professional communication
Call for Articles: Special Issue, Professional Communication in Global Contexts
Submitted by pz on Tue, 07/07/2009 - 07:57EEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Special Issue Focus: Professional Communication In Global Contexts
Deadline for Proposals: December 31, 2009
Guest Editors: Pavel Zemliansky, James Madison University, USA;
Constance Kampf, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Overview
Most literature in technical communication published in the United States focuses on the state of the discipline in North America. Despite some recent and notable exceptions, such as books, articles, and special issues of professional journals dedicated to intercultural communication and translation studies, the scope of the coverage of our discipline outside of North America remains rather limited.
However, the theory and practice of technical communication in Europe, Asia, South America, and other places deserve closer attention. Substantial differences between the state of the discipline in North America and abroad impact our work in this globalized world, as well as our current students' future professional practice. For example, technical communication theory and practice in the U.S. typically emerge from Rhetoric and Writing Studies as well as from Communication Studies. Competence in multiple languages is usually not required for obtaining a degree or working in the field. In contrast, in Western Europe, technical communication as a discipline is heavily influenced by the theory and practice of translation and language for specific purposes due to the multilingual and multicultural nature of the space in which technical communicators operate. Similarly, in countries like Ukraine and Russia, instruction in technical communication is often within schools of business or engineering.
As practitioners, teachers, and scholars of technical communication, how can we improve our understanding of our field in a globalized world and beyond the theories and practices which dominate our work in North America? For this special issue, we invite articles that examine the theory, practice, and teaching of technical communication in Canada, Mexico, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and South America. We are particularly interested in the disciplinary and cultural contexts from which Technical Communication research and education is emerging, and the implications of these origins for theory, practice and teaching.
Possible Topics for Articles
Possible topics, issues and questions to be examined in this issue include but are not limited to:
Special Issue Focus: Professional Communication In Global Contexts
Deadline for Proposals: December 31, 2009
Guest Editors: Pavel Zemliansky, James Madison University, USA;
Constance Kampf, University of Aarhus, Denmark
Overview
Most literature in technical communication published in the United States focuses on the state of the discipline in North America. Despite some recent and notable exceptions, such as books, articles, and special issues of professional journals dedicated to intercultural communication and translation studies, the scope of the coverage of our discipline outside of North America remains rather limited.
However, the theory and practice of technical communication in Europe, Asia, South America, and other places deserve closer attention. Substantial differences between the state of the discipline in North America and abroad impact our work in this globalized world, as well as our current students' future professional practice. For example, technical communication theory and practice in the U.S. typically emerge from Rhetoric and Writing Studies as well as from Communication Studies. Competence in multiple languages is usually not required for obtaining a degree or working in the field. In contrast, in Western Europe, technical communication as a discipline is heavily influenced by the theory and practice of translation and language for specific purposes due to the multilingual and multicultural nature of the space in which technical communicators operate. Similarly, in countries like Ukraine and Russia, instruction in technical communication is often within schools of business or engineering.
As practitioners, teachers, and scholars of technical communication, how can we improve our understanding of our field in a globalized world and beyond the theories and practices which dominate our work in North America? For this special issue, we invite articles that examine the theory, practice, and teaching of technical communication in Canada, Mexico, Europe, Africa, Asia, Australia and South America. We are particularly interested in the disciplinary and cultural contexts from which Technical Communication research and education is emerging, and the implications of these origins for theory, practice and teaching.
Possible Topics for Articles
Possible topics, issues and questions to be examined in this issue include but are not limited to:
- Which theoretical perspectives and disciplinary roots affect technical communication practice in different countries?
- How do global contexts affect the practice of technical communication in different regions?
- To what extent and how do contrastive rhetoric and cross-cultural communication theory and practice influence professional communication on different continents and in different countries?
- How can global contexts inform genre studies,including the impact of cultural and organizational settings on genre theory and practice?
- How can we learn about global contexts through the development and implementation of cross-country and cross-cultural online and face-to-face teaching and research projects which involve both faculty and students?
- Topics focusing on the influence of global contexts in the theory, practice, and teaching of: usability, web design, including designing for the "social" web (web 2.0, web 3.0) ,cultural and other cross-border considerations in the design, deployment, and use of content-management systems,graphic and visual design, electronic collaboration ,translation and interpretation, technical writing and editing
Production Schedule
- December 31 2009 Proposals (up to 300 words) due to the guest editors Pavel Zemliansky (zemliapx@jmu.edu) and Constance Kampf (cka@asb.dk)
- February 28 2010. Authors notified of acceptance
- March 2010 Complete manuscripts due for review
- May 2010 Review results back to authors
- September 2011 Publication of the special issue
