@conference {959, title = {Modeling Genre Ecologies}, booktitle = {20th Annual International Conference on Computer Documentation}, year = {2002}, month = {2002}, pages = {200{\textendash}207}, publisher = {ACM Press}, organization = {ACM Press}, abstract = {The genre ecology framework is an analytical framework forstudying how people use multiple artifacts {\textendash} such as documentation, interfaces, and annotations {\textendash} to mediate their work activities. Unlike other analytical frameworks, the genre ecology framework has been developed particularly for technical communication research, particularly in its emphasis on interpretation, contingency, and stability. Although this framework shows much promise, it is more of a heuristic than a formal modeling tool; it helps researchers to pull together impressions, similar to contextual design{\textquoteright}s work models, but it has not been implemented as formally as distributed cognition{\textquoteright}s functional systems. In this paper, I move toward a formal modeling of genre ecologies. First, I describe the preliminary results of an observational study of seven workers in two different functional teams of a medium-sized telecommunications company (a subset of a larger, 89-worker study). I use these preliminary results to develop a model of the genres used by these two teams, how those genres interconnect to co-mediate the workers{\textquoteright} activities, and the breakdowns that the workers encounter as genres travel across the boundaries of the two teams. I conclude by (a) describing how formal models of genre ecologies can help in planning and designing computer documentation and (b) discussing how these models can be further developed. }, keywords = {activity theory, compound mediation, genre, genre ecology, tracing}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay} } @inbook {960, title = {Compound Mediation in Software Development: Using Genre Ecologies to Study Textual Artifacts}, booktitle = {Writing Selves/Writing Societies: Research from Activity Perspectives}, year = {2003}, note = {+ pdf rhet}, month = {2003}, pages = {97{\textendash}124}, publisher = {The WAC Clearinghouse and Mind, Culture, and Activity}, organization = {The WAC Clearinghouse and Mind, Culture, and Activity}, address = {Fort Collins, CO}, keywords = {activity theory, ecology, genre, mediation, text}, url = {http://wac.colostate.edu/books/selves_societies/index.cfm}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay}, editor = {Bazerman, Charles and Russell, David} } @book {961, title = {Tracing Genres through Organizations: A Sociocultural Approach to Information}, series = {Acting with Technology}, year = {2003}, month = {2003}, publisher = {MIT Press}, organization = {MIT Press}, address = {Cambridge, MA}, keywords = {activity system, artifact, genre, information design, user}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay}, editor = {Nardi, Bonnie and Kaptelinin, Viktor and Foot, Kirsten} } @inbook {962, title = {Four Ways to Investigate Assemblages of Texts: Genre Sets, Systems, Repertoires, and Ecologies}, booktitle = {22nd Annual International Conference on Design of Communication: The Engineering of Quality Documentation}, year = {2004}, month = {2004}, pages = {110{\textendash}116}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, organization = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {Memphis, TN}, abstract = {Genre theorists agree that genres work together in assemblages.But what is the nature of these assemblages? In this paper I describe four frameworks that have been used to describe assemblages of genres: genre sets, genre systems, genre repertoires, and genre ecologies. At first glance, they seem to be interchangeable, but there are definite and sometimes quite deep differences among them. I compare and contrast these frameworks and suggest when each might be most useful. }, keywords = {ecology, genre, repertoire, set, system}, url = {http://www.lib.ncsu.edu:2268/10.1145/1026533.1026560}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay} } @article {963, title = {Genre Ecologies: An Open-System Approach to Understanding and Constructing Documentation}, journal = {ACM Journal of Computer Documentation}, volume = {24}, year = {2000}, note = {+ pdf rhet+ pdf 702 }, month = {2000}, pages = {169{\textendash}181}, abstract = {Arguing that current approaches to understanding and constructingcomputer documentation are based on the flawed assumption that documentation works as a closed system, the authors present an alternative way of thinking about the texts that make computer technologies usable for people. Using two historical case studies, the authors describe how a genre ecologies framework provides new insights into the complex ways that people use texts to make sense of computer technologies. The framework is designed to help researchers and documentors account for contingency, decentralization, and stability in the multiple texts the people use while working with computers. The authors conclude by proposing three heuristic tools to support the work of technical communicators engaged in developing documentation today: exploratory questions, genre ecology diagrams, and organic engineering. }, keywords = {contingency, decentralization, documentation, ecology, genre, open system, stability, system}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay and Zachry, Mark} } @proceedings {1040, title = {Grappling with distributed usability: A cultural-historical examination of documentation genres over four decades}, year = {1999}, pages = {16-21}, publisher = {ACM}, address = {New York}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay} } @article {1157, title = {"Light Green Doesn{\textquoteright}t Mean Hydrology!": Toward a Visual-Rhetorical Framework for Interface Design}, journal = {Computers and Composition}, volume = {18}, year = {2001}, chapter = {39}, abstract = {

