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Subject:Re: Book recommendation: Karen Schriver From:Brad Mehlenbacher <brad_m -at- UNITY -dot- NCSU -dot- EDU> Date:Sat, 1 Aug 1998 23:32:06 -0500
Hi Debbie-->
At the risk of using up cyberspace :-), I thought I'd send my reply to your
query about Karen Schriver's "Dynamics in Document Design" to the entire
list, because I feel so strongly about recommending the book to any and all
technical communicators interested in the delicate balance between practice
and theory in the field. Schriver introduces the book as her attempt
describe developments in professional and technical communication for an
audience "who are beyond an elementary understanding of document
design--experienced practitioners, advanced students, teachers, and
researchers" (xxiv). For this reason I used the book in a graduate course
in "Advanced Technical Communication" last year and got very strong and
positive reactions to the book. Some students felt that she tended to cite
research more than they required it, which was particularly ironic to me
given that I'd been looking for years for a text that drew on considerable
research in technical communication, composition theory, the rhetoric of
technology, human-computer interaction, and reader response theory and that
brought it back to the challenge of producing documents that are usable,
attractive, interesting, comprehensive, and persuasive (the book includes
an excellent 20-page bibliography at the end)!
But the criticism of some of my students is worth keeping in mind if you're
looking for a cookbook of design guidelines: principles for design can be
found throughout the book, but they're tightly coupled with her research
(and the research of many others) about how real audiences interpret,
interact with, and make use of various genres across numerous situations of
use (e.g., brochures, web documents, forms, instructions, advertisements,
etc.).
One of my students said that she had placed her Schriver text on her "To
Keep" shelf, along with Brockmann, Barrett, Doheny-Farina, and Shneiderman,
which is about as close to an advertisement as I want to get :-). It
provides a very thorough history of a field that, for most of us, seems at
times to draw on everything from ergonomics to human resources management
and shows how the documents that we create play central roles in our
ultimate understanding of the tools and technologies we build. Anyway,
enough said: hope you pick up a copy :-). Best, Brad.
>I have a chance to buy a copy of "Dynamics in Document Design : Creating
>Texts for Readers" by Karen A. Schriver.
>I would appreciate some advice here. Does anyone have any comments about
>this book? Would you recommend it? Why and why not?
...............................................
Dr. Brad Mehlenbacher
Technical Communication
NC State, Raleigh, NC 27695-8105
Voice: 919.515.4105 E-mail: brad_m -at- unity -dot- ncsu -dot- edu
Fax: 919.515.6071 URL: http://www4.ncsu.edu/~brad_m/
You know what Mommy? All of my friends live on earth. Eleanor, 4
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