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TESOL Certificate |
Reading List for the MA Qualifying Examination
in Technical Writing
(Effective for Examinations
Through Spring 2009)
Technical Writing Theory
Anderson, Paul, et al., eds. New Essays in Technical and Scientific Communication. 1983.
Campbell, Jeremy. Grammatical Man: Information, Entropy, Language, and Life. 1982.
Dennett, Daniel C. Consciousness Explained. 1991.
Gardner, Howard. The Mind’s New Science: A History of the Cognitive Revolution. 1985.
Gordon, George N. The Languages of Communication. 1969.
Greenfield, Susan A. Journey to the Centers of the Mind: Toward a Science of Consciousness. 1995.
Jaynes, Julian. The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind.
Littlejohn, Stephen W. Theories of Human Communication. Latest edition.
Mattelart, Armand and Michele Mattelart, Theories of Communication: A Short Introduction. Translated by Susan Gruenheck Taponier and James A. Cohen. London: SAGE Publications, 1998. ISBN: 0-7619-5647-6.
Nystrand, Martin. What Writers Know: The Language, Process, and Structure of Written Discourse. 1982
Nystrand, Martin. The Structure of Written Communication: Studies in Reciprocity Between Readers and Writers. 1986.
Tonfoni, Graziella. Information Design: The Knowledge Architect’s Toolkit. 1998.
Theoretical Approaches to Research
Bazerman, Charles, and James Paradis, eds. Textual Dynamics of the Professions: Historical and Contemporary Studies of Writing in Professional Communities. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1991.
Fearing, Bertie E., and W. Keats Sparrow, eds. Technical Writing: Theory and Practice. New York: MLA, 1989.
Odell, Lee, and Dixie Goswami, eds. Writing in Nonacademic Settings. New York: Guilford, 1985.
Spilka, Rachel, ed. Writing the Workplace: New Research Perspectives. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1993.
Herndl, Carl G. “Teaching Discourse and Reproducing Culture: A Critique of Research and Pedagogy in Professional and Non-Academic Writing.” College Composition and Communication 44 (1993): 349-63.
Katz, Steven. “The Ethic of Expediency: Classical Rhetoric, Technology, and the Holocaust.” College English 54, 3 (1992): 255-75.
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Technical Communication
Communication Theory
Technical Communication Quarterly
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
History of Scientific and Technical Literature
Aristotle, Rhetoric, trans. George Kennedy Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991.
Bacon, Francis, selections from Advancement of Learning, and Novum Organum, in Norton 6th edition.
Boyle, Robert, A Free Inquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature, Preface and Section 1. (in Works, Vol V, pp.158-67).
Galileo, “The Starry Messenger,” in Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo, trans. Stillman Drake. New York: Anchor Books, 1957.
Glanvill, Joseph, preface to Scepsis Scientifica, 1665 edition.
Newton, Isaac, “Of the System of the World,” Book III of Principia, trans. Andrew Motte
Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal Society, ed. Jackson Cope and Harold Whitmore Jones. Section X through XX (pp 80-119); Section XXXIII (pp. 215-27).
Darwin, Charles, The Origin of Species. ed. J. W. Burrow. New York: Penguin, 1968.
Twentieth-Century Biology, Physics, Human Sciences, and Popular Science
Einstein, Albert, Relativity: The Special and the GeneralTheory. trans. Robert W. Lawson. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1961.
Gould, Stephen Jay, Darwin’s Legacy. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1982.
Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time. New York: Bantam, 1998.
Milgram, Stanley, “Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority.” Human Relations 18, 1 (February 1965).
Watson, James, and Francis Crick, “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.” Nature, no. 4356 (April 25, 1953): 737-38.
Gross, Alan. The Rhetoric of Science. Cambridge: Harvard UP, 1996.
Jones, R. F., “Science and Seventeenth Century Prose Style,” PMLA (1930)
Killingsworth and Palmer. Ecospeak: Rhetoric and Environmental Politics in America. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP: 1992.
Kuhn, Thomas, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1964.
Kynell, Teresa, and Moran, Michael, Three Keys to the Past: The History of Technical Communication. Ablex 1999.
Latour, Bruno. Laboratory Life: The Construction of Scientific Facts. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1986.
Williams, Joseph. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. New York: HarperCollins, Latest edition.
