Dear Members - Canadian Association for the Study of Discourse

Printemps/Spring 2001
Vol. 12 – No. 1
CATTW
ACPRTS
Bulletin
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION OF TEACHERS OF TECHNICAL WRITING
ASSOCIATION CANADIENNE DES PROFESSEURS DE RÉDACTION TECHNIQUE ET SCIENTIFIQUE
Dear Members,
Chers membres,
The annual CATTW Conference at the Congress of the
Social Sciences and Humanities, to be held this year at
Université Laval in Quebec City, is fast approaching.
Vice-President and Program Chair Natasha Artemeva has
done a great job of putting together an impressive
program, which is included in this issue of the Bulletin.
Le prochain congrès de l’ACPRTS, qui se déroule à
l’Université Laval, à Québec, dans le cadre du Congrès des
sciences sociales et humaines, approche à grands pas.
Notre vice-présidente et responsable du programme
Natasha Artemeva a travaillé très fort pour nous préparer
un programme qui promet d’être extrêmement intéressant.
Vous le trouverez ci-inclus dans le présent Bulletin.
As you are no doubt aware, the CATTW executive and the
Conference Program Committee spent a busy few weeks in
the fall putting together a grant application for travel
funding from SSHRC under the Aid to Occasional
Research Conferences program. We were delighted to
learn in January that our application had been accepted. As
a result, CATTW will be able to partially reimburse
presenters of research papers for travel expenses incurred
to attend the upcoming conference. The exact ceiling on
claims will be determined once all eligible presenters have
submitted their claims. We hope that this travel funding
will make attendance at the conference more affordable for
members from across the country.
The Université de Sherbrooke will handle the
disbursement of funds for travel expenses. Claims should
be submitted to me at the conference, and reimbursement
cheques will be issued shortly thereafter. In order to
receive reimbursement, a presenter should submit a claim
accompanied by his or her original receipts, indicating his
or her academic affiliation and stating that the travel
expenses have not been claimed from any other
(Continued on page 22)
Comme vous le savez sans doute, le bureau de l’ACPRTS
et le comité du programme ont passé plusieurs semaines
l’automne dernier à préparer une demande de subvention
visant à couvrir les frais de déplacement de nos
conférenciers auprès du programme d’Aide aux
conférences de recherche spéciales et aux congrès
internationaux au Canada, du CRSSH. C’est avec joie que
nous avons accueilli en janvier la nouvelle de l’acceptation
de notre demande. Ainsi, l’ACPRTS sera en mesure de
rembourser une partie des frais encourus par ceux et celles
qui présenteront une communication au prochain congrès.
Nous ne pourrons déterminer le pourcentage des frais
remboursés qu’une fois que nous aurons reçu toutes les
demandes d’aide. Nous souhaitons que cette subvention
permettra à un plus grand nombre de membres de partout
au pays de participer à notre congrès annuel.
C’est l’Université de Sherbrooke qui s’occupera du
remboursement des frais de déplacement des présentateurs.
Toutes les demandes de remboursement doivent m’être
soumises lors du congrès; elles seront traitées rapidement.
(suite page 3)
In this issue/Dans ce numéro:
Message from the President
Message de la présidente 1
CATTW ANNUAL CONFERENCE -- PRELIMINARY PROGRAM
CONGRÈS ANNUEL DE L'ACPRTS -- PROGRAMME PROVISOIRE 4-23
Message from the Editor
Message du rédacteur en chef 2
Membership email list
Répertoire des adresses électroniques 24-26
Message from the program chair 2
Publications 26
Nouvelle revue de recherche en rédaction 3
Membership 28
Formulaire d’abonnement 27
CATTW
ACPRTS
M
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Du rédacteur en chef ◆ From the Editor
It’s not required reading, but it’s pretty darn close. This, the Spring Bulletin, is a current map of Canadian Scholarship in
and around the subject of Technical Communication. We had no room for articles this issue, but instead we included
substantial abstracts, prepared by Natasha Artmeva, of the upcoming Canadian Association of Teachers of Technical
Writing, at Laval University in Québec City, May 24, through 26, 2001.
The collection of presentations included here, one of the largest conferences yet, traverse a diverse terrain with an academic
vista. Read the map now, and visit the ideas in Québec City!
◆
Lecture quasi-obligatoire, ce numéro du printemps qui se veut un plan du savoir canadien en matière de la rédaction
technique.
Ce plan, c’est le répertoire des communications prévues pour le prochain congrès de l’Association canadienne des
professeurs de rédaction technique et scientifique, réunion qui se tient à l’Université Laval (Québec) les 24 – 26 mai 2001.
Nous remerçions particulièrement Natasha Artmeva de ces abrégés bien nourris.
Pas de place à des articles complets, mais un bon tour d’horizon sur ce terrain varié et riche en instruction. Soyez donc de la
partie à Québec et consultez bien le plan!
Message from the program chair
This year, the Congress of Social Sciences and Humanities is being hosted by l’Université Laval. As a member of the
Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada, CATTW will be holding its annual conference during the Congress
on May 24, 25, and 26.
We are pleased to announce a long-awaited piece of good news: the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of
Canada has approved a grant in support of this year’s CATTW conference under the SSHRC Aid to Occasional Research
Conferences and International Congresses in Canada Program. Our application was ranked 33 out of 94 applications
submitted.
The conference program this year features more than 40 presentations. It includes presentations by researchers from
Canada, the USA, France, Australia and Argentina. The two main themes of our annual conference this year are Language,
Culture and Society: Text in Social Context and Communicators as Cultural Interpreters. Sessions assembled under the
umbrella of the first theme are scheduled for May 24, 25 and the morning of May 26. Parallel English- and French-language
sessions are scheduled for the second half of the morning and all afternoon on the first day of the conference, May 24. A
joint session with the Canadian Society for Translation Studies, Communicators as Cultural Interpreters, will be held on
the last day of the conference, May 26.
This year our program includes two keynote addresses. On the second day of the conference, May 25, Rebecca Burnett
from Iowa State University will address the audience with her talk Complexities of Culture, Context and Collaboration in
Working toward Expertise. On May 26, Deborah Andrews from the University of Delaware will open the joint session with
the Canadian Association for Translation Studies by discussing some trends and directions in research into international
technical communication.
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Beyond the presentation sessions, this year’s program includes the Annual General Meeting scheduled for the late afternoon
of May 25 with the CATTW dinner following the AGM.
We would like to continue the initiative started two years ago: a CATTW BOOK DISPLAY. This year, it will be held in the
conference room on the second day of the conference, May 25. We invite all CATTW members who have recently
published books, journal articles and/or contributed to edited collections of papers to bring and display copies of these
publications. The book display allows CATTW members to learn more about one another’s research interests and
accomplishments. Please contribute to the book display by bringing copies of your publications for the exhibit!
See you all in Québec City at the end of May.
Natasha Artemeva
(613) 250-2600 ext. 7452
[email protected]
Nouvelle revue de recherche en rédaction
Les actes du colloque « Rédaction professionnelle et impact social », tenu à Montréal à l'occasion du congrès de l'ACFAS,
en mai 2000, sont maintenant en ligne et constituent le contenu du premier numéro de Recherches en rédaction
professionnelle (RRP), une revue scientifique exclusivement diffusée sur le web. La revue est dirigée par Céline Beaudet,
de l'Université de Sherbrooke. Isabelle Clerc et Jocelyne Bisaillon, de l'Université Laval, sont membres du comité de
direction. Voici l'adresse de RRP : http://www.usherb.ca/flsh/rrp/
(continuer de la page 1)
Pour recevoir un remboursement, il faut joindre à sa demande l’original des reçus des frais encourus, indiquer à quelle
université ou institution d’enseignement on est rattaché et préciser que ces mêmes frais de déplacement n’ont pas fait l’objet
d’une demande de remboursement auprès d’un autre organisme. Les critères d’admissibilité du CRSSH sont très rigoureux :
seuls les reçus originaux sont acceptés. Pour les déplacements en avion, le CRSSH ne rembourse que les billets en classe
touriste. Un tarif fixe du kilomètre s’applique pour ceux qui viendront en voiture et un montant forfaitaire est déterminé
pour les autres déplacements par voie terrestre à partir des principales villes du pays. Les déplacements admissibles
couvrent la distance entre le lieu d’enseignement ou d’étude et le lieu du congrès. Les locations de voiture de même que les
déplacements sur place entre le lieu d’hébergement et l’institution d’accueil du congrès ne sont pas couverts.
Le prochain congrès promet d’être très intéressant : un nombre record de personnes y présenteront des communications. Le
congrès permet d’innombrables échanges d’idées, de connaissances, de résultats de recherche et de stratégies
d’enseignement. Ne ratez surtout pas l’assemblée générale annuelle de l’ACPRTS, qui se tiendra dans l’après-midi du 25
mai. C’est à l’assemblée générale qu’on détermine les prochaines orientations de l’Association. Nous y discuterons
notamment cette année de stratégies de collectes de fonds et des thèmes du congrès de 2002. Il y aura en outre élection d’un
secrétaire-trésorier et d’un vice-président (la vice-présidente actuelle, Natasha Artemeva, assumera la présidence de
l'association). Si vous souhaitez ajouter un point à l’ordre du jour, n’hésitez pas à communiquer avec moi. Participer à
l’assemblée générale annuelle, c’est contribuer à dessiner l’avenir de l’ACPRTS. J’ai bien hâte de vous voir tous au
congrès!
