CAP: Reading List
MA in English, Technical & Professional Communication Concentration
East Carolina University, Greenville, NC

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One part of your CAP involves a 25-work reading list, which you create to use in discussing your portfolio (a book equals 3 works, although you might consider using 2-3 chapters or essays from the book instead of the entire book). Read and review contents of the works on the reading list. Although you might have several works about a subject area (e.g., editing), choose works covering a wide range of subject areas in TOC, but subject areas especially suitable for your portfolio items.

Distribute your reading list to your director and committee members. Your director may want to approve the bibliography before you distribute it to your committee members. Distribute the final version of the list to your director and committee members at least TWO weeks before your CAP.

When you discuss some of the items in your portfolio with your committee members, you should point out the application, or possible application, of the information in the literature to items in your portfolio and to workplace tasks. You may also discuss ways that a portfolio item does not conform to what the literature suggests and the reasons for this discrepancy. Committee members may ask you about specific works on your reading list.

As you complete your reading list, remember that for articles published in journals, you can probably obtian pdf copies through Joyner Library if you did not use the article in a class.

You can choose works from classes you have completed. If you read something in class, it should be appropriate for projects completed in those classes. What follows are some works that have been read in classes, BUT this list certainly does NOT include all works that you might have read in all of your classes.

  1. Hughes, Michael A. and George F. Hayhoe. A Research Primer for Technical Communication: Methods, Exemplars, and Analyses. Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2008. ISBN: 0-8058-6335-4 [This book will be used in the second required research course required of students in the MA program.] ... Counts as 3 works.
  2. Emig, Janet. "Writing as a Mode of Learning." College Composition and Communication  28.2 (1977): 122-28.
  3. "Remapping Curricular Geography: Professional Writing in/ and English."  [Three works counts as 2 works because two are short.]
  4. Mackiewicz, Jo. "How to Use Five Letterforms to Gauge a Typeface's Personality: A Research-driven Method." Journal of Technical Writing & Communication  35.3 (2005): 291-315.[This file may download slowly. It is memory-intensive because of the "letterforms" examples.]
  5. Paretti, Marie C., Lisa D. McNair, and Lissa Holloway-Attaway. "Teaching Technical communication in an Era of Distributed Work ..." Technical Communication Quarterly 16.3 (2007): 327-352.
  6. Carter, Michael, Miriam Ferzli, and Eric N. Wiebe. "Writing to Learn by Learning to Write in the Disciplines." Journal of Business and Technical Communication 21.3 (2007): 278-302.
  7. Spilka, Rachel. "Orality and Literacy in the Workplace: Process- and Text-based Strategies for Multiple-Audience Adaptation." Journal of Business and Technical Communication 4.1 (1990): 44-67.
  8. Dicks, R. Stanley. Management Principles and Practices for Technical Communicators (Part of the Allyn & Bacon Series in Technical Communication). Longman, 2003. ISBN: 0321165233
  9. Editors on Editing: What Writers Need to Know About What Editors Do. 3rd Rev edition. Gerald Gross, Ed. Grove Press, 1993. ISBN: 0802132634
  10. Carliner, Saul. "A Key Tool for Demonstrating the Value of Technical Communication Products." Technical Communication 45.3 (1998): 380-84.  [pdf by clicking here ]

What follows are some works read previously in classes, but may not be ones currently used in classes. Remember that you can create your own reading list using what you read when you completed courses. Sometimes pdfs are given; other times, you'll need to obtain the work using Joyner Library's virtual resources.

  1. Allen, Nancy. "Ethics and Visual Rhetorics: Seeing’s Not Believing Anymore." Technical Communication Quarterly 5 (1996): 87-105. [pdf ]
  2. Dragga, Sam. "Ethical Intercultural Technical Communication: Looking through the Lens of Confucian Ethics." Technical Communication Quarterly 8.4 (1999): 365-81.  [ pdf  ]
  3. Coe, Marlana. Human Factors for Technical Communicators. NY: Wiley, 1996. [esp. chapters 2, 6, 8, and 12]. For chapter 8 (User Partnerships), you can obtain a pdf.  You need to have 3 chapters/works for this item.  Although you can choose from the chapters listed, you may ask for other works to substitute as long as you have 3 works.
  4. Floreak, Michael J. "Designing for the Real World: Using Research to Turn a Target Audience’ into Real People." Technical Communication 36.4 (1989): 373-81.   [pdf]
    Grabill, Jeffrey T. "Shaping Local HIV/AIDS Services Policy through Activist Research: The Problem of Client Involvement." Technical Communication Quarterly 9.1 (2000): 29-50.  [pdf  ]
  5. Hoft, Nancy. "Global Issues and Local Concerns." Technical Communication 46.2 (1999): 145-48.   [pdf  ]
  6. Horton, William. "The Almost Universal Language: Graphics for International Documents." Technical Communication 40.4 (1993): 682-93.
  7. Hunt, Kevin. "Establishing a Presence on the World Wide Web: A Rhetorical Approach." Technical Communication 43.4 (1996): 376-87.  [ pdf  ]
  8. Harrison, Claire. "Visual Social Semiotics: Understanding How Still Images Make Meaning." Technical Communication 50.1 (2003): 46-60.  [ pdf  ]
  9. Kostelnick, Charles. "Supra-Textual Design: The Visual Rhetoric of Whole Documents." Technical Communication Quarterly 5 (1996): 9-33.  [pdf ]
  10. Kumpf, Eric P. "Visual Metadiscourse: Designing the Considerate Text." Technical Communication Quarterly 9.4 (2000): 401-24. [pdf  ]
  11. Leininger, Carol, and Rue Yuan. "Aligning International Editing Efforts with Global Business Strategies." IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 41.1 (1998): 16-23.  [ pdf ]
  12. Mead, Jay. "Measuring the Value Added by Technical Documentation: A Review of Research and Practice." Technical Communication 45.3 (1998): 353-79. [pdf  ]
  13. Moore, Patrick. "When Persuasion Fails: Coping with Power Struggles." Technical Communication 46.3 (1999): 351-59.  [ pdf  ]
  14. Williams, Thomas R, and Deborah A. Harkus. "Editing Visual Media." IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 41.1 (1998): 33-47.  [pdf ]

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