by R. John Brockmann
SUMMARY: This book has three interwoven themes and an
application of how information has been designed in
US technical communication from 1790s to the 1990s.
Manuals for flour mills, sewing machines, clipper
ships, mowers/reapers, automobiles, early computers
and personal computers are examined along with 200
years of patents and the recorded oral technical sales
pitches for early cash registers. The three themes
include: the role of non-verbal communication and
appeals to audience's 'mind's eye'; the development
of technical genres such as the instruction manual;
and the role of communication innovation amidst the
technical innovations of the first computers. The
application chapter illustrates how an understanding
of technical communication history can make sense out
of the debate between contemporary partisans of task-
oriented design and those of a minimalist design.
CONTENTS:
Part One: Introduction: the role of Clio, the muse of history,
in technical communication
1 Oliver Evans and the weave of text and graphics for
antebellum millwrights
2 The changing weave of text and graphics in antebellum
shipwright manuals
3 19th century oral technical communication: NCR's silver
dollar demonstration
4 Technical style from 1795-1980 in the patent genre
5 The emergence and development of a technical communication
genre, the instruction manual
- Part 1: Sewing machines and mower-reapers 1850-1915
6 The emergence and development of a technical communication
genre, the instruction manual
- Part 2: Ford and Chevrolet 1912-1988
7 The story of Joseph D. Chapline, first computer
documentation writer and manager, 1948-1955
8 New computer technology, new documentation methodology?
Sydney Lida's creation of the first IBM computer
instruction manual for the type 701 (1952-3)
Part Two: Using a historical perspective in technical
communication
9 A historical perspective on technical communication
paradigms, IBM's task orientation and minimalism
Index
Published: June 1998
Publisher: Hampton Press, Cresskill, NJ
Hardcover: US $ 85.00
Paperback: 460 pages, US $ 32.50
ISBN: Hardcover 1-57273-076-5, Paperback 1-57273-077-3
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http://amazon.com/exec/obidos/ISBN=1572730765
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