Visit the online headquarters of CATTW/ACPRTS:
http://www.uwinnipeg.ca/~goldjo/CATTW/
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CONGRÈS ANNUEL DE L'ACPRTS/CATTW ANNUAL CONFERENCE
(Société/Society # 215)
24 au 26 mai 2001/24, 25, 26 May 2001
PROGRAMME PROVISOIRE/PRELIMINARY
PROGRAM
Le jeudi 24 mai/Thursday, May 24
Langue, culture et société: le texte en contexte social/ Language, Culture and
Society: Text in Social Context
9:00 – 9:15 a.m.
Room 1640 CAU
BIENVENUE/WELCOME
9:15 – 10:45 a.m.
Room 1640 CAU
Texts in Contexts/Les textes en contextes
Session Chair/Présidente de la séance: Pamela Grant-Russell, Université de Sherbrooke
Isabelle Clerc et Éric Kavanagh, Université Laval
Analyse des formes de reprise de l’information dans une publication destinée aux faibles
lecteurs : le cas du magazine Autrement dit
Écrire pour un faible lecteur est une tâche difficile pour le scripteur non familier avec le langage clair et simple. Si certaines
techniques de « clarification » ou de « simplification » semblent couler de source, notamment en ce qui a trait à la syntaxe
et au vocabulaire, il n'en va pas de même pour tous les éléments qui assurent la cohérence textuelle. Une maîtrise toute
particulière de ces éléments, parmi lesquels on compte les différentes formes de reprise de l'information, est essentielle pour
atteindre la clarté exigée par un faible lecteur. Qu'en est-il de l'utilisation de ces formes de reprise dans les textes
d'Autrement dit, magazine tout spécialement conçu pour ce type de lecteur? Dans un tel contexte de communication,
quelles sont les difficultés envisagées pour le lecteur et pour le scripteur qui a à rédiger ces textes « clairs et simples »? Au
cours de cette communication, nous tenterons d'apporter quelques réponses en illustrant nos propos par des exemples tirés
du magazine.
Catherine Schryer, University of Waterloo
Structure and Agency in the Genre of Case Presentation
This paper reviews the current debate among genre researchers regarding structure and agency, provides a theoretical model
wherein genre researchers can view issues related to both structure and agency, and applies that model to a case study, a
study of case presentations by medical students in a pediatric hospital.
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Genre researchers, whether working within new rhetorical perspectives (Freedman, Dias, Yates and Orlikowsksi), or within
linguistic-oriented traditions (Swales, Cope and Kalantzis) have effectively documented the social and linguistic structures
that both constrain and enable text production and reception. However, until recently (Coe et al, in print), genre researchers
have rarely used their research findings to critique or challenge these structures. In tracing out the links between social and
linguistic structures and power within organizations, genre researchers are encountering a new problem. How do they deal
with agency? Post modern (Foucault) and feminist (Sidonie Smith) critiques of the notion of agency have made naive
conceptions of agency difficult to maintain. Yet genre researchers do have to account for apparently different choices made
by genre users, seeming resistance to certain social and or linguistic constraints, and, most importantly, to change within
genres. Thus, genre researchers need a theorized way to talk about agency especially when they are looking at situations
wherein participants are learning what is to them a new genre.
Using insights from Bourdieu, Bakhtin, and Hanks, this paper re-conceptualizes genres as constellations of regulated,
improvisational strategies triggered by the interaction between individual socialization or “habitus” (Bourdieu &
Wacquant), and an organization or “field” (Bourdieu. & Wacquant). This notion of “regulated, improvisational strategies”
can allow genre researchers to identify the different networks of strategies enabled by a genre and used by experts and
novices in specific organizational or disciplinary contexts. It conceptualizes the limited but “real” range of agency
(regulated and improvisational) available to participants in a genre.
This way of thinking about genres is being used in case study examining the role of case presentations in the socialization
of medical students in a pediatric hospital. Based on data collected from anonymized patient case write-ups composed by
clerks on their General Pediatrics rotation; in-training evaluation reports on medical students; non-participant observation
and audio-recording of clerk’s oral case presentations; and on discourse-based interviews with a representative sample of
novices (clerks) and experts (attending faculty and senior researchers), this study identifies the strategies that novices use as
they attempt to acquire this genre in the presence of expert users. The study explores two possibilities: (1) the kind of
agency constructed within this genre is problematic; and (2) the situation of “legitimate peripheral participation” in which it
is being acquired is itself problematic because of the tensions that exist between experts and novices.
Diana Wegner, Douglas College
Genre, Consensus and Community in the Creation of Public Policy
Studies of professional written genres tend to focus on the relationship between genre and organizational enculturation and
the acquisition of genre knowledge (Lutz 198?, Freedman 1989 and 1991, MacKinnon 1993, Smart 1993) or the larger
rhetorical context of social action and its consequences (which are studied for various purposes, sometimes to critique
discourse practices that are unethical and dangerous for human beings [Herndl, Fennell, and Miller 1991, Sauer 1993). I
hope this paper will make a contribution to the latter category of scholarship by revealing how the municipal
recommendation report accomplishes social and political action in the development of public policy. Specifically, I hope to
demonstrate how genre organizes typifiable- -as opposed to specific and unique--groups and purposes into those larger
relationships that have effects at the community level.
I am proposing a paper based on my current research and involvement in a report writing project for the Department of
Parks, Recreation and Culture, City of Surrey, BC. The project involves the development of seven recommendation reports
as the basis for public policy to protect yet also facilitate public access to all the "natural areas" in Surrey. Using a
rhetorically-based approach to genre (Miller 1984, Swales 1990, Bazerman 1989) and pragmatic linguistic analylses of
texts, I will describe how the deployment of this genre can manage a plurality of voices that ultimately negotiate significant
differences, specifically conflicts between ecological values and access values of natural lands, and conflicts between
investment/development interests and environmental concerns.
The theoretical framework for this study will be drawn from genre theory, rhetorical theory (Burke's advancement of
Aristotelian rhetoric), and postmodern theories of power and discourse (Foucault and Bakhtin). An effort will be made to
theorize context meaningfully, with special recourse to Swale's concept of "discourse community." Other concepts for
theorizing context will also be considered, for example, "activity networks" (Russell's use of Vygotsky's concept) and "the
rhetorical situation" (Bitzer 1968).
Four methods will be employed in this study: linguistic and rhetorical textual analyses of seven recommendation reports
and a summary document, other documents making up this "genre set" such as mission statements, survey results,
newsletters, and other public relations documents; interviews and focus group meetings of both report collaborators and
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intended readers; think- aloud protocols from intended readers of the reports; and observations at meetings, both within the
Department of Access, Recreation and Culture and between the Department and other City departments and the public.
10:45 – 11:00 a.m.
Coffee Break/Pause café
*ATTENTION/N.B.: After the break, the French session starts at 11:30 a.m. in room 1734 CAU; the English session starts
at 11:00 a.m. in room 1640 CAU/Après la pause, la séance en français commence à 11 h 30 dans la salle 1734 CAU; la
séance en anglais commence à 11:00 a. m. dans la salle 1640 CAU.
11:00 a.m. –12:30 p.m.
Parallel Sessions/Séances simultanées
Présentations en français
Room 1734 CAU
Présidente de la séance : Céline Beaudet
Louise Larivière, Université de Montréal et Université Concordia
La féminisation linguistique nuit-elle à la clarté des textes?
Pour répondre à la question posée dans le titre, il faut s'attarder à trois choses : 1) la définition d'un texte clair, 2) la
description des procédés syntaxiques de féminisation, 3) la démonstration de brouillage occasionné par ces procédés. En
admettant qu'un texte clair soit un texte qui se comprenne à une première lecture (Bossé-Andrieu, 2000), on peut se
demander si le choix, l'agencement et la présentation d'unités linguistiques féminisées conduisent à des textes confus et
ambigus. Pour ce qui est du choix des unités linguistiques, la féminisation non seulement ne nuit pas à la clarté des textes,
mais, au contraire, contribue à le rendre plus précis en se conformant à la réprésentation des noms communs de personne
qui s'effectue, en français, par l'alternance féminin/masculin dans une proportion de 95 % (Rey-Debove 1998, Khaznadar
1990, Larivière, à paraître). Quant aux procédés syntaxiques, qui règlent l'agencement des unités, ils peuvent être
différenciés et utiliser le genre grammatical pour désigner des personnes de sexe différent en établissant une
correspondance entre le genre grammatical et le genre naturel ou indifférenciés et viser à éliminer toute marque de genre
dans le discours. Ces procédés mettent en cause : 1) l'utilisation des doublets (forme masculine et féminine conjointe) soit
sous forme tronquée, soit sous forme dévéloppée, les deux formes étant soumises à des règles d'écriture; 2) la préséance
d'une forme sur l'autre; 3) l'accord soit traditionnel au masculin pluriel ou de proximité; 4) les pronoms de reprise; 5) des
procédés de dégenrisation divers. Or, les formes tronquées vont à l'encontre du principe d'enchaînement des unités dans la
phrase en faisant occuper par plus d'un élément la même place dans la chaîne parlée (Simard 1984). Toutefois, les formes
développées, qui ne sont que des formes coordonnées, sont conformes au déroulement syntaxique des unités et ne sauraient
nuire, conséquemment, à la clarté de la phrase. Pour ce qui est de l'accord, le choix entre le masculin pluriel (OLF, 1991) et
l'accord de proximité (Labrosse, 1996), relève de considérations autres que linguistiques. Les deux procédés, ayant eu cours
à travers les âges, ne nuisent en rien à la lisibilité des textes. Ils sont davantage le fait de donner ou non plus de visibilité
aux femmes et d'établir plus d'égalité entre les deux sexes. Pour ce qui est des procédés indifférenciateurs que sont
l'uniformisation des suffixes adjectivaux (Labrosse, 1996) et des pronoms de reprise (Marois, 1997), ils ne saurient aller à
l'encontre de la clarté puisqu'ils s'inscrivent dans les tendances simplifica-trices de la langue. Les procédés divers de
dégenrisation (UQAM 1997) ne sont, quant à eux, que des procédés lexicaux ou stylistiques ne visant qu'à réécrire un texte
autrement. Par ailleurs, il est rare que l'on ait à utiliser les doublets sauf dans les documents juridiques, les conventions
collectives, les manuels de politiques, de directives ou de procédures, soit des textes qui établissent un comportement à
adopter par certains groupes d'individus et qui, par conséquent, utilisent quantité de noms de personnes. Dans ce cas, on
peut toujours avoir recours à des procédés de dégenrisation comme le générique (ex. les gens d'affaires). En somme, les
procédés utilisés pour féminiser les textes, autres que les doublets tronqués, ne contreviennent pas à la clarté des textes. En
fait, tout est question de mesure et de dosage : équilibrer les procédés de différenciation et d'indifférenciation pour ne nuire
ni à la qualité de la langue, ni aux principes d'égalité sociale (Larivière 2000).
