Visualizing and Tracing: Research Methodologies for the Study of Networked, Sociotechnical Activity, Otherwise Known as Knowledge Work

Read, Sarah; Swarts, Jason

doi:10.1080/10572252.2015.975961

Cited by 33 publications

(27 citation statements)

References 46 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Even more helpfully, the term infrastructure has been taken up in technical communication and writing studies [3,12,21] as a relational concept that foregrounds how infrastructure dynamically shapes practices and organizational structures [18,19]. The unit of analysis is the "when," which presupposes infrastructure as something that emerges for people in practice as it is connected to activities and structures [19, p.112].…”

Section: The Infrastructural Function Of a Genre Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

Genre Cycling

Read

Papka

2014

Proceedings of the 32nd ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication CD-ROM

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This paper reports on the first phase of a study of technical documentation and reporting at a scientific supercomputing user facility. This paper proposes a new conceptualization of how multiple genres interrelate to coordinate and mediate the functioning of an organization. Based on the case of the operational assessment review and reporting process, this paper strives to differentiate the function of organizational genres to maintain the infrastructural operations of an organization from the function of genres to mediate the production of an organization's mission-based output. The theory-informed analytical tool proposed by this case study, the genre cycle, proposes parameters for further inquiry into the generalizability of the concept.

show abstract

Section: The Infrastructural Function Of a Genre Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

Genre Cycling

Read

Papka

2014

Proceedings of the 32nd ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication CD-ROM

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Transformational reuse typically happens during document cycles in which different actors progressively revise information (see Jakobs and Spinuzzi 2014 [35] for a review). In particular, some scholars have drawn on the work of Bruno Latour to describe these transformational document cycles in terms of "standing sets of transformations" ( [76], [74]; [61]) that regularly recombine and transform information across the document cycle.…”

Section: Research On Document Cycling and Reuse In Professional Commumentioning

confidence: 99%

Remaking the Pitch: Reuse Strategies in Entrepreneurs’ Pitch Decks

Spinuzzi

Nelson

Thomson

et al. 2015

IEEE Trans. Profess. Commun.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Research problem: Examines how Korean entrepreneurs in an entrepreneurship program revised their English-language slide decks for their competitive presentations ("pitches") by reusing content from professional communication genres, including both their own documents and feedback from potential stakeholders in their target markets. Research question:As entrepreneurs learn to pitch ideas to unfamiliar markets, how do they revise their slide decks by reusing content from other professional communication genres? Specifically, what strategies do they follow when reusing content?Literature review: The professional communication literature demonstrates that reuse tends to take place in documentation cycles in which documents are set in interaction with each other and that reuse itself involves rhetorical choices. Yet such reuse strategies have not been examined in existing studies of entrepreneurial pitches in marketing and technology commercialization. Methodology:In an exploratory qualitative study, researchers textually analyzed 14 sets of five related document genres in the archives of an entrepreneurship program. These genres represented a full cycle of activity: application to the program, initial pitches, initial feedback from program personnel, detailed feedback from representative stakeholders in the target market, and revised pitches. Interviews and surveys of program personnel further contextualize the data. Results and conclusions:Entrepreneurs reused content from professional communication genres, including those that they had generated as well as those generated by market stakeholders. However, reuse went beyond simply accepting and copying feedback; as they learned to make their pitch arguments, these entrepreneurs had to weigh this feedback and engage with it critically. This reuse can be characterized as Accepting (repeating verbatim or in close paraphrase); Continuing (extending lines of argument); and Resisting (rebutting lines of argument). These findings suggest that entrepreneurs need all three strategies as they refine their pitches for their target markets.

show abstract

“…Running Head: The Infrastructural Function 7 Method Similar to my previous work about theory in technical communication (Read, 2015;Read, 2016;Read & Swarts, 2015), this article is theory driven because it is the product of a methodology through which insight is gleaned inductively from experiences, interviews, and artifacts gathered during fieldwork. I understand theory development as a process of articulation and operationalization via field experience during which the researcher's specialized training is dialogically engaged with the voices and artifacts gathered at the field site.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

The Infrastructural Function: A Relational Theory of Infrastructure for Writing Studies

Read

2019

Journal of Business and Technical Communication

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

This article theorizes the term infrastructure as a framework for articulating how writing products, activities, and processes underwrite organizational life in technical organizations. While this term has appeared broadly in writing studies scholarship, it has not been systematically theorized there as it has been in other fields such as economics, computing, and information science. This article argues for a fourpart framework that incorporates and builds on Star and Ruhleder's relational theory of infrastructure. Field work from a federally funded supercomputing center for scientific research operationalizes the theory for its contributions to writing studies scholarship and its applications for industry and writing pedagogy.

show abstract

Visualizing and Tracing: Research Methodologies for the Study of Networked, Sociotechnical Activity, Otherwise Known as Knowledge Work

Cited by 33 publications

References 46 publications

Genre Cycling

Genre Cycling

Remaking the Pitch: Reuse Strategies in Entrepreneurs’ Pitch Decks

The Infrastructural Function: A Relational Theory of Infrastructure for Writing Studies

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About