Commentary on "planning and information foraging theories and their value to the novice technical communicator"

ABSTRACT

Gattis should be applauded for finding cognitive theories that might be of use to the field, for describing them well with current resources, and for applying them to technical communication with an example. The two theories, however, are too intuitive to provide much value for describing existing behavior or for novices to use as tools.

REFERENCES

• 1: Henson, L. (2002). Syllabus for English 321, Writing II: Beginning Technical Writing. Association for Teachers for Technical Writing webpage {Online}. Available: http://www.smsu.edu/english/dlhpages/32lweb.htm
• 2: Nord, R. (2002). Technical Communication (Eng 271-02) Syllabus. {On-line}. Available: http://krypton.mankato.msus.edu/~nord/271/sy1271r02.htm
• 3: Rude, C. (1996). Syllabus for 3365.005 Professional Report Writing. Association for Teachers for Technical Writing webpage {On-line}. Available:http://english.ttu.edu/tc/Rude3365/po13365Rude.htm

INDEX TERMS

Primary Classification:
  I. Computing Methodologies
  I.7 DOCUMENT AND TEXT PROCESSING
      I.7.2 Document Preparation

Keywords:
behavioral ecology, documentation, foraging, information