Sonya Trudeau, Université Laval
Langage clair et simple : éléments de définition
Plusieurs manuels consacrés à la rédaction font état de divers principes entourant la production de ce qu’on appelle un “ bon
texte ”. Pour guider le rédacteur apprenti ou professionnel, on explique généralement dans de tels ouvrages des concepts
fort variés, notamment ceux de clarté, de simplicité, de lisibilité, d’intelligibilité, de compréhensibilité et d’efficacité.
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Toutefois, un constat s’impose : bien qu’on trouve un certain nombre de définitions et de règles liées à l’écriture en langage
clair et simple, on remarque que ce concept présente des zones floues sur le plan notionnel. Existe-t-il effectivement des
règles universelles pour ce type d’écriture ? En quoi les définitions de ce concept se recoupent-elles ? En quoi les distinguet-on ? Quelle place réserve-t-on à cette notion dans la production du texte à caractère utilitaire ? Présuppose-t-elle
nécessairement un processus de simplification ?
À la lumière de nos analyses, nous tenterons de montrer comment ce concept se matérialise en rédaction professionnelle.
Pour illustrer notre propos, nous confronterons notre réflexion à un texte tiré du magazine autrement dit, une publication
destinée à de faibles lecteurs.
English session
Room 1640 CAU
Texts in Contexts (cont.)
Session Chair: Catherine Schryer
Lilita Rodman and Christine Somerville, University of British Columbia
Texts in Social Contexts: The annual report for a Canadian junior mining company
Annual reports constitute an extremely important and complex genre that encompasses a number of other genres, some of
them obligatory and some discretionary. Discussions of this genre in the literature are restricted to American examples, to
very large organizations, and largely to the reader’s perspective. For example, Jameson (2000) has applied narrative
analysis to the annual reports of U.S. equity mutual funds. Various other studies have investigated particular linguistic
features of shareholder reports (Thomas, 1997; Hyland 1998), or the readability of the CEO’s letter (Faris and Smeltzer,
1997), or communication strategies in the president’s letter (Kohut and Segars, 1992).
Our presentation will focus on the annual reports of a Canadian junior mineral exploration and mine development company
trading on the Vancouver Stock Exchange and bring together an academic, theoretical approach and the insights derived
from extensive workplace writing experience. It will consider the perspective of the writer and the genesis of the document
as well as the perspective of the reader and the characteristics of the published document. Our main question will be: How
is the annual report of a Canadian junior mining company generated and what are the decisions that inform it? To provide
background, we will answer the following pair of questions:
1.
2.
What is an annual report and what are its main functions from the perspective of regulators, investors, prospects, and
the company issuing the report?
What are the functions and general characteristics of the obligatory elements of an annual report and of the
discretionary elements?
As time permits, we will also consider the final pair of questions:
1. What are the main differences in the text and visual components between the obligatory elements of annual reports of
major mining companies and junior mining companies?
2. What are the main differences in the text and visual components between the discretionary elements of annual reports
of major mining companies and junior mining companies?
Natasha Artemeva, Carleton University
What do winning proposals have in common? Genre Analysis of Applications for SSHRC
Research Grants
In this paper, I present preliminary findings of a study of textual characteristics of Applications for SSHRC Research
Grants and accompanying reviewers’ comments and other documents. The purpose of the study is to compare winning
applications with applications that are not recommended for funding and to trace and examine textual features that
distinguish these two types of applications. The study is grounded in North American genre theory that considers genres
“typified rhetorical actions and recurrent situations” (Paré and Smart, 1994, p. 153). The paper discusses rhetorical
situations – social roles of players, composing processes and reading practices – in which the analyzed documents are
created. The analysis of the document sample reveals that successful proposals have certain textual features that are not
present in unsuccessful proposals. The analysis of reviewers’ comments demonstrates that these features are important for
the reviewers. The analysis of the committees’ comments demonstrates that committee members DO pay attention to the
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textual cues found in the successful proposals. However, the results of this study do not allow us to uncover any direct
relationship between the reviewers’ comments and the subsequent committee’s decisions.
Charles Horn, B.C. Provincial Government and University of Victoria
Texts in social contexts: Name dropping and audience building in Hot Rod magazines
Automotive writing, once the narrow domain of engineers, publicists, and industry watchers, has expanded in the last 40
years to encompass a wide range of genres: marque specific publications, buying and price guides, classic and collector car
restoration manuals, and a host of other publication now crowd the shelves in competition for readers interested in the
automobile.
Genres, of course, as we know from the work of genre theorists such as Swales, Bazerman, Dias, and others, are intimately
associated with discourse communities, or what we might refer to as communities of practice. The relationship between
particular genres, though, and the collection of people who produce and consume those genres is a highly contingent and in
many cases unstable one, requiring in each case a detailed and specific analysis to identify the relationship between readers
and texts.
In this presentation, I will focus on one particular sub-genre in the world of automotive journalism: writing about hot rods.
The analysis will consider relationship between the social context of the publication and the rhetorical and textual features
of hot rod magazines. For such magazines, one very salient context is the wide geographical dispersion of its audience, and
differences in their technical understanding of automotive repair and engineering. The presentation will focus on strategies
used by hot rod magazines to create connections amongst its readers, and at the same time reinforce a common tradition of
modifying cars in the distinctive 'hot rod' style.
One intriguing finding from a textual analysis of hot rod magazines is the prominent place given proper nouns: in particular
the naming of parts and modifications after their manufacturer or maker. The analysis of this feature suggests that, in their
efforts to maintain the canonicity of hot rod stylistics, the authors and editors of such publications resort to some serious
name dropping, as a way of binding together its readers in a shared community while also policing the borders of the canon.
The analysis also suggests that such strategies have a certain efficiency; they condense and make portable a history of style,
and concrete automotive repair practices.
The analysis will be based on a select corpus of articles from hot rod magazines, and will draw upon, for comparative and
contrastive purposes, other automotive magazines dealing with classic and collector car restoration.
12:30 – 1:45 p. m.
1:45 – 3:15 p. m.
Lunch break/Déjeuner
Parallel Sessions/ Séances simultanées
Présentations en français
Room 1734 CAU
Présidente de la séance : Isabelle Clerc
Francine Cloutier, Université Laval
L’adaptation du texte aux destinataires : le texte lisible est-il intelligible?
Demander si un texte lisible est intelligible, c’est supposer que les deux termes sont synonymes. Les termes lisibilité et
intelligibilité sont effectivement souvent employés l’un pour l’autre mais ils ne renvoient pas aux mêmes notions
(Préfontaine, Lecavalier 1996 : 100). Demander si un texte lisible est intelligible, c’est aussi laisser entendre qu’un texte
lisible n’est pas nécessairement intelligible, ce qui a déjà été démontré par les recherches sur les facteurs qui facilitent la
compréhension de texte. Demander si un texte intelligible est adapté à ses destinataires, c’est instaurer un rapport de cause à
effet entre l’intelligibilité de ce texte et l’adaptation du texte au destinataire. Ce rapport doit être inversé : un texte n’est pas
adapté à ses destinataires parce qu’il est intelligible, c’est parce qu’il est adapté à ses destinataires qu’il est intelligible. Ce
qui fait par ailleurs qu’un texte est adapté à ses destinataires, c’est sa pertinence au sens de Sperber et Wilson (1995, 2e
éd.), notion qui permet de couvrir toutes les situations de communication et de prendre en compte les différents facteurs
d’intelligibilité.
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Denis Dion, Gouvernement de Québec
La langue de bois ou pourquoi toute vérité n’est pas bonne à dire
Quand le ministre des Finances annonce que « durant les cinq prochaines années nous allons assainir les finances publiques
», le véritable message est probablement « durant les cinq prochaines années nous allons procéder à d'importantes
compressions budgétaires qui affecteront les services publics ».