The utility of metaphor as a visual\–rhetorical design framework has diminished dramatically, and continues to erode. Metaphor has two important limitations as it is commonly applied in interface design: (a) metaphors are\ indexical, pointing to physical artifacts that they represent, and (b) metaphors are\ static, that is, unwavering in their indexicality. Both assumptions are demonstrably flawed. In this article, I first critically examine metaphor\’s limitations as a visual\–rhetorical framework for designing, evaluating, and critiquing user interfaces. Next, I outline an alternate framework for visual rhetoric, that of\ genre ecologies, and discuss how it avoids some of the limitations of metaphor. Finally, I use an empirical study of computer users to illustrate the genre-ecology framework and contrast it with metaphor.

}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay} } @article {1158, title = {"Light Green Doesn{\textquoteright}t Mean Hydrology!": Toward a Visual-Rhetorical Framework for Interface Design}, journal = {Computers and Composition}, volume = {18}, year = {2001}, chapter = {39}, abstract = {

The utility of metaphor as a visual\–rhetorical design framework has diminished dramatically, and continues to erode. Metaphor has two important limitations as it is commonly applied in interface design: (a) metaphors are\ indexical, pointing to physical artifacts that they represent, and (b) metaphors are\ static, that is, unwavering in their indexicality. Both assumptions are demonstrably flawed. In this article, I first critically examine metaphor\’s limitations as a visual\–rhetorical framework for designing, evaluating, and critiquing user interfaces. Next, I outline an alternate framework for visual rhetoric, that of\ genre ecologies, and discuss how it avoids some of the limitations of metaphor. Finally, I use an empirical study of computer users to illustrate the genre-ecology framework and contrast it with metaphor.

}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay} } @inbook {1159, title = {Leveraging Mobile and Wireless Technologies in Qualitative Research: Some Half-Baked Suggestions}, booktitle = {Going Wireless: A Critical Exploration of Wireless and Mobile Technologies for Composition Teachers and Scholars}, year = {2009}, pages = {255-273}, publisher = {Hampton Press}, organization = {Hampton Press}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay}, editor = {Hea, Amy C. Kimme} } @article {RN81, title = {Pseudotransactionality, Activity Theory, and Professional Writing Instruction}, journal = {Technical Communication Quarterly}, volume = {5}, number = {3}, year = {1996}, pages = {295-308}, doi = {10.1207/s15427625tcq0503_3}, url = {http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1207/s15427625tcq0503_3}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay} } @article {RN192, title = {Toward Integrating Our Research Scope: A Sociocultural Field Methodology}, journal = {Journal of Business and Technical Communication}, volume = {16}, number = {1}, year = {2002}, pages = {5-32}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay} } @book {RN244, title = {Tracing Genres through Organizations: A Sociocultural Approach to Information}, series = {Acting with Technology}, year = {2003}, publisher = {MIT Press}, organization = {MIT Press}, address = {Cambridge, MA}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay} } @inbook {RN254, title = {Four Ways to Investigate Assemblages of Texts: Genre Sets, Systems, Repertoires, and Ecologies}, booktitle = {22nd Annual International Conference on Design of Communication: The Engineering of Quality Documentation}, year = {2004}, pages = {110{\textendash}116}, publisher = {Association for Computing Machinery}, organization = {Association for Computing Machinery}, address = {Memphis, TN}, url = {http://www.lib.ncsu.edu:2268/10.1145/1026533.1026560}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay} } @article {RN211, title = {Losing by Expanding: Corralling the Runaway Object}, journal = {Journal of Business and Technical Communication}, volume = {25}, number = {4}, year = {2011}, pages = {449-486}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay} } @article {RN255, title = {Genre Ecologies: An Open-System Approach to Understanding and Constructing Documentation}, journal = {ACM Journal of Computer Documentation}, volume = {24}, number = {3}, year = {2000}, pages = {169{\textendash}181}, author = {Spinuzzi, Clay and Zachry, Mark} }