CONTEXTS

Recent & Relevantfindings beyond the laboratory to larger groupsof real-world employees addressing organizationrelevantchallenges during the course of 4 days ….Employees and contractors at a national laboratoryparticipated, either in a group setting or individually, inan electronic brainstorm to pose solutions to a realworldproblem …. The data demonstrate that (for thisdesign) individuals perform at least as well as groupsin producing quantity of electronic ideas, regardless ofbrainstorming duration. However, when judged withrespect to quality along three dimensions (originality,feasibility, and effectiveness), the individualssignificantly (p < .05) outperformed the group ….When quality is used to benchmark success, these dataindicate that work-relevant challenges are better solvedby aggregating electronic individual responses ratherthan by electronically convening a group …. Thisresearch suggests that industrial reliance on electronicproblem-solving groups should be tempered, and largenominal groups may be more appropriate corporateproblem-solving vehicles.”Sherry Southardjust to the new medium’s technology per se but to thenew rhetorical situations that the medium hosts.”Valerie J. VanceRhetorics of alternative mediain an emerging epidemic: SARS,censorship, and extra-institutional riskcommunicationDing, H. (2009). Technical Communication Quarterly, 18, 327–350.“This article examines how professionals and thepublic employed alternative media to participate inunofficial risk communication during 2002 SARSoutbreak in China. Whereas whistle-blowers usedalternative media such as independent overseasChinese Web sites and contesting Western media,anonymous professionals and the larger communitiesrelied more on guerrilla media such as text messagesand word of mouth to disseminate risk messagesduring official silence and denial.”Valerie J. VanceThe rhetorical situations of Web resumesKilloran, J. B. (2009). Journal of Technical Writing and Communication,39, 263–284.“This article questions how professionalcommunication genres already well established in printform have been changing as they are transplanted intodigital media like the Web. Whereas some technologyorientedgenre research has sought how a new mediumprovides genres with new technological features, thisarticle argues that a more insightful approach wouldseek how a new medium, together with its users,provides genres with new rhetorical situations. I adaptLloyd Bitzer’s three situational dimensions of exigence,audience, and constraints. Then, to illustrate how thenew rhetorical situations of the Web can influence agenre, I explore the genre of the resume. Drawing on asurvey of 100 Web resume authors and an analysis oftheir sites, I show that as each of the three dimensionsof the resume’s traditional rhetorical situation hasopened itself to greater diversity on the Web, the Webversion of the resume genre has correspondinglyreoriented itself. Hence, genres change in response notWriting an introduction to theintroductionHartley, J. (2009). Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 39,321–329.“Many authors give advice to students about howto write the Introduction section of their articles.Some give examples of different ways of doing thisin general, and a few discuss the opening sentence inparticular. In this article, 13 different types of openingsentences are outlined, and their usage contrastedin British and American journals in the Sciencesand Social Sciences. Implications for teaching areconsidered.”Valerie J. Vance360 Technical Communication l Volume 57, Number 3, August 2010