Pourquoi le ministre n'annonce-t-il pas la vérité pure et dure ? Pourquoi n'expose-t-il pas les faits comme ils se présenteront
sans doute dans la réalité ? Sans doute que le ministre ne tient pas à : · dévoiler tous ses objectifs; · dire que « ça va faire
mal »; · donner prise à la critique.
Le ministre… et le rédacteur qui a préparé son message sont-ils, dès lors, des « menteurs » ? Non. Ils utilisent la langue de
bois pour faire de la politique. Autrement dit, en langue de bois, ils pratiquent la démocratie à l'occidentale. L'une des
assises de la démocratie est la libre circulation des idées, des opinions… et de la vérité. Or, dans notre démocratie, toute
vérité n'est pas bonne à dire. Même le rédacteur le plus « administratif » et le moins « politique » (dans le sens « partisan »
du terme) ne peut oublier les enjeux de toute intervention publique de son client… le politicien. Lequel politicien ne peut
oublier que s'il prête délibérément flan à la critique, les commentateurs de l'actualité et les députés de l'opposition vont lui
réserver des lendemains très douloureux. Dans son travail, le rédacteur choisira donc les idées, le ton, les mots, pour
dévoiler les objectifs et les actions de manière à soulever le minimum de critiques et à susciter le maximum d'approbation.
C'est la réaction anticipée :
• du citoyen;
• de l'éditorialiste;
• du groupe de pression;
• de l'opposition au Parlement…
…autant que la nature même du message qui va déterminer les tenants et les aboutissants du texte à écrire.
On peut donc parler de « rédaction par réaction anticipée ».
Ce faisant :
•
•
Le rédacteur devient un instrument de pouvoir… toutes les tendances du pouvoir pouvant évidemment se payer des
rédacteurs.
Le rédacteur devient un instrument… tout court. Il échange le plus souvent son habileté et son talent contre espèce
sonnante et trébuchante.
La question se pose d'ailleurs de savoir s'il est « un simple instrument » (puisqu'il ne s'agit pas de « son » message) au point
où il n'a plus aucune responsabilité quant au texte qu'il rédige. Si tant est qu'il porte une certaine responsabilité et qu'il n'est
pas simplement « une machine à écrire », le rédacteur devra-t-il, pour « écrire selon sa conscience », changer de métier ou «
devenir son propre maître » ? Poser ainsi la question est sans doute y répondre.
•
•
La rédaction professionnelle, dans ce contexte, est un métier où « l'art l'emporte sur la noblesse » en ce sens que le
talent et l'habileté de l'artisan l'emportent sur la finalité de son travail… sauf si le rédacteur a la possibilité de choisir de
« nobles causes ».
La rédaction professionnelle contribue à l'exercice de la démocratie… comme la démocratie se pratique en Occident :
si la « libre partisanerie » est moins réjouissante que la libre circulation de la vérité pure et dure, elle est sans doute
préférable à cette absence de partisanerie que l'on appelle « dictature ».
Éric Kavanagh, Université Laval
Les nouveaux intitulés français des parcs nationaux canadiens : un contre-exemple du
langage clair et simple
En février 2000, la direction de Parcs Canada district de Québec demandait à un rédacteur-linguiste de rédiger un rapport
sur la « faisabilité » linguistique d'une modification qui allait être apportée à la Loi sur les parcs nationaux. Le Ministère
proposait d'ajouter le segment « du Canada » à tous les intitulés des parcs et lieux historiques nationaux. Si cette mesure «
semblait » ne poser que peu de problèmes en anglais, la situation était bien différente pour les désignations françaises. Dans
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cette communication, nous présenterons notre démarche pour résoudre ce problème linguistique. Nous insisterons
particulièrement sur les problèmes de lisibilité engendrés par une telle mesure: longueur du segment, cascade de
compléments, rupture syntaxico-sémantique et ambiguïté.
English Session
Room 1640 CAU
Texts in Classrooms and Disciplines
Session Chair: Robert Irish
Sandra Ingram and Anne Parker, University of Manitoba
A Profile of an Effective Team: An Analysis of a Successful Mode of Collaboration and
Leadership Style
In this paper, the investigators (the professor in the course and the research associate) will report on a team whose
collaborative style combined balanced interactions with consensual decision-making and shared responsibility, the three
attributes Allen et al describe as necessary for successful collaboration. In particular, we want to focus on the leadership
style of Todd, the team's Co-Ordinating Editor, who used agendas, cogent summaries of the team's deliberations, frequent
"pulse checks" of his team's members, and a version of the "speak-aloud" protocol whereby the team could share their
research and their written drafts with each other in a timely and efficient manner. Largely because of his collegial style of
leadership, the team developed a remarkable cohesiveness, and the project reflected the team's effective style of
collaboration.
Nadeane Trowse, University of British Columbia
“I know you but what I am?”: The deixis and social action of second person pronoun and
student writing in the disciplines
I am looking at a seeming paradox in pedagogic practice. I read in a student essay, "This dislike causes a divide between the
Dutch and the immigrants creating a feeling of 'us' and 'them'. This feeling dispels the feeling of belonging because you
cannot feel that you belong when you are pigeonholed to the 'them' side." My heart sinks. I hear the cheery voice of this
student making a claim he endorses. But my job is to say "No! This usage of 'you' isn't acceptable; I, your reader, am NOT
there in Amsterdam experiencing 'pigeonholing', so don't use 'you'." Writing guides support my admonition. The Brief
English Handbook is typical: It indicates that "'you' is also commonly used in conversation to refer vaguely to people in
general. In writing, however, use the more formal 'one' or less formal 'a person' or 'people'. VAGUE: When travelling in a
foreign country, YOU should respect local customs. CLEAR: When travelling in a foreign country, A PERSON should
respect local customs." But what foreign customs is our rather generalized advice preparing students to accommodate? Or
what is this advice telling students in particular about how to behave textually? In many of the scholarly, technical and
creative texts on my desk this vexing second person pronoun gets some perhaps transgressional use. Clark and
Marshall(1991) say "Our suggestion is that you make similar shifts whenever you change interlocutors" (56). Tom Robbin's
Half Asleep in Frog Pyjamas (1994) is written entirely in second person direct address. I wonder if in student difficulties
with understanding the complexities of 'you' usage I am hearing echoes of appropriate disciplinary usage, student estimates
of how to write appropriately based on their reading in the various disciplines? So if I am required to deplore the student
usage of 'you' does this mean that students are NOT really novices in their fields entitled to practice the disciplinary
wordings?
For my presentation I propose to read samples of student struggles to use second person pronoun against some authoritative
textual usages that they seem to be shadowing and in which such wording has been accepted. Green (1996) suggests that
the second person pronoun and indexicals have rather complex activity in which they make "implicit references to the
speaker, addressee, time and/or place of utterance." Bearing this emphasis on context in connection with 'you' use, I find it
useful as well to hold in mind a theoretical frame which suggests how language use, language norms, can display or
entrench their context of social power. I rely on Caroline Miller's view that genre use, language use, IS a social action and
on Bakhtinian ideas about the way language use in its dialogic manifestations speaks to positioning in both space and time.
Bourdieu's views on the symbolic power of language seems as well a productive grid against which to examine the second
person pronoun and who has the rights to direct address and who must code their texts with a more abject subjectivity.
Using the tools of linguistic pragmatic analysis, I propose to examine a selection of professional writings and their student
shadows to at least find a more nuance way to advise students to appreciate their readers' concerns over issues of address.
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Bill Bunn, Mount Royal College
ACPRTS
The Possibilities of Gestalt for Genre
Much of the discussion of genre in the last few years has focussed on textual and social features of genre. These
investigations have been useful and have helped to shed light on the complex and difficult problem of genre. Though these
discussions have been useful, there are some aspects of genre that still need exploration.
Kim Sydow Campbell argues that there are several avenues of communication acting in concert to make meaning on the
page for the reader; the reader’s perceptions are only partly dependent on textual features. She insists that the reader’s
perceptions are partly text-driven, but depend heavily on non-linguistic elements and their arrangement. To make her case,
she draws on Gestaltian principles, and extends their scope from the world of the “purely visual” to the world of discourse.
Though Campbell was not specifically interested in the problem of genre, her work offers some important contributions to
the discussion. It also seems possible that Gestalt principles might even extend beyond discourse into the social context –
the situation of genre, a possibility Campbell’s work leads to. This “social” Gestalt impacts genre and its perception.
The proposed paper is based on the work of Kim Sydow Campbell and others that has investigated the important link
between principles of Gestalt psychology and meaning. Campbell’s work adds to Gestaltian principles, and extends their
range beyond the image and applies it to discourse. This paper will also propose an extending the scope of Gestaltian
principles to the social context.
3:15 – 3:30
Coffee break/Pause café*
*ATTENTION/N.B.: After the break, the French session takes place in room 1640 CAU; the English session takes place in
room 1734 CAU/Après la pause, la séance en français aura lieu dans la salle 1640 CAU; la séance en anglais aura lieu
dans la salle 1734 CAU.
3:30 – 5:00 p.m.
