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Baywood's Technical Communications Series, Series Editor: Charles H. Sides
You can read the Introduction for
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IN PRAISE OF
"An overall highly readable text . . . Brasseur’s effort helps us to be
more mindful and leads us to critically examine these maps of the world that we
live in."
—John Chetro-Szivos, Ph.D., Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts
". . . the book opened my eyes
to a number of issues . . . it presents thought-provoking information that will
help anyone who has to present technical information graphically."
—Randy Howe, Ph.D., Fitchburg State College, Massachusetts
ABOUT THE BOOK
Visualizing Technical Information: A
Cultural Critique demonstrates the ways
in which the leading technical visuals of information design—graphs, charts,
diagrams, tables, illustrations, and information visualization—are designed
and read. Using genre theory as an analytical tool, the author makes the
argument that problems with these visual forms are not necessarily the result of
a designer’s poor decisions or a reader’s poor interpretation skills.
Instead, there may be inherent problems in the visual genres themselves that are
a direct result of their cultural history and current use.
In presenting this argument, Visualizing
Technical Information breaks new ground in bringing issues of culture and
theory into the foreground as the key to many of the problems associated with
information design. The author critiques the influences of Cartesian-based
thinking, mathematical approaches, and logic-based methods to problem solving
and a reliance on perceptual-based visual abstractions. In making this argument,
the book addresses such issues as: Can a visually abstracted graph represent a
clear picture of an emotionally centered topic such as rape? Does a technical
illustration, through its clean lines and context-less space, communicate
efficiency about an object that in actual use might be inefficient? How can a
table communicate persuasive information merely by its detailed numerical format
when, in fact, its results are far from conclusive? Does the reader have a
difficult time interpreting an idea diagram because the diagram was created as a
heuristic, not as a rhetorical device? What role does computer culture play in
the newly developing genre of information visualization when programs are
designed in great part with algorithms based on perceptual research, not on
context-specific, user-centered research? Finally, what can we do now and in the
future to improve the communication abilities of these technical information
designs?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Lee Brasseur is an associate
professor and the associate chair of the Department of English at Illinois State
University. Dr. Brasseur teaches courses in visual rhetoric and technical
writing. She conducts research in the design of graphs and charts, and her
critical scholarship examines the cultural implications of visual information,
including issues of gender. Dr. Brasseur served as the 2002 co-chair of the
Association of Teachers of Technical Writing Conference and has served as a
member of the executive board of the NCTE
Committee on Technical Communication, coordinator of the NCTE Awards in
Technical Communication, and reviewer for Technical
Communication Quarterly. Her book chapter
"Visual Literacy in the Computer Age: A Complex Perceptual Landscape"
was part of the NCTE award-winning book of collected essays, Computers
and Technical Communication: Pedagogical and Programmatic Perspectives,
edited by Stuart Selber. Her articles have appeared in IEEE
Transactions on Professional Communication,
the Journal of Computer Documentation, the Journal
of Business and Technical Communication,
and the Journal of Aesthetic Education.
INTENDED AUDIENCE
Technical and business communication teachers, scholars, researchers, and
professionals; desktop publishers, graphic
design instructors and professionals; information design specialists and
researchers.
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