Information Design
Kostelnick, Charles, and David D. Roberts. Designing Visual Language: Strategies for Professional Communicators. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998. [ISBN 0205200222]
Lester, Paul Martin. Visual Communication: Images with Messages. 2nd ed. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2000. [ISBN 053456142X]
Schriver, Karen A. Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Text for Readers. New York: Wiley, 1997. [ISBN 0471306363]
Visual Displays of Information
Kosslyn, Stephen M. Elements of Graph Design. New York: Freeman, 1994. [ISBN 071672362X]
Tufte Edward R. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics P, 1992. [ISBN 096139210X]
Typography and the Printing Process
Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. 2nd ed. Point Roberts, WA: Hartley & Marks, 1997. [ISBN 0881791326]
Bruno, Michael H., ed. Pocket Pal: A Graphic Arts Production Handbook. 18th ed. Memphis: GATF Press, 2000. [ISBN 0883623382].
Spiekermann, Erik , and E. M. Ginger. Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works. Mountain View, CA: Adobe P, 2000. [ISBN: 0201703394]
Hackos, JoAnn T., and Dawn M. Stevens. Standards for Online Communication. New
Horton, William. Designing and Writing Online Documentation. New York: Wiley, 1994. [ISBN 0471306355]
Rosenfeld, Louis, and Peter Morville. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilley, 1998. [ISBN 1565922824]
Shneiderman, Ben. Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997. [ISBN 0201694972]
Dumas, Joseph S., and Janice C. Redish. A Practical Guide to Usability. Exeter, UK: Intellect, 1999.
Nielson, Jakob. Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. Indianapolis: New Riders, 1999. [ISBN 156205810X]
---. Usability Engineering. Boston: AP Professionals, 1993. [ISBN 0125184069]
van der Geest, and Jan H. Spyridakis, ed. Technical Communication: Special Issue on Web Heuristics. 47.3 (2000): 301-410.
Cognitive Science, Human Factors, and Instructional Design
Coe, Marlana. Human Factors for Technical Communicators. New York: Wiley, 1996. [ISBN 0471035300]
Hartley, James. Designing Instructional Text. 3rd ed. New York: Nichols Publishing, 1994.
Seels, Barbara, and Zita Glasgow. Making Instructional Design Decisions. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1997. [ISBN 0135206022]
West, Charles K., James A. Farmer, and Phillip M. Wolff. Instructional Design: Implications from Cognitive Science. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice-Hall, 1991. [ISBN 0134885783]
Current Research Reported in Related Journals:
Information Design
Technical Communication
Technical Communication Quarterly
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Reading List for the MA Qualifying Examination
in Technical Writing
(Effective for Examinations Fall 2009)
Technical Writing Theory
Defining technical communication and technical communicators
Allen, Jo. “The Case against Defining Technical Writing.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication 4 (1990): 68-77.
Fabor, Brenton. “Professional Identity: What is Professional about Professional Communication?” Journal of Business and Technical Communication 16 (2002): 306-337.
Kynell-Hunt, Teresa and Gerald J. Savage, ed. Power and Legitimacy in Technical Communication: The Historical and Contemporary Struggle for Professional Status. Amityville, NY: Baywood, 2003.
Miller, Carolyn R. “A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing.” College English 40 (1979): 610-617.
Ornatowski, Cezar M. “Educating Technical Communicators to Make Better Decisions.” Technical Communication 42 (1995): 576-80.
Savage, Gerald J., and Dale L. Sullivan. Writing a Professional Life: Stories of Technical Communicators on and off the Job. New York: Allyn and Bacon, 2001.
Spilka, Rachel. “Becoming a Profession.” In Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century, eds. Barbara Mirel, and Rachel Spilka. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002. 97-109.
Wood, Julie T. Communication Theories in Action: An Introduction. New York: Thomson, 2004.
Connors, Robert J. “The Rise of Technical Writing Instruction in America.” The Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 12 (1982): 329-52.
Durack, Katherine T. “Gender, Technology, and the History of Technical Communication.” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 21 (1991): 133-53.
Fabor, Brenton and Johndan Johnson-Eilola. “Migrations: Strategic Thinking about the Future(s) of Technical Communication.” Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century, eds. Barbara Mirel, and Rachel Spilka. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002. 135-148.
Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. “Relocating the Value of Our Work: Technical Communication in a Post-industrial Age.” Technical Communication Quarterly 5 (1996): 245-70.
Kilingsworth, M. J. “Technical Communication in the 21st Century: Where Are We Going Now?” Technical Communication Quarterly, 8 (1999): 165-174.
Kynell, Teresa, “Technical Communication from 1850-1950: Where Have We Been?” Technical Communication Quarterly 8 (1999): 143-151.