Parallel Sessions/Séances simultanées
Présentations en français
Room 1640 CAU
Présidente de la séance : Sonya Trudeau
Céline Beaudet, Université de Sherbrooke
Le rôle des marqueurs configurationnels dans la lisibilité des textes : une étude de cas
Je me propose de décrire la fonction d'un marqueur configurationnel dans l'ensemble des facteurs agissant sur la
lisibilité/l'intelligibilité de textes de type procédural. Plus spécifiquement sera examiné le rôle de la disposition textuelle
d'une énumération dans la lisibilité des textes de loi. Le procédé d'énumération domine tous les autres procédés de
thématisation dans les textes législatifs, d'où l'émergence de la question au départ de cette recherche : dans un texte de loi,
la lisibilité des énumérations est-elle accrue par une disposition verticale des éléments additionnés? Poser le problème de la
lisibilité d'une opération métatextuelle, de quelque nature qu'elle soit, c'est s'intéresser à son effet sur l'intelligibilité du
texte. La question sera donc traitée ici en examinant les diverses opérations de langage et de discours en interaction dans le
texte, au sein desquelles prend place le recours aux agents signalisateurs de l'organisation textuelle, et qui influent sur sa
clarté.
Michelle Loslier, Université de Sherbrooke
Les lieux communs dans le discours sur la qualité de la langue au Québec
Notre but est de mettre en lumière la fonction des lieux communs dans le discours argumentatif sur la qualité de la langue
au Québec. Pour ce faire, nous avons retenu deux textes qui s’intéressent à la qualité du français en usage au Québec et qui
expriment sur ce sujet des opinions opposées.
Dans chacun des textes, on trouve des lieux communs qui, à la manière d’autorités, servent d’appuis, parfois indispensables,
à la thèse soutenue.
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L’un de ces lieux communs (ou idées reçues) stipule qu’une langue peut varier dans le temps sur une échelle qualitative, ce
qui permet de parler de dégradation (ou non-dégradation) d’une langue. L’idée selon laquelle une langue peut se détériorer
en qualité relève moins d’une observation scientifique que d’une conviction/croyance/idéologie présente/établie dans le
discours social de cultures données. Pourtant, cette idée est présentée dans le discours comme une évidence, un fait qui va
de soi, que nul ne penserait à reconsidérer.
Le recours aux lieux communs est une stratégie d’écriture relevant de la «face implicite» des discours. Il permet d’engager
le débat dans une direction en faisant l’économie d’une démonstration. Toutefois, l’usage des lieux communs ne peut
prendre place que dans un contexte où le rédacteur sait que ce qu’il verse dans l’implicite sera compris par le destinataire. Il
entre alors dans l’imaginaire linguistique de la collectivité à laquelle il s’adresse.
Bertrand Labasse, Université de Lyon
L’institution contre l’auteur? Pertinence et contraintes en rédaction professionnelle
Il existe une différence évidente entre les préceptes usuels des spécialistes en communication (employer des mots simples,
un style nerveux, éviter le verbiage, etc.) et les écrits généralement produits par des organisations publiques et privées,
même lorsque celles-ci en confient la rédaction à des prestataires (1).
Ainsi, alors que l’examen des manuels consacrés à la rédaction journalistique, à la rédaction scientifique ou à la rédaction
d’entreprise révèle la remarquable universalité de certaines normes d’écriture, la réalité peut faire douter de l’universalité de
ces normes, donc de leur valeur. Est-ce de là que proviennent les tensions qui opposent fréquemment les commanditaires et
les rédacteurs, ou encore les scientifiques et les vulgarisateurs, même lorsqu’ils semblent d’accord sur l’objectif et la cible
du texte ?
Nous nous proposons de montrer, à partir de divers exemples typiques, que ces antagonismes - qu’ils soient théoriques
(universalité contre spécificité) ou vécus (sources ou commanditaires contre rédacteurs) - résultent d’une compréhension
insuffisante des logiques fondamentales de la communication. Celles-ci peuvent être éclairées à partir la théorie de la
pertinence (Sperber & Wilson, 1989). Elle nous conduira à proposer un nouveau modèle, rendant compte de ces tensions et
permettant de mieux structurer les “connaissances communes” concernant la rédaction. Nous montrerons en particulier que
les préceptes stylistiques et ceux liés aux types de textes (académiques, journalistiques, techniques, etc.) - questions souvent
confondues - sont en réalité d’essence foncièrement différente.
Cette réévaluation comporte des implications théoriques et d’autres très concrètes (techniques rédactionnelles), mais ses
enjeux sont prioritairement pédagogiques. La compétence rédactionnelle pourrait en effet, sur cette base, être décrite et
enseignée, non plus comme la mise en œuvre d’un ensemble de règles plus ou moins hétérogènes et parfois contradictoires,
mais comme l’optimisation d’un petit nombre d’arbitrages.
English session
Room 1734 CAU
Texts in Classrooms and Disciplines (cont.)
Session Chair: Nadeane Trowse
Robert Irish, University of Toronto
Does practice make perfect? The effect of repeated writing exercise on the writing of civil
engineering students
The Language Across the Curriculum program has undertaken a research project analyzing the effect of written feedback
on the writing of second-year Civil Engineers. We followed 15 students through eight months, during which the students
wrote seven reports in three Civil Engineering courses. Each report was evaluated by an engineering Teaching Assistant
(TA). Our data came from four sources: analysis of written feedback on papers; interviews to ascertain how students
understood feedback; analysis of changes (positive or negative) in students’ writing including whether they have
implemented advice from feedback; and interviews of TAs to find out what the feedback was intended to accomplish.
Recognizing that our interviews might actually cause improvement, we also analyzed the writing and use of feedback for
five students whom we did not interview, a kind of control group.
This presentation reports on the control group. For these students — as for the others — I trace three indicators of writing
skill:
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2.
3.
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Substance — such as the appropriateness of the students' response to the question or prompt, and the thoroughness
or depth of that response;
Organization — such as the effectiveness of rhetorical strategies to create coherence and persuasion, and the
cohesiveness of paragraphs;
Linguistic control — such as the effective use of transitions, the coherence of sentences and sentence error.
The findings indicate that the writing does not improve measurably in any of the three skill areas, even when feedback is
directly relevant. These results contrast the results from the fifteen students we interviewed. Significantly, then, the
intervention from our study itself might have been the most significant contributor to the improvement of the fifteen
students’ writing, not the feedback.
These results have at least three significant implications for Writing in the Disciplines (WID). First and simply, writing is
not enough. Many faculty — in engineering certainly, but elsewhere too — assume that the act of writing itself will lead to
improvement, if we just get students to do “enough”; however, our study shows that is not the case, or at least that
“enough” is significantly more than a technical curriculum can bear — even one supported by a WID program. Therefore,
rather than aiming at quantity, we must be strategic.
Secondly, feedback needs to change so that it communicates to the student. Often TAs’ comments reveal their lack of
clarity about how the student might improve. TAs need to be taught to shift their focus from criticism to comments directed
toward improvement. Most often, this will entail making fewer, more significant comments on the papers, but we need to
explore alternatives to written comments in the engineering environment.
Hence thirdly, we need to create mechanisms (such as our interviews) that motivate students to comprehend and use
feedback, since students’ comprehension and application forms an obvious part of learning both course substance and
writing skills. Of course, such mechanisms begin to look very much like formative feedback, so familiar in writing
pedagogy; however, implementing within a highly structured discipline such as engineering requires a change for
engineering, which will also change the nature of the feedback. Early attempts at implementation — such as the tutorial
built into the final writing assignment of the year, and the improvement noted in the students who made regular use of
writing centre facilities – show promise for helping students learn both course material and writing skills.
Further research is required into how students acquire writing skills while writing within disciplines, so that we can better
understand assignment design, feedback, and points of strategic intervention. For example, we need to understand better
how the tutorial process works in student learning, and whether the writing skills that seem to appear in a paper on which
the student is coached are transferred to other writing.
Peter Weiss, University of Toronto
Questioning the question: An evaluation of a feedback strategy for student writing
In this paper, I will investigate the question as a mechanism for written feedback. My discussion will be based on a research
project undertaken by the Language Across the Curriculum program analysing the effect of written feedback on the writing
of second-year Civil Engineers. Fifteen students were studied over the course of eight months during which they wrote
seven reports in three courses. Each report was evaluated by a Teaching Assistant (TA) from the Engineering Faculty. Our
data was collected from four sources: analysis of written feedback on papers; interviews with students; analysis of changes
(positive or negative) in students’ writing; and interviews with TAs.
The project was largely exploratory. Its purpose was to determine points of connection and disconnection between the
comments markers put on students’ writing assignments and improvement or decline of students’ writing performance. In
this regard, the practice of responding to writing with questions rather than reactive statements, analyses or prescriptive
corrections creates both intriguing possibilities and troubling paradoxes. We endeavoured to determine whether the students
perceived questions as meaningful connections, provoking renewed exploration of substance and greater depth or as
determined intervention disguised as dialogic reaction. We defined the first kind of question as “open,” equating it with the
simple response of a transparent reader. It represents a reaction, perhaps a sharing of knowledge that is intended to lead to a
kind of virtual dialogue in the student’s mind, even if only for a moment. The second kind of question we termed “leading”
and we were curious to find out whether students responded to it differently than they would have responded to any sort of
overt correction, whether editorial mark or specific instruction.
