeting minutes that will help to ensure productive, cost-effective meetings.

CHAPTER 1

Managing Technical Publications: A Growing and Changing Responsibility

JAMES W. SOUTHER

The decade of the 1980s was a significant watershed for technical publications management. Prior to the 1980s, publications activities—the basic functions of writing and editing, of graphics, and of printing and publication—were usually perceived as different processes and technologies and were frequently located in different units or departments. Technical writing, editing, printing, and publication were traditionally seen as separate functions requiring different units, staffs, and management.

Today publications functions are perceived as highly interrelated, interdependent activities in the technical publications process. These functions are frequently combined within a single technical communication or publishing department with an integrated staff and a common management. The key ingredient of this watershed was, of course, a new computer-based technology and the development of desktop publishing. As a result, publications today depend more on staff collaboration and teamwork and less on contributions of specialized individuals or units.

During the 1980s, technical publications management also experienced substantial growth and increased professional recognition. One needs only to compare the many sessions, papers, and workshops on this subject presented at the 39th International Technical Communication Conference of the Society for Technical Communication in Atlanta in May 1992 or at the October 1991 International Professional Communication Conference of the IEEE Professional Communication Society in Orlando with the few sessions at the same conferences ten years ago. Today, almost ten times more program sessions are devoted to publications management.

But even more important, the decade of the 1980s saw the rise and growth of new functions. Publications units today are just as apt to be involved in online, movie, and video presentations as with the more traditional print media. In addition, user testing has become a defined function of publications management. Again, the software industry is primarily responsible for this new development. The shift from mainframe to personal computers caused the availability of the software and the usability of its documentation to become key marketing factors for the new computers. User testing, seldom heard of ten years ago, is today an essential publications management activity. Although everyone in technical communication has reader-advocate responsibilities, publications managers who plan, direct, review, and approve documents have the greatest responsibility. User testing, as Joseph S. Dumas of the Document Design Center has pointed out, can provide significant input into future product design [1]. In other words, the reader-advocate role actually allows publications managers to contribute to the design of future products, to become change agents and contributors to the technical team.

Managing publications, of course, requires all the usual management functions and skills traditionally associated with other areas and activities. Consequently, today’s publications managers need to develop the skills in working with people described by JoAnn T. Hackos in her excellent article “Managing Creative People” [2] and to apply the suggestions on managing publications presented in this collection.

In addition to developing the necessary management skills, however, publications managers must also understand how others view the writing and publications functions. Publications managers and their staff work with a variety of people—from highly specialized scientists, engineers, and health professionals, to managers, executives, and quality committees, to users and customers—many of whom often view writing and publications activities differently than do technical communication specialists, and many of whom share some common misconceptions that impact on working relationships.

In order to provide a more realistic understanding that will support effective interaction and planning, publications managers must strive to overcome these misconceptions. This chapter addresses these issues by examining the scope and responsibility of the publications unit. In addition, it outlines the major differences between the two most common modes of writing and stresses the importance of functional organization for documents; describes the interactive relationship between the technical and the writing/publishing processes; and provides suggestions for overcoming the differences between the views of the writer and reader and for developing an effective approach for directing the writing/publishing process.

PUBLICATIONS SCOPE AND RESPONSIBILITY

The scope and responsibility of publications activity are related directly to the purpose and readership of specific publications. For example, scientific, medical, or technical research articles and reports written to present findings to professional colleagues are almost always written by the technical professional. Technical writers are seldom involved, and technical editors are usually limited to a light edit at most. But as the readership shifts from technical professionals to other professionals, to management, to customers, and finally to the general public, the communication role of the technical professional shifts from writer, to contributor, to information source; and the role of the technical communicator grows from light editor, to substantive editor, to writer, to publisher.

Publications managers must understand that unlike the technical staff, technical writers do not write about their own work. They write about the work of others, a task which requires a substantial interaction between the technical writer and the technical specialist. The shifting role and responsibility of the technical professionals and communication professionals, in part, reflects the importance that the technical professionals attach to certain content and to certain audiences. Understanding the nature of this shifting responsibility and the interactive working relationship between technical professionals and communication professionals provides publications managers a basis on which they can develop effective plans for involving both parties in a realistic and effective partnership.

REFLECTIVE AND PRESENTATIONAL MODES OF WRITING

Peter Hartley of the Colorado School of Mines provides a useful distinction between the reflective and presentational modes of writing. According to Hartley, “[t]raditional writing instruction is conceived in terms of the essay, a reflective mode not suited to industrial applications.” Industrial writing, on the other hand, “is action oriented,” requiring a presentational mode that focuses on “the reader’s pragmatic needs in the social context of an organizational role” [3, p. 162]. Hartley’s comments on the nature of the two modes are important for publications managers, and his statement that all of us, as students, are trained almost exclusively as essay writers is not only valid but most significant.

Almost all writing courses and experience, from the first grade through college, have an essay focus because the reflective mode is an essential, effective educational approach for helping students develop their ability to think, to expand their thought patterns, and to apply principles of clarity, coherence, and logic to their writing. As Hartley tells us, the focus in reflective writing is on developing the thought patterns of the writer and on the writing itself.

On the other hand, in the presentational mode—which is usually confined to college business and technical writing courses and, unfortunately, only to some of those—the emphasis shifts to communicating information to specific readers who have real informational needs and who function within an organizational or social context. This basic function of the presentational mode, which in earlier years gave rise to the concept of technical writing as a design or problem-solving process [4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9], today serves as the basis for user-testing activities.

If publications managers are aware that many of the people they work with—engineers, scientists, computer programmers, business people, social scientists, managers, executives, customers, and even their technical communication colleagues—are more apt to think of writing as reflective than as presentational, they can help writers shift from the r...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgments
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Part I. Communication and the Manager
• Part II. Management and Supervision
• Part III. Project Management and the Information Development Cycle
• Part IV. Legal and Ethical Issues
• Part V. Pedagogy
• Contributors
• Index