Kynell, Teresa. Writing in a Milieu of Utility: The Move to Technical Communication in American Engineering Programs, 1850-1950. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 2000.
Longo, Bernadette. Spurious Coin: A History of Science, Management, and Technical Writing. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press. 2000.
Rutter, Russell. “History, Rhetoric, and Humanism: Toward a More Comprehensive Definition of Technical Communication.” Technical Communication Quarterly 6 (1997): 249-60.
Staples, Katherine. “Technical Communication from 1950-1998: Where are we now?” Technical Communication Quarterly 8 (1999): 153-164.
Theoretical Approaches to Research
Carney, Davida. “Empiricism Is Not a Four-letter Word.” College Composition and Communication 47 (1996): 567-593.
Gurak, Laura J., and Mary M. Lay, eds. Research in Technical Communication. Norwood, NJ: Ablex. 2002.
Harrison, Teresa M. “Frameworks for the Study of Writing in Organizational Contexts.” Written Communication 4 (1987): 3-23.
Para, Anthony. “Keeping Writing in Its Place: A participatory Action Approach to Workplace Communication.” Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century, eds. Barbara Mirel, and Rachel Spilka. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002. 57-79.
Spilka, Rachel, ed. Writing the Workplace: New Research Perspectives. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 1993.
Sullivan, Patricia and James E. Porter. “On Theory, Practice, and Method: Toward a Heuristic Research Methodology for Professional Writing.” In Writing in the Workplace: New Research Perspectives, ed. Rachel Spilka. Carbondale, IL: Southern Illinois UP, 1993, 220-237.
Winsor, Dorothy A. “Engineering Writing/Writing Engineering” College Composition and Communication 41 (1990): 58-70.
Blyler, Nancy Roundy. “Taking a Political Turn: The Critical Perspective and Research in Professional Communication.” Technical Communication Quarterly 7 (1998): 33-52.
Herndl, Carl G. “Teaching Discourse and Reproducing Culture: A Critique of Research and Pedagogy in Professional and Non-Academic Writing.” College Composition and Communication 44 (1993): 349-63.
Katz, Steven. “The Ethic of Expediency: Classical Rhetoric, Technology, and the Holocaust.” College English 54 (1992): 255-75.
Kynell-Hunt, Teresa, and Gerald J. Savage, eds. Power and Legitimacy in Technical Communication: Strategies for Professional Status. Amityville, NY: Baywood, 2003.
Lay, Mary M. “Feminist Theories and the Redefinition of Technical Communication.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication 5 (1991): 348-370.
Miller, Carolyn R. “What’s Practical about Technical Writing?” Technical Writing: Theory and Practice, eds. Bertie Fearing E., and W. Keats Sparrow. New York: MLA, 1989, 14-24.
Ornatowski, Cezar M. “Between Efficiency and Politics: Rhetoric and Ethics in Technical Writing.” Technical Communication Quarterly 1 (1992): 91-103.
Porter, James E. “Framing Postmodern Commitment and Solidarity.” Rhetorical Ethics and Internetworked Writing, ed. James E. Porter. Northwood, NJ: Ablex, 1998, 149-166.
Bosley, Deborah S. “Cross-cultural Collaboration: Whose Culture is it, Anyway?” Technical Communication Quarterly 2 (1993): 51-62.
Bosley, Deborah S. Global Contexts: Case Studies in International Technical Communication. New York, Longman. 2000.
Holliday, Adrian. “Small Cultures.” Applied Linguistics 20 (1999): 237-264.
Thrush, Emily A. “Multicultural Issues in Technical Communication.” In Foundations for Teaching Technical Communication, eds. Katherine Staples, and Cezar Ornatowski. Greenwich, CT. Ablex, 1997, 161-178.
Warren, Thomas L. “Increasing User Acceptance of Technical Information in Cross-Cultural Communication,” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 34 (2004): 249-264.
Warren, Thomas L. “Cultural Influences on Technical Manuals” Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 32 (2002): 111-123.
Audience and the contexts of writing
Bazerman, Charles, and James Paradis, eds. Textual Dynamics of the Professions: Historical and Contemporary Studies of Writing in Professional Communities. Madison: U of Wisconsin P, 1991.
Bazerman, Charles, and Paul Prior, eds. What Writing Does and How it Does it: An Introduction to Analyzing Texts and Textual Practices. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004.
Briskill, Linda. “Understanding the Writing Context in Organizations.” In Writing in the Business Professions, ed. Myra Kogen. Urbana, IL: National Council of Teachers of English, 1989, 125-145.