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Writing questions, particularly “open” ones, on student assignments seems to be a strategy determined to evoke the
connection of the one-on-one writing conference in which an interrogative strategy can be effective getting students to open
up, articulate their own unique ideas and come up with their own solutions to writing problems. But even in one-on-one
meetings, the role of the question as an indicator of egalitarian and co-operative dialogue between coach and creator is open
to dispute. The writing meeting itself is immersed in the power dynamics of tutor-teacher/student relationships. The
question may be an honest invitation to talk or it can be a prompt intended to elicit a correct result, a directive disguised as
friendship. This is even truer in a written question coming from a marker with whom the student may have little or no
relationship.
If this strategy is ever effective in reducing the negative impact of critical responses and provoking interest and excitement
leading to better writing and learning, can a set of guidelines be drawn up to benefit markers who are often faced with a
stack of assignments from students they have not met and may never meet? Based on findings from our research, this paper
proposes ways that the question may personalize and improve the impersonal and often ineffective process of written
feedback on student writing assignments.
Mark James, University of Toronto
An investigation into student transfer of learning from a post-secondary content-based
ESL writing course to other courses
This presentation will describe an in-progress investigation into student transfer of learning from a post-secondary contentbased English-as-a-second-language (ESL) writing course to other courses.
This is a qualitative multi-case study that focuses on nine students from a first-year ESL writing course in an engineering
faculty at a Canadian university. Data is being collected over two semesters, through interviews (i.e., with students, the ESL
instructor, and instructors from the students’ other courses), class observations (i.e., the ESL course, and students’ other
courses), and student journals (i.e., for recording specific examples of learning transfer). Data will be analyzed using a
process of constant comparison to allow the emergence of grounded theory.
The study is relevant for the following reasons:
Post-secondary ESL instruction in Canada is a context in need of attention because of (a) the growing numbers of
international students, and (b) the large numbers of local students who have learned English as a second language through a
limited amount of time in a local school system.
When language instruction occurs as part of a broader educational programme which is in the learner’s second language,
transfer of learning is particularly important. It has been suggested that a content-based approach to instruction might be
more effective than a traditional skills-based approach in stimulating learning transfer. However, relatively little is known
about learning transfer in a post-secondary content-based ESL context.
The goal of this presentation will be to expand on the description and explanation presented above, and to discuss the
preliminary results of the study.
5:00 – 7:00 p.m.
Réception du recteur/President’s reception
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Le vendredi 25 mai/Friday, May 25
Langue, culture et société : le texte en contexte social/ Language, Culture and
Society: Texts in Social Contexts (continued)
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Room 1640 CAU
Texts in Classrooms and Disciplines (cont.)
Session Chair/Présidente de la séance : Anne Parker
Margaret Procter, University of Toronto
Working It Out: Online Conferencing as Reinvention of Academic Discourse
It is now a pedagogical nostrum that asynchronous conferencing can extend class discussion and give students a chance to
practice their writing skills. My research on the actual effects of such conferencing suggests that though students often
resist these worthy goals, in some circumstances they do use this new form of written communication to extend the nature
of academic discussion and writing. My analysis of a second-year Cell Biology course engaged in problem-based learning
will describe some ways that students exploited the new technology to negotiate social standing and intellectual authority,
ultimately reshaping the conventions of written communication for their own purposes.
It is evident that in this class the instructor created the space for open and thoughtful discussion, first by stating clear course
goals, and then by standing back, though continuing to monitor activity. Students had to create mutual trust and define
shared expectations so that they could collaborate efficiently, especially in the face of an overload of technical information.
My analysis of interaction types and language patterns suggests that non-standard language use and gestures of selfdeprecation helped establish a climate of openness, that accurate reading of others' messages emerged as an important social
skill and learning tool, and that appropriation of published texts was a useful stage towards gaining critical understanding of
the nature of authority. Student use of online writing in this course often undermined the conventions of standard academic
discourse, sometimes parodied it, and occasionally enlarged its capacities.
My presentation will briefly summarize current research on these issues, and I will provide an annotated bibliography.
Students whose texts are cited have given their informed consent. This research is a project in EvNet, a SSHRC-funded
strategic research network that assesses the uses of technology in education and training.
Michael Jordan, Queen’s University
From academic essay to engineering report: Structuring and structured habitae
The overall aim of this paper is to provide a set of social- and cognitive/linguistic-based criteria for demonstrating, teaching
and using the major differences between the essay and the report. Based on a study of the requirements for essay writing
and report writing in text books, course requirements and other sources, the paper will identify the changes in
understanding, approach and communicative techniques needed for students to make the transition from essay-based
writing in the humanities to report-based writing in applied science and engineering.
From a social perspective, “Technical writing…begins with the premise that the student needs to learn how to effectively
communicate in an environment radically dissimilar to that of college.”[1]. Those radically different social environments
are created by and create [2,3] their central communicative features: the essay for literary analysis and pedagogical writing
purposes, and the report for education and practice in engineering and science. Students entering engineering have received
their education and practice in writing in a social culture dominated by the study and teaching of English literature and the
writing of essays and literary analyses, and by teachers who have been educated only in that social framework. In contrast,
their future writing needs lie mainly in technical writing, which is dominated by principles of functional communication
and the writing of informative, action-related reports. The two habitae [4,5] show a clear relationship between social
environment and communicative practice, a relationship which engineering students need to understand to become effective
technical writers.
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The cultural gap between humanities and social sciences on the one hand and science and engineering on the other has been
long recognized [6,7] and has been applied to the teaching of technical writing [8]. We need to develop our students’
abilities to think and express themselves in the cultures of applied science and engineering for practical purposes, rather
than in the literary culture for academic purposes. Students need to develop into the third culture [9] of highly literate
engineers able to communicate effectively in the new world being created by the information revolution. With the strong
need to express factual and assessive detail for information and action, reports are clear, concise and highly relevant to the
expressed engineering aim and the less-important academic aim of teaching the scientific process and engineering
methodologies. In contrast the academic aims in school and university essays (to develop the student’s critical thinking and
assessment, logical self-expression, language style and vocabulary) are often more important than the assumed literary
aims, resulting in writing that is, as an aim of the writing, deliberately more elaborate in style, structure, and vocabulary.
Recent work [10] on the major differences between literary essays and engineering reports provides the initial
cognitive/linguistic basis for this study. It explains document creation and design in terms of patterns of selective reading
and review for practical purposes, with the resultant emphasis on high-priority organization, structure signalling and
summary systems. In comparison, essays are read in a continuous manner with the emphasis on continuity, “flow” of ideas
and the systematic development of the overall message. The differences between these two metagenres will be more clearly
identified in terms of the general aims, purposes and readership of the communications and also specific topics. These
topics will include: contents, formats, structures, titles and headings, conciseness, style, references, appendices, summaries,
and the use of illustrations, graphs and tables.
Lilita Rodman, University of British Columbia
Discipline Differences in the Use of Some Hedges
Hyland (1996a:251) defines hedges as “linguistic means used to indicate either a) a lack of complete commitment to the
truth of a proposition, or b) a desire not to express that commitment categorically.” Although hedges are used in most
genres, they are particularly important in scientific writing, where they serve to present claims with greater precision, to
signal reservations in the truth of a claim, and to give deference and recognition to the reader (Hyland, 1996b: 449). The
structures used for hedging include modal verbs (may), epistemic lexical verbs (seem), epistemic nouns (suggestion),
epistemic adverbs (probably), and epistemic adjectives (possible). We know relatively little about hedging in different
disciplines. This paper will concentrate on the latter two structures (adverbs and adjectives) and will aim to extend the work
of Hyland on cell and molecular biology and Varttala (1999) on medicine. Should I find that these two structures are not
sufficiently productive, I will also examine the use of some epistemic lexical verbs. My observations will be based on a 112
000-word corpus consisting of 30 articles, 6 from each of the following disciplines: Chemical Engineering, Civil
Engineering, Medicine, Mineralogy, Physics. The paper will address the following questions:
1) how frequent are these hedges in the corpus as a whole and in the six disciplines represented?
2) how are these hedges distributed among the various sections of the research article: Introduction, Methods, Results,
Discussion, Conclusion?
3) are there discipline differences in these distributions?
4) in what discourse contexts are these hedges used?
10:30 – 10:45 a.m.
Coffee break/ Pause café
10:45 – 11:45 a.m.
Room 1640 CAU
Keynote speaker/Conférencière principale : Rebecca Burnett, Iowa State
University, Complexities of Cultures, Context, and Collaboration in Working Toward
Expertise
How can we help students move toward expert-like behavior? Upper-level and capstone courses in technical disciplines
often take as one of their goals enculturating students to exhibit expert-like behaviors in contexts that are simultaneously
bounded and fuzzy. In this presentation I focus on research of students in two sites: (1) those in a pair of upper-level,
integrated courses in agronomy and English, writing for and making presentations to a workplace client and (2) those in a
capstone course managing a 1,300-acre farm.
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All of these students straddle the academic-workplace boundary and juggle academic and workplace texts as they
demonstrate their ability to function-individually and collaboratively-in complex rhetorical situations. Students are
encouraged to develop situated expert-like strategies to address complex problems. The role of communication? It's a tool
to aid in the actual problem solving, a way to develop and demonstrate emerging expert-like behaviors, a way to test
potential recommendations, and a way to present the final recommendations. Students learn that the texts they createwhether oral, visual, or written-are only valuable when situated in a particularized context.
