Technical Communication: A reader-centered approach, 8th Edition
Author: Paul Anderson
Publisher: Cengage Learning
Edition: 8th edition
Publication Date: 2013-03-19
Language: English
Paperback: 645 pages
ISBN-10: 113330981X
ISBN-13: 9781133309819
Book Description Thousands of students have successfully improved their writing and design skills using Anderson’s TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION: A READER-CENTERED APPROACH. Known for its treatment of the rhetorical situation and coverage of usefulness and persuasion, this edition renews the focus on the reader-centered approach and includes new learning outcomes at the start of each chapter to help students gain more from their reading.
Review
“The book has a great approach: reader-centered writing and general usability. I think it’s clear, compelling, and used throughout the book. These are important concepts for students to consider in learning any genre of report writing. […] It has one of the best companion Web sites I’ve seen in terms of content. It has great exercises and document samples.”
“This section of the text [Part IV: Conducting Research] is refreshingly real and provides helpful information for students and an up-to-date resource for teachers.”
“I really love Anderson’s textbook. I continue to use it year after year because it is comprehensive, well-organized, it is clear, and well developed. It fits perfectly with what I am teaching.”
“This is the text’s main strength, its implicit understanding that every workplace communication is in one regard or another a form of persuasive communication that aims to affect the reader’s attitude toward the information in it to effect a desirable outcome.”
“The strong focus on reader-centered communication corresponds well to the general emphasis of my course. […] I refer the students to [Chapters 23, 24, and 27] often. They really offer some excellent guidance. […] Former students have told me that they still use these superstructures at work.”
About the Author
Paul V. Anderson is Senior Researcher at Elon University in Elon, North Carolina. He was previously Director of the Roger and Joyce L. Howe Center for Writing Excellence at Miami University (Ohio), where he also served as the founding director of the university’s programs in technical and scientific communication. To support various individual and collaborative projects, he has received more than $1,000,000 in external grants for research and program development in technical communication. As a researcher and consultant to business and government, Dr. Anderson has conducted workshops and made presentations in Europe, Asia, Australia, and Africa, as well as across the United States. His publications, which have won awards from the Society for Technical Communication and the National Council of Teachers of English, address such topics as technical communication practice and theory, ethical issues in research and teaching, research methods, pedagogy, and assessment. Dr. Anderson has been selected as a Fellow of the Society for Technical Communication, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, and Miami University’s Institute of Environmental Science. He has received the Jay R. Gould Award for Excellence in Teaching Technical Communication from the Society for Technical Communication.