Couture, Barbara. “Categorizing Professional Discourse: Engineering, Administrative, and Technical/professional writing.” Journal of Business and Technical Communication 6 (1992): 5-37.
Dias, Patrick, Aviva Freedman, Peter Medway, and Anthony Pare. “Virtual Realities: Transitions from University to Workplace Writing.” In Worlds Apart: Acting and Writing in Academic and Workplace Contexts. Freedman, eds. Peter Medway, Aviva Feedman, Anthony Pare, and Patrick Dias. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1999, 201-221.
Johnson, Robert R. “Audience Involved: Toward a Participatory Model of Writing.” Computers and Composition 14 (1997): 361-376.
Warren, Thomas L. “Three Approaches to Reader Analysis.” Technical Communication 40 (1993): 81-88.
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Technical Communication
Communication Theory
Technical Communication Quarterly
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Journal of Business Communication
Business Communication Quarterly
English for Specific Purposes
Written Communication
Journal of Advanced Composition
College Composition and Communication
College English
Journal of Second Language Writing
Research in the Teaching of English
Journal of English for Academic Purposes
History of Scientific and Technical Literature
Aristotle, On Rhetoric: A Theory of Civic Discourse. 2nd ed. Trans. George Kennedy Oxford: Oxford UP, 1991.
Bacon, Francis. From Advancement of Learning, and from Novum Organum, In Rhetorical Tradition: Readings from Classical Times to the Present, 2nd ed., eds. Patricia Bizell and Bruce Herzberg. New York: Bedford/St. Martins, 2000. 622-634.
Boyle, Robert A. “Preface” and “Section 1.” A Free Inquiry into the Vulgarly Received Notion of Nature. In Works, Col. V, ed. Thomas Birch. Hildesheim, Germany: Olms, 1965. 158-167.
Galilei, Galileo, “The Starry Messenger.” In Discoveries and Opinions of Galileo. Trans. Stillman Drake. New York: Anchor Books, 1957. 21-58.
Glanvill, Joseph. “Preface.” Scepsis Scientifica. London: E. Coates, 1665.
Newton, Isaac. A Treatise of the System of the World. London: Dawsons, 1969.
Sprat, Thomas, History of the Royal-Society of London, for the Improving of Natural Knowledge. London: Martyn, 1667.
Darwin, Charles. The Origin of Species, ed. J. W. Burrow. New York: Penguin, 1968.
Twentieth-Century Biology, Physics, Human Sciences, and Popular Science
Einstein, Albert, Relativity: The Special and the General Theory, trans. Robert W. Lawson. New York: Three Rivers Press, 1961.
Gould, Stephen Jay. Darwin’s Legacy. San Francisco: Harper and Row, 1982.
Hawking, Stephen. A Brief History of Time. New York: Bantam, 1998.
Milgram, Stanley. “Some Conditions of Obedience and Disobedience to Authority.” Human Relations 18. 1 (February 1965): 57-76.
Watson, James, and Francis Crick. “Molecular Structure of Nucleic Acids: A Structure for Deoxyribose Nucleic Acid.” Nature, no. 4356 (April 25, 1953): 737-38.
Gross, Alan. Starring the Text: The Place of Rhetoric in Science Studies. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 2006.
Harris, Randy Allen. Landmark Essays on Rhetoric of Science: Case Studies. Mahwah, N.J.: Lawrence Earlbaum, 1997.
Jones, R. F. “Science and English Prose Style in the Third Quarter of the Seventeenth Century,” PMLA (1930): 977-1009.
Killingsworth, Jimmie M. and Jacqueline S. Palmer. Ecospeak: Rhetoric and Environmental Politics in America. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP: 1992.
Kuhn, Thomas. The Structure of Scientific Revolutions. Chicago: Chicago UP, 1964.
Kynell, Teresa, and Michael Moran. Three Keys to the Past: The History of Technical Communication. Stamford, CT: Ablex 1999.
Williams, Joseph. Style: Ten Lessons in Clarity and Grace. New York: Addison Wesley Longman. Latest edition.
Information Design
Albers, Michael J. and Beth Mazur, eds. Content and Complexity: Information Design in Technical Communication. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Publishers, 2003.
Brown, John Seely and Paul Duguid. The Social Life of Information. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002.
Jacobson, Robert, ed. Information Design. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1999.
Tonfoni, Graziella. Information Design: The Knowledge Architect’s Toolkit. Lanham, MD: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 1998.