What characterizes students as they move toward expert-like behavior? Our research team has some support for our
position that providing situated scaffolding for students learning to manage the complexities and challenges of workplace
communication can result in usable, professional reports that contain effective arguments. In fact, we observe a distinct
difference between students who learn the rhetorical complexities of shaping information in conjunction with their
agronomic content and those who deal only with the agronomic content.
Expert-like behaviors include the ability to identify problems, select situationally appropriate recommendations to the
problems, and create an argument for accepting the recommendations. Thus, as students move toward expertise, they move
past textual features of a genre in order to situate their texts. An awareness of professional conventions-that is, an
understanding of language in use-emerges when students focus on the complexities of genre. Specifically, in these
workplace-situated classes, students must present effective arguments in a usable, professional manner, which includes a
complex combination of criteria: be agronomically sound, environmentally responsible, socially acceptable, and
economically feasible in order to be situated in their community of practice.
About the Speaker
Rebecca Burnett is a Professor of Rhetoric and Professional Communication and Director of Advanced Writing,
Department of English, Iowa State University. She is also a Program Consultant for ISU College of Agriculture (AgComm)
and Editor of the Journal of Business and Technical Communication.
Her recent publications include “Technical Communication” Dallas/Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt. 5th edition, 2001;
“Collaboration in Technical Communication: Research perspective,” Erlbaum, 1997, co-edited with Ann Hill Duin and
“Business Communication” Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1997, with Ewald, Helen Rothschild; and “’Some people
weren’t able to contribute anything but their technical knowledge’: The anatomy of a dysfunctional Team,” in
Nonacademic Writing: Social Theory and Technology, ed. A. H. Duin and C. Hansen Erlbaum, 1996.
11:45 – 1:00 p.m.
Lunch/Déjeuner
1:00 – 2:30 p.m.
Room 1640 CAU
Text and Hypertext
Session Chair/Présidente de la séance : Margaret Procter
Paula Loewen, University of Waterloo
Navigating (with) Fodors.com
Fodors, a well-known travel guidebook publisher, has developed a “beautifully designed, fast, easy-to-use and completely
free” web site (“Web Hound” National Post 29 Apr 2000 E16), fodors.com. While much of the web site’s content is drawn
from the company’s print travel guides, it is my contention that the hypertextual nature of the web changes the way that the
travel destinations are represented. For example, fodors.com allows users to create personalized “mini-guides” for selected
destinations. But if the information in the mini-guides is essentially the same as that in the print guidebooks, how is it that
the mini-guides represent travel destinations differently?
Even though hyperlinks allow users a certain degree of control over how they receive information on a web page, Nicholas
Burbules argues that they “control access to information” (Nicholoas Burbules “Rhetorics of the Web” 105) by grouping
concepts together. Although Fodors mini-guides apparently let users decide the type of travel information they receive, the
web site actually limits the types of searches that users can make. While grouping travel information into a series of
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categories (region, then country, then location and activity) makes the site user-friendly (and I do not want to undermine the
importance of usability when considering web design), the particular set of categories used can affect the way that users
think about their destinations. This paper will analyze the hyperlinks are used in the mini-guide to the Dominican Republic
in order to explore how user-friendly web design affects the representation of this country, and thus, how this text acts in its
social context.
John Killoran, Brock University
Archi-texture and Home Construction: Form vs. Content on the WebScape
The "dumping" of print text onto the Web, a common impulse of corporations, governments, and other organizations, has
been criticized for its insensivity to the screen-based Web environment. William Horton (1994), for instance, has criticized
the organizational habit of rushing print-based content onto the screen in lieu of revising the content's form to better suit its
potential hypertextuality and its on-line environment.
However, among novice Web producers, I am observing a hyper-sensitivity to the Web environment, to its novelty and
thereby to the texture of the Web screen that makes its communications forms different. In my research project, I surveyed
106 personal Web publishers and analysed their homepages.
My sample of Web sites showed evidence of what Richard Coe would would recognize as form's "heuristic" function, its
role as "a motive for generating information" (p.18). Less innocently, however, such a motive implicates personal Web sites
in what Coe identifies as form's axiological imprint: "forms are attitudes frozen in synchronicity. . . . [A]dopting the form
involves adopting, at least to some extent, the community's attitude, abiding by its expectations" (p.19).
On the Web, such attitudes are oriented to the Web's commodification of information and spur attempts to emulate the
forms of information displays but without the accompanying information content. The leadership of Web form, a Web
"look," may ultimately constrict the range of content people publish in the new medium.
Stuart MacMillan, Carleton University
Politics on the Web: A social constructionist analysis of text on official party websites
Modelled on the traditional campaign brochure, party websites are versatile and rhetorically forceful allies in the battle for
public support. In this paper, I intend to analyse and compare text published on official websites of Canada’s five
mainstream political parties. Taking the Bakhtinian view that all textual creation is social dialogue (Bakhtin, 1935), I will
deconstruct comparable passages from respective websites to expose values and meaning embedded in the language. A
comparative analysis will reveal instances of intertextuality, showing that these web documents are truly instances of social
interaction, not only between parties and potential voters, but also between different members of the political discourse
community.
A breakdown into field, tenor, and mode of discourse argued by sociolinguists Halliday and Hasan (1985) will prove a
useful approach for textual analysis. The documents will be analysed for meaning on experiential, interpersonal, logical,
and textual levels. Comparing textual utterances, functioning within identical fields of discourse, I expect to find revealing
differences in tenor and mode. Although highly relevant to this study, I intend to disregard more temporary co-components
(news updates, press releases, interactive forms, questionnaires etc.) and focus solely on the main text body of the sites, and
more specifically on elements which are readily comparable among sites.
2:30 – 3:00 p. m.
Coffee break/Pause café
2:45 – 4:15 p. m.
Room 1640 CAU
CATTW Book Display/Exposition de livres de l’ACPRTS
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3:00-4:30 p.m.
Room 1640 CAU
Annual General Meeting/Assemblée générale annuelle
CATTW dinner/Dîner de l’ACPRTS
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Le samedi 26 mai/ Saturday, May 26
Langue, culture et société : le texte en contexte social/ Language, Culture and
Society: Text in Social Context (cont.)
9:00 – 10:30 a.m.
Room 3271 CAU
Writers, readers, texts, and contexts
Session Chair/Président de la séance : Charles Horn
Philippa Spoel, Laurentian University
The rhetoric of Ontario’s Midwifery Legislation: Textual (Ir)resolution to Social Conflict
In 1994, the Ontario Government passed legislation to regulate the practice and professional accreditation of midwifery in
the province. This legislation occurred in response to a decade or more of political discussion and lobbying by diverse
groups interested in making midwifery a more accessible healthcare option for pregnant women. However, despite the
obvious benefits that legislation promised (such as the introduction of government healthcare funding and university
educational programs for midwifery), concerns were also expressed about the potential drawbacks of incorporating
midwifery within the dominant medical system through state regulation.
My proposed presentation will examine key sections of the legislation to see how it mediates the different social values and
political concerns of the voices involved in the debate leading up to legislation. In particular, I will focus on how the legal
text negotiates the social conflict between the grassroots representation of midwifery as an alternative, non-interventionist
form of healthcare and the incorporation of midwifery within a mainstream, interventionist medical model. To conduct this
rhetorical analysis, I will draw on conceptual tools emerging out of recent work in the study of medical and legal discourse
as well as the rhetorical theories of Kenneth Burke and of Chaim Perelman and Lucie Olbrechts-Tyteca. Using these tools, I
hope to show how the language of the legislation at once masks and reveals, affirms and negates the conflicting values and
interests of groups involved in the debate leading up to the regulation of midwifery in Ontario. This legislation, I suggest,
offers at best an uneasy resolution to the debate.
Claire Harrison, Carleton University
Mastering Rhetorical Knowledgeability: The world of the writing consultant
Genre theorists have noted that each workplace is a distinct discourse community, or to use more recent terminology, a
community of practice (COP) (Swales, Bazerman, Berkenkotter and Huckin, Dias et. al.). To determine how an employee
learns the “writing ropes” within a COP, researchers are exploring activity theory and theories of social motivation and
situated/distributed cognition—all of which suggest a time-intensive learning curve and acculturation before an employee
can successfully produce a COP’s genres.
However, the world of the writing consultant, an area unexplored by the research, is considerably different. Writing
consultants do not belong to a COP. Rather, they work off-site, may be acquainted only with an assignment’s project
manager and, in fact, often work on different genres for different clients within the same time period. To achieve success,
writing consultants must quickly develop what Segal et. al. (1998) refer to as “rhetorical knowledgeability” for each COP,
i.e., knowledge of how text reproduces the “social matrix” of that community so that he/she can conform to, protect,
enhance or change their discourse practices, as required.
This purpose of this study is to explore how writing consultants master rhetorical knowledgeability. The author will
examine her own experiences as a writing consultant of 15 years and interview four other long-term freelance writers to
identify common behaviors, strategies, techniques and skills. This study will hopefully contribute to genre research and
current pedagogical inquiries into how students can more easily make the transition from the academy to the workplace.
