Cross-cultural writing issues [WAS: Thought for the day]

[Stuart Rogers]

On 28/05/2010 7:05 AM, Steve Rickaby wrote:
> Clearly we have a great range of international English expertise on
> this group: the thought of a collaborative dictionary of phraseology
> comes to mind. It would be very useful for those like me who often
> have to work in another English dialect: what to say, what not to
> say.


Synchronicity!  Not a dictionary project, but in a similar collaborative 
vein, this was just posted to the STC Lone Writers list:

From: austechwriter-bounce at freelists.org
[mailto:austechwriter-bounce at freelists.org] On Behalf Of Han Yu
Sent: Friday, 28 May 2010 8:31 AM
To: austechwriter at freelists.org
Subject: atw: Call for book contributors: Negotiating International and
Cross-Cultural Technical Communication: Stories of Technical
Communicators


Please see the following call for contributors. This should be something
fun to write and yet prove to be highly educational! I'm happy to answer
any questions and provide suggested writing guidelines.

Summary
We request story proposals of 300 words for an upcoming collection
Negotiating International and Cross-Cultural Technical Communication:
Stories of Technical Communicators. This collection is designed for
technical communicators to tell their stories working in international
and cross-cultural contexts, working for/with clients/colleagues from
diverse cultural backgrounds, or writing/designing for audience from
diverse cultural backgrounds. We hope this collection will be a venue
for contributors to share their experiences and lessons-learned, to
inform and educate fellow practitioners, and to demonstrate their
value-add to employers and clients. Submissions that meet the scope of
the collection will be followed up for full-length stories.

Editors
Han Yu, Assistant Professor, English Department, Kansas State
University. Han's research focuses on workplace writing, intercultural
technical communication, and more specifically, technical communication
in China. Her work has appeared in Technical Communication, Journal of
Technical Writing and Communication, and Business Communication
Quarterly. Han has worked as an editor for State Farm Insurance, as a
technical writer for the Laboratory for Integrated Learning and
Technologies at Illinois State University, and as an editor and
translator for New Oriental Publishing Group in Beijing. She has
received numerous grants and awards for her research and teaching.

Gerald Savage, Professor, English Department, Illinois State University.
Jerry's research focuses on the ethics and politics of technical
communication, workplace practices, and issues of social justice in
international technical communication. His work has appeared in
Technical Communication Quarterly, Journal of Technical Writing and
Communication, Journal of Business and Technical Writing, and as
chapters in a number of essay collections. He is co-editor with Dale
Sullivan of the book Writing a Professional Life published in the Allyn
& Bacon Technical Communication Series and co-editor with Teresa Kynell
Hunt of the two-volume collection of essays Power and Legitimacy in
Technical Communication published in the Baywood Technical Communication
series. He has worked as a freelance contract writer, researcher, and
editor for numerous organizations and government entities, including
Eaton Software, Epicenter Press, Alaska State Operated School System,
University of Alaska Museum, City of Bloomington, IL, and The Journal of
Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, among
others.

Themes
We welcome a wide range of stories from technical communicators who work
within or outside the U.S. Possible topics include, but are not limited
to, the following:
* Working as technical communicators outside of U.S.
* Non-U.S. technical communicators writing or designing for clients or
audiences outside of the communicators' own countries or cultures
* U.S. technical communicators working with clients, subject matter
experts, writers, or editors from various nations or various cultural
backgrounds within the U.S.
* U.S. technical communicators writing or designing for audiences from
various nations or various cultural backgrounds within the U.S.
* Coordinating or managing technical communication projects that span
national or cultural borders
* Involvement in outsourcing, translation, localization, or
globalization projects
* International and cross-cultural stories from various technical
communication fields such as business communication, science writing,
engineering writing, medical writing, nonprofit organizations or NGOs,
government writing, usability testing, technical translation, etc.

What to Submit Now
* Story synopsis (300 words)
* Biographical note (150 words)

Timelines
* Submission of story synopsis and biographical note: July 31, 2010
* Notice of synopsis acceptance: August 31, 2010
* Submission of 1st draft full-length story: November 30, 2010
* Notice of draft acceptance: January 31, 2011
* Submission of final draft full-length story: June 30, 2011



-- Han Yu, PhD Assistant Professor Technical Writing & Professional 
Communication English Department Kansas State University 130, E/CS 
Building Manhattan, KS 66506 785-532-3339 hyu1 at ksu.edu