Schriver, Karen A. Dynamics in Document Design: Creating Text for Readers. New York: Wiley, 1997.
Visual Displays of Information
Bringhurst, Robert. The Elements of Typographic Style. 3rd ed. Point Roberts, WA: Hartley & Marks, 2004.
Kosslyn, Stephen M. Elements of Graph Design. New York: Freeman, 1994.
Kostelnick, Charles, and David D. Roberts. Designing Visual Language: Strategies for Professional Communicators. Boston: Allyn and Bacon, 1998.
Marr, David. Vision: A Computational Investigation into the Human Representation and Processing of Visual Information. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, 1982.
Mijksenaar, Paul Visual Function: An Introduction to Information Design. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Architectural Press, n.d.
Pocket Pal: A Graphic Arts Production Handbook, latest edition. Memphis: GATF Press,
Spiekermann, Erik , and E. M. Ginger. Stop Stealing Sheep & Find Out How Type Works, 2nd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, 2002.
Tufte, Edward R. The Visual Display of Quantitative Information, 2nd ed. Cheshire, CT: Graphics P, 2001.
Tufte, Edward R. Envisioning Information. Cheshire, CT: Graphics P, 1990. -
Tufte, Edward R. Visual Explanations: Images and Quantities, Evidence and Narrative. Cheshire, CT: Graphics P, 1997.
Zwaga, Harm J. G., Theo Boersema, and Henriëtte C. M. Hoonhout, eds. Visual Information for Everyday Use: Design and Research Perspectives. Philadelphia: Taylor and Francis, 1999.
Hackos, JoAnn T., and Dawn M. Stevens. Standards for Online Communication: Publishing Information for the Internet/World Wide Web/Help. NY: John Wiley & Sons, 1997.
Horton, William. Designing and Writing Online Documentation. New York: Wiley, 1994.
Rosenfeld, Louis, and Peter Morville. Information Architecture for the World Wide Web, 2nd ed. Sebastopol, CA: O’Reilley, 2002.
Shneiderman, Ben. Designing the User Interface: Strategies for Effective Human-Computer Interaction. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, 1997.
Dumas, Joseph S., and Janice C. Redish. A Practical Guide to Usability. Exeter, UK: Intellect, 1999.
Nielson, Jakob. Designing Web Usability: The Practice of Simplicity. Indianapolis: New Riders, 1999.
Nielson, Jakob. Usability Engineering. Boston: AP Professionals, 1993.
Ament, Kurt. Single Sourcing: Building Modular Documentation. Norwich, NY: William Andrew Publishing, 2003.
Coe, Marlana. Human Factors for Technical Communicators. New York: Wiley, 1996.
Gilchrist, Alan and Barry Mahon. Information Architecture: Designing Information Environments for Purpose. NY: Neal-Schuman Publishers, Inc., 2004.
Hartley, James. Designing Instructional Text. 3rd ed. New York: Nichols Publishing, 1994.
Kling, Rob, Howard Rosenbaum, and Steve Sawyer. Understanding and Communicating Social Informatics: A Framework for Studying and Teaching the Human Contexts of Information and Communication Technologies. Medford, NJ: Information Today, Inc., 2005.
Lehaney, Brian, Steve Clarke, Elayne Coakes, and Gillian Jack. Beyond Knowledge Management. Hersey, PA: Idea Group Publishing, 2004.
van Oostendrop, Herre, Leen Breure, and Andrew Dillon, eds. Creation, Use, and Deployment of Digital Information. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Publishers, 2005.
van Weert, Tom and Arthur Tatnall. Information and Communication Technologies and Real-Life Learning: New Education for the Knowledge Society. NY: Springer, 2005.
Current Research Reported in Related Journals:
Information Design
Technical Communication
Technical Communication Quarterly
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
IEEE-PCS
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Return to Area Reading Lists Page
English Department
College of Arts & Sciences
Oklahoma State University
205 Morrill Hall
Stillwater, OK 74078
Phone: 405-744-9474
For Information about English Programs: english.information@okstate.edu
Webmaster: engweb@okstate.edu
Statement of
"Organic Knowledge"
for Technical Writing
1.understand the way individual texts reflect the material and intellectual conditions of the time of their writing; this means that the student can perceive a writer's work in reference to history, including literary history, and to contemporary social and philosophical issues.
2. discuss and evaluate the major theories and trends in the field. The student should be able to cite both theoretical and experimental studies to support and/or refute these theories.
Reading List for Tech Writing Through Spring 2009
Reading List for Tech Writing Beginning Fall 2009