Communication, semiotics and the mediating role of the technical writer

Abstract

ProfessorSaunders teaching Communications at the Faculty of Management Studies. He is past Director of the Centre for Professional Writing univasity of Waterloo and ~irector of itr: Usability Testing Labommy. ABSTRACTHow do computer manuals come to mean? Researchers attend to usability issues as well as the cognitive and perceptual processes of readers and Writers. While important, such approaches fail to account for the existence of and human dependence on codes for all intelligibility. Eventually an adequate model may emerge embracing both theuetical and applied mearch if an interdisciplinary approach to language and communication is adopted. James Kheavy's Theory of Discome is suggested as an example. This paper addresses the topic "How Computer Manuals Come to Mean" from an interdisciplinary perspective, drawing upon the work of M.AX Halliday, M. Nysuand, as well as research studies in office automation. Halliday's, Langwge (IS Social Semiotic offers a useful analysis of three functions of language -ideational, interpersonal and textual and their corresponding situational elements of field, tenor and mode. These reflect the semiotic nature of language. Field of discourse includes the activities and actions of users and contains a web of meanings into which both our manual and documenration fall. Reciprocity is achieved when both meet the "mutuality of expectations" of users. Users derive meaning and contribute to it by virtue of their place within such cultural and s i t u a t i d contexts and language use serves a symbolic boundary signifying community membership.Our manual and the technology it represents enters into and cannot escape this cultural coding process which takes place, a process which shapes the perceptions of all who share the environment. Unfortunately, neither a detailed description of the tasks performed by a user nor the steps required to complete these tasks tell us anything about the social semiotic process which takes phce in an ofice or factory. This presents a major challenge to usability testers.Like studies in the sociology of language, research studies in office automation support the notion that technology and its ancillary aids serve a semiotic function within office environments. Technical writers can benefit from such studies. 89C€12786-2/89-85229 $1.00 Q 1989 IEEE SEMIOTICS: HOW COMPUTER MANUALS COME TO MEAN Objective of Study The main purpose of thii paper is not to present a heuristic of rules and standards of c o m t behavior which technical writers should follow, whatBarbara Couture refers to as Dicta (Couture, 1988). I will not, for instance, be discussing how to utilize space and mcture in instruCtionaJ manuals, or which methods of design best represent concepts visually. Instead, this writer w i l l raise a fundamental question, a question germane to the work of all who plan, write, edit and test technical manuals. The question I pose is How do computer manuals come to mean? Writers, managers or readers of these manuals agree that such documents come to mean something t...

Engineering the Computer Science and IT

“…What we claim and what we have always claimed is that both software system and software process documentation are very important for allowing the software systems to live a long life. Carnegie 1994;Clark et.al., 1989;Connwell, 2000;Visconti, 1994, El Elman et.al., 1998;Hogan, 2002;Kantner, 1997;Kantner, 2002;Martin and McCluer, 1983;Parnas, 2000;Pence and Hon III, 1993;Rombach and Basili, 1987;Saunders, 1989;van Schouwen andParnas, 1993, Visaggio, 2001;Visconti and Cook, 2000;Visconti and Cook, 2002) Recently, the debate regarding documentation has intensified. This is because "agile" voices have been raised against extensive documentation Nawrocki, J et.al, Jasinski, M., 2002).…”