Published on March 18, 2013

Check out this article from the archives of the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication.

N.W. Coppola and N. Elliot. “Big Science or bricolage: An alternative model for research in Technical Communication.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, vol. 48, no. 3, pp.261-268, 2005.

Recommended by past IEEE Professional Communication Society president George Hayhoe.  Here’s why he recommends it:

“This article reviews the two strands of research that have influenced research in technical communication, systematized science and ethnographic inquiry. It then surveys the most significant research in the field since the 1980s, mostly ethnographic in its methodology, and finds significant value in that work, despite the fact that research the field has never accumulated the infrastructure and the funding that has characterized “Big Science.” The article won the Rudy Joenk Award for best Transactions paper for 2005.”

To see the article, click here.  (Note that you will need an IEEExplore userid and password to see the entire article without incurring a fee.)

Do you have an article to recommend from the archives of the IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication?  If so, please send your recommendation along with a paragraph explaining why it’s of value to Transactions Editor Saul Carliner, saulcarliner@hotmail.com