Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until August 19, 2012. Degree PHD... more Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until August 19, 2012. Degree PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English, 2009. Abstract A growing body of scholarship in writing and rhetoric studies has explored the ...
The use of reporting guidelines is an established yet still-evolving practice in the field of bio... more The use of reporting guidelines is an established yet still-evolving practice in the field of biomedicine. These documents are often linked to common methodologies (e.g., randomized clinical trials); they include multiple textual artifacts (e.g., checklists, flow diagrams) and have a history that is coextensive with the emergence and ongoing development of evidence-based medicine (e.g., as an epistemological orientation to research and decision making). Drawing on the concept of metagenre, this article examines how practitioners use reporting guidelines to define and regulate the boundaries of biomedical research and writing activity. The analysis, focusing on one prominent set of guidelines, shows how practitioners use the genre–metagenre dynamic to promote strategic intervention while upholding traditional principles and standards for evidence-based research and communication.
2015 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (IPCC), 2015
This paper uses the concept of trading zone to theorize sites of symbolic exchange in the field o... more This paper uses the concept of trading zone to theorize sites of symbolic exchange in the field of biological engineering. Focusing on the communication of procedural information, the author specifically examines how expert and amateur communities use online spaces to share experimental know-how, reinforce communal identity, and coordinate resources in a way that facilitates collective knowledge making. The author suggests that scholars and practitioners of technical communication have yet to take a prominent role in shaping these developments but have the potential both to intervene in interdisciplinary negotiations and promote collaboration between diverse stakeholder groups.
This article presents a case study that examined how practices of visualization and text producti... more This article presents a case study that examined how practices of visualization and text production converge in an experimental physics research setting. Findings suggest that visuals communicate meaning and become persuasive through their ability to index in different ways the technical dimensions of laboratory work. The author argues that examining the coproduction of visuals and texts in the scientific workplace contributes insights into the technical objectives and rhetorical motives they are designed to serve.
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 2014
This article develops a framework for rhetorical inquiry that builds on the concept of wicked pro... more This article develops a framework for rhetorical inquiry that builds on the concept of wicked problems as conceptualized through social policy and design studies research. Responding to technical communication scholarship that calls for increased engagement with public issues and controversies, the author specifically discusses a writing course that used the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill as a basis for teaching problem-based rhetorical invention, document production, interdisciplinary collaboration, and professional development. The framework described in this article ultimately offers a heuristic for students to research and write about ill-defined problems that must be addressed in time but that demand sustained engagement over time—activities that begin in the classroom but ideally continue to develop throughout their personal and professional lives.
This article examines how British Petroleum (BP) used conventional features of the press release ... more This article examines how British Petroleum (BP) used conventional features of the press release genre to characterize its involvement in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Findings suggest that press releases served two related functions: individually, they highlighted the company's public attempts to stabilize a dynamic situation and take responsibility for seemingly positive developments in the coastal region; and together, they contribute to an evolving narrative through which BP attempted to craft its image as an innovative corporation, conscientious environmental agent, and generous benefactor to those affected by the spill. The author argues that the features of the press release genre contribute to strategic rhetorical framing and thus offer important insights into the ways in which organizations position themselves in relation to environmental crises.
Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 2014
This article explores how a doctoral student in theoretical physics constructs computational simu... more This article explores how a doctoral student in theoretical physics constructs computational simulations and reports his work within the constraints of an academic dissertation. The author specifically identifies principal elements of the work ensemble that the student deployed to complete different tasks and analyzes two dissertation chapters in order to examine the semiotic resources that the student used to warrant the outcomes of his research. The study finds that these are not instrumental procedures in which the researcher represents material objects in a mimetic sense; they are epistemic practices through which he generates digital objects that do not have an experimental counterpart and must therefore be justified through references to technical production. Based on these findings, the author argues that theorizing writing as coextensive with the practical work of science demonstrates what makes it powerful as a semiotic resource and constructive rhetorical activity.
This article, drawing on Aristotle's concept of technê, develops a framework for exploring rhetor... more This article, drawing on Aristotle's concept of technê, develops a framework for exploring rhetoric in the process of scientific inquiry. The Aristotelian “causes” specifically highlight the technical procedures through which scientists carry out their work and the visual representations they deploy to generate meaningful accounts, “bring forth” new findings, and contribute to the existing field of knowledge. The author argues that a technê-based framework makes it possible to maintain a focus on rhetoric as a productive art while broadening the object of rhetorical analysis to include practices and modes of representation that contribute to knowledge production in the physical sciences.
Abstract This article, drawing on ethnographic study in a chemical physics research facility, exp... more Abstract This article, drawing on ethnographic study in a chemical physics research facility, explores how notebooks are used and produced in the conduct of laboratory science. Data include written field notes of laboratory activity; visual documentation of in situ writing processes; ...
Giovanna Borradori's Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacq... more Giovanna Borradori's Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida stages an encounter between two philosophers whose respective bodies of work are as vast as they are vastly different from one another. For Borradori, however, Habermas ...
Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until August 19, 2012. Degree PHD... more Full text release has been delayed at the author's request until August 19, 2012. Degree PHD, Kent State University, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English, 2009. Abstract A growing body of scholarship in writing and rhetoric studies has explored the ...
The use of reporting guidelines is an established yet still-evolving practice in the field of bio... more The use of reporting guidelines is an established yet still-evolving practice in the field of biomedicine. These documents are often linked to common methodologies (e.g., randomized clinical trials); they include multiple textual artifacts (e.g., checklists, flow diagrams) and have a history that is coextensive with the emergence and ongoing development of evidence-based medicine (e.g., as an epistemological orientation to research and decision making). Drawing on the concept of metagenre, this article examines how practitioners use reporting guidelines to define and regulate the boundaries of biomedical research and writing activity. The analysis, focusing on one prominent set of guidelines, shows how practitioners use the genre–metagenre dynamic to promote strategic intervention while upholding traditional principles and standards for evidence-based research and communication.
2015 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (IPCC), 2015
This paper uses the concept of trading zone to theorize sites of symbolic exchange in the field o... more This paper uses the concept of trading zone to theorize sites of symbolic exchange in the field of biological engineering. Focusing on the communication of procedural information, the author specifically examines how expert and amateur communities use online spaces to share experimental know-how, reinforce communal identity, and coordinate resources in a way that facilitates collective knowledge making. The author suggests that scholars and practitioners of technical communication have yet to take a prominent role in shaping these developments but have the potential both to intervene in interdisciplinary negotiations and promote collaboration between diverse stakeholder groups.
This article presents a case study that examined how practices of visualization and text producti... more This article presents a case study that examined how practices of visualization and text production converge in an experimental physics research setting. Findings suggest that visuals communicate meaning and become persuasive through their ability to index in different ways the technical dimensions of laboratory work. The author argues that examining the coproduction of visuals and texts in the scientific workplace contributes insights into the technical objectives and rhetorical motives they are designed to serve.
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 2014
This article develops a framework for rhetorical inquiry that builds on the concept of wicked pro... more This article develops a framework for rhetorical inquiry that builds on the concept of wicked problems as conceptualized through social policy and design studies research. Responding to technical communication scholarship that calls for increased engagement with public issues and controversies, the author specifically discusses a writing course that used the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill as a basis for teaching problem-based rhetorical invention, document production, interdisciplinary collaboration, and professional development. The framework described in this article ultimately offers a heuristic for students to research and write about ill-defined problems that must be addressed in time but that demand sustained engagement over time—activities that begin in the classroom but ideally continue to develop throughout their personal and professional lives.
This article examines how British Petroleum (BP) used conventional features of the press release ... more This article examines how British Petroleum (BP) used conventional features of the press release genre to characterize its involvement in the 2010 Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Findings suggest that press releases served two related functions: individually, they highlighted the company's public attempts to stabilize a dynamic situation and take responsibility for seemingly positive developments in the coastal region; and together, they contribute to an evolving narrative through which BP attempted to craft its image as an innovative corporation, conscientious environmental agent, and generous benefactor to those affected by the spill. The author argues that the features of the press release genre contribute to strategic rhetorical framing and thus offer important insights into the ways in which organizations position themselves in relation to environmental crises.
Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 2014
This article explores how a doctoral student in theoretical physics constructs computational simu... more This article explores how a doctoral student in theoretical physics constructs computational simulations and reports his work within the constraints of an academic dissertation. The author specifically identifies principal elements of the work ensemble that the student deployed to complete different tasks and analyzes two dissertation chapters in order to examine the semiotic resources that the student used to warrant the outcomes of his research. The study finds that these are not instrumental procedures in which the researcher represents material objects in a mimetic sense; they are epistemic practices through which he generates digital objects that do not have an experimental counterpart and must therefore be justified through references to technical production. Based on these findings, the author argues that theorizing writing as coextensive with the practical work of science demonstrates what makes it powerful as a semiotic resource and constructive rhetorical activity.
This article, drawing on Aristotle's concept of technê, develops a framework for exploring rhetor... more This article, drawing on Aristotle's concept of technê, develops a framework for exploring rhetoric in the process of scientific inquiry. The Aristotelian “causes” specifically highlight the technical procedures through which scientists carry out their work and the visual representations they deploy to generate meaningful accounts, “bring forth” new findings, and contribute to the existing field of knowledge. The author argues that a technê-based framework makes it possible to maintain a focus on rhetoric as a productive art while broadening the object of rhetorical analysis to include practices and modes of representation that contribute to knowledge production in the physical sciences.
Abstract This article, drawing on ethnographic study in a chemical physics research facility, exp... more Abstract This article, drawing on ethnographic study in a chemical physics research facility, explores how notebooks are used and produced in the conduct of laboratory science. Data include written field notes of laboratory activity; visual documentation of in situ writing processes; ...
Giovanna Borradori's Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacq... more Giovanna Borradori's Philosophy in a Time of Terror: Dialogues with Jürgen Habermas and Jacques Derrida stages an encounter between two philosophers whose respective bodies of work are as vast as they are vastly different from one another. For Borradori, however, Habermas ...
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Papers by Chad Wickman