Usage Error in Technical Communication

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorAlbers, Michael J.en_US
dc.contributor.authorFlanagan, Suzanen_US
dc.contributor.departmentEnglishen_US
dc.date.accessioned2014-06-15T15:29:52Z
dc.date.available2014-06-15T15:29:52Z
dc.date.issued2014en_US
dc.description.abstractCollege students who seek careers as technical communicators must master technical writing and editing skills to succeed in the workplace. Effective technical communication stems from the communicator's ability to perceive usage errors in documents; therefore, this research study examined students' abilities to detect errors commonly found in technical editing tests. A convenience sample of East Carolina University students enrolled in English Composition served as the control group, and students enrolled in technical communication-related courses served as the cluster group. The research study entailed a brief demographic survey followed by a quasi-experiment that consisted of an editing test. The 1,000-word editing test introduced 60 errors into excerpted technical communication documents; some sentences contained multiple errors, while others were error free. The students in this small-scale study detected few of the types of usage errors found on editing tests. The results indicate that (1) Electronic editing tools detect few usage errors, (2) Students in the study group do not perceive most style-related usage errors as errors, and (3) The placement of usage errors may affect error perception. Repeating the study with a larger, randomized sample could yield findings generalizable to technical writing and editing practices and to technical communication pedagogy.  en_US
dc.description.degreeM.A.en_US
dc.format.extent117 p.en_US
dc.format.mediumdissertations, academicen_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10342/4399
dc.language.isoen_US
dc.publisherEast Carolina Universityen_US
dc.subjectTechnical communicationen_US
dc.subjectCopyeditingen_US
dc.subjectCopyediting testen_US
dc.subjectError detectionen_US
dc.subjectError perceptionen_US
dc.subjectUsage error perceptionen_US
dc.subject.lcshCommunication of technical information
dc.subject.lcshTechnical writing
dc.subject.lcshTechnical editing
dc.titleUsage Error in Technical Communicationen_US
dc.typeMaster's Thesisen_US

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Flanagan_ecu_0600O_11153.pdf
Size:
2.23 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download

Collections

English
Master's Theses