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Graham Smart, Purdue University
A Central Bank’s Use of Written Genres to Orchestrate its Communications with Other
Players in the Arena of Public Policy
The paper will discuss a study which examined how the Bank of Canada, that country’s central bank and monetary-policy
authority, uses written discourse in orchestrating its communications with other groups in Canadian society. More
specifically, the paper will describe how the Bank employs a set of written genres to prompt and structure the collective
thinking and action that underlie its communicative exchanges with other players in the Canadian public-policy sphere,
players that include government, the financial markets, the business community, the media, academia, and the general
public. This is a significant topic because while researchers have examined the internal processes and functions of written
discourse within a variety of business, government, educational, and non-profit organizations, there has been little or no
research looking at the genres that organizations use in managing their communicative interactions with other social groups.
The paper draws both on an extensive body of data collected in the Ottawa head office of the Bank of Canada during the
fourteen years I worked there as an in-house writing consultant and trainer and on a more focused set of data gathered at the
Bank over a two-day period in June of this year. In this research, employing the methodology of interpretive ethnography, I
gathered a range of data that included observations/fieldnotes, interviews, reading protocols, and text analyses. In
interpreting these data, I applied concepts from social theories of genre and activity. On a methodological level, then, the
paper will argue for the value of interpretive ethnography in exploring the intersubjectivity—that is, the ground of shared
perspectives and understandings—that makes it possible for a large number of individuals performing a range of different
roles to collaborate in the activity and discourse that enable an organization to accomplish its work.
10:30 – 10:45 a.m.
Coffee break/Pause café
10:45 – 12:00 noon
Room 3271 CAU
Les communicateurs, des médiateurs culturels/ Communicators as Cultural
Interpreters
A joint session with the Canadian Association for Translation Studies/ Une séance commune avec l’Association
Canadienne de traductologie
Keynote speaker/Conférencière principale : Deborah Andrews, University of Delaware
Communicators as Cultural Interpreters
As Thomas Kuhn so aptly notes, new metaphors reveal new avenues for research. Perspective matters, and thus metaphors
of a global economy compel reexamination of how we do things as professional communicators and translators. Technical
people have communicated across borders of culture and language for years, of course. But changes in global trading,
especially given information technology, have driven such communication to higher levels of intensity, frequency, and
prevalence. So we need new theories that help us know what to measure, monitor, and value and new methods to
accomplish such activities in this transformed environment. It's the role of research to meet this need.
In my remarks, I'll briefly sketch some trends and directions in research in international technical communication. The
topic is attractively broad. After reviewing the context of such research, I'll highlight what's happening in four somewhat
overlapping areas: usability studies, ethnographies, genre studies, and information design. Finally, I'll point to some
implications for the classroom.
About the Speaker
Deboraw Andrews is a Professor of English at University of Delaware. She also worked as a consultant for Duffield
Associates, Consulting Geotechnical Engineers and VanDemark & Lynch, Inc., Engineers. Her recent publications include
rd
Business Communication. New York: Macmillan, 1988 (with W.D. Andrews). 2nd ed., 1992; 3 ed., 1997; 4th ed., 1999.
Instructors Resource Manual and Casebook (with Rebecca B. Worley). Technical Communication in the Global
Community. Upper Saddle River NJ: Prentice Hall, 1998. Also, Instructor’s Manual with Transparency Masters (with Lois
A. Crouse). International Dimensions of Technical Communication. Editor. Author, “Introduction “ Washington: Society
for Technical Communication Press, 1996.
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12:00 noon – 1:15 p.m.
Lunch break/Déjeuner
1:15 – 2:15 p.m.
Room 3271 CAU
Les communicateurs, des médiateurs culturels/ Communicators as Cultural
Interpreters (continued)
Session Chair/Présidente de la séance: Lilita Rodman
Adam Kilburn, Australian Centre for Languages, Adult Migrant English Program, Sydney, Australia
TESOL textbooks and TESOL institutions: Discoursal relationships in different
environments
Some research has been undertaken into internationally marketed TESOL textbooks and the part they have played and
continue to play in the creation of an English Language Teaching discourse. This discourse has been identified as, among
other things, colonialist, complicit in globalisation and preoccupied with images of wealth and global pop culture. It has
been argued that structuralist approaches to pedagogy, particular styles of teacher education and training and other
institutional values are also very much a part of this discourse. These are all features of a discourse that operates
interdependently and is, to an extent, unconsciously self-sustaining but still evolving. Consistent with Foucault’s conception
of discourse these features exist as a combination of intersecting political forces and cannot be seen in their entirety as
being sourced from any one particular political standpoint.
This paper presents the results of text analysis into two TESOL textbooks. One textbook is a very widely recognised and
used textbook in a range of TESOL settings around the world and can be identified as an internationally marketed TESOL
textbook. The other textbook, despite also concerning itself with English language instruction, has been generated from
within a very different discourse, the discourse of the government funded migrant settlement program of Australia. Using,
for the most part but not exclusively, a critical discourse analysis approach to text, this paper attempts to examine the ways
in which TESOL textbooks work as sites for particular types of social exchange in two very different types of settings.
Louise Larivière, Université de Montréal et Université Concordia
Dans quel français traduire et rédiger?
Le français est une langue plurielle. Il se manifeste différemment d'une communauté culturelle à une autre (régionalismes)
et à l'intérieur d'une même communauté (niveaux de langue). Cette hétérogénéité langagière suppose des choix quand il
s'agit de traduire ou de rédiger un texte. Quel français doit-on alors utiliser? Deux possibilités se présentent : d'une part,
celle d'utiliser un français universel qui ferait abstraction de tout particularisme régional; d'autre part, celle d'utiliser un
français qui respecterait les usages locaux. Chacune de ces solutions soulève, cependant, des questions. Existe-t-il un
français universel qui convienne à toutes les situations? Peut-on traiter de certains sujets sans faire intervenir des usages
locaux? La réponse est évidemment non. On ne peut, par exemple, parler de repas sans avoir à choisir entre les couples petit
déjeuner/déjeuner, déjeuner/dîner et dîner/souper, ni de transport sans avoir à choisir entre ferry et traversier, charter et vol
nolisé. De même, on ne peut traiter de particularités institutionnelles sans faire intervenir des usages locaux : en contexte
québécois, on ne peut parler de cour de cassation, de juge d'instruction, de gendarme ni de commissariat de police et dans
un contexte français, de Chambre des communes, de cégep, de sous-ministre ni de whip d'un parti. Par ailleurs, certains
usages locaux risquent-ils de ne pas être compris par une autre communauté linguistique? Par exemple, berçante et
dépanneur en France, proviseur et carte grise au Québec? Compte tenu des publics auxquels on s'adresse, doit-on alors
adapter son vocabulaire ou imposer ses termes régionaux? En supposant que l'on adopte l'une ou l'autre solution, jusqu'où
l'adaptation ou l'imposition de termes peuvent-elles aller sans devenir insoutenables? Traduire «rocket» par «fusée» en
parlant de Maurice Richard, parler de «lycée» dans un contexte scolaire nord-américain ou de «flingue» dans un film
western, employer l'abréviation «beauf» pour beau-frère ou utiliser, sans le développer, un sigle propre à une institution
étrangère (SACEM), ne pas féminiser les titres professionnels (Madame le directeur), est-ce acceptable pour un public
québécois? Pour répondre à ces questions, nous traiterons tant des pratiques lexicales (régionalismes et niveaux de langue)
que paralexicales (accentuation, féminisation, siglaison, etc.) pour conclure que, en matière de traduction et de rédaction, il
y a de la place pour l'ouverture vers l'autre tout en assurant une communication efficace.
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2:15 – 2:30 p.m.
Coffee break/Pause café
2:30 – 3:30 p.m.
Room 3271 CAU
Les communicateurs, des médiateurs culturels/ Communicators as Cultural
Interpreters (continued)
Session Chair/Présidente de la séance : Louise Larivière
Pamela Grant and Françoise McNeil, Université Sherbrooke
Variation and Contact Phenomena in English-language Writing in Quebec: Manifestations
and Motivations
This paper explores language variation and manifestations of the influence of French in a written corpus representative of
the English language as it is used in Quebec today. It interprets findings from a research project at the Université de
Sherbrooke based on the analysis of borrowings from French in a written corpus of English-language journalistic,
administrative, and other non-literary texts.
Linguistic, social and rhetorical factors motivating the use of borrowings are explored. We suggest that parameters for the
interpretation of borrowing patterns include linguistic, sociolinguistic, rhetorical, discursive and stylistic considerations.
The patterns of borrowing that emerge from this analysis are seen as indicative of the nature and sites of social, cultural,
and linguistic contact between the two language communities, as expressed by individuals, publications and institutions.
Language variation and manifestation of interlingual contact are interpreted in light of socio-historical context, genre and
domain of the discourse, markedness of the code choice, and rhetorical motivation. We situate this research in relation to
other research on language variation and languages in contact (Carol Myers Scotton; Monica Heller; Lesley Milroy).
Ana Traversa, Universidad CAECE, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Bilingual Literacy practices by a Latin American non-governmental organization: Learning
to facilitate self-access
Against the background of theory that supports an ideological perspective to literacy (Street), this case study aims to
describe the development of a forensic anthropologist's academic/professional L2 –English– literacy practices against the
background of his L1 –Spanish– literacy. The proposed analysis regards both as hybrid and focuses on their rhetorical
effectiveness.
The main participant, an experienced fieldworker and member of the Argentine Forensic Anthropology Team
<http://www.eaaf.org.ar>, has acted as co-researcher to his non-native L2 mentor (the presenter). This has not only
protected the ethical framework of the study by privileging research with rather than on or for participants, but also
triggered the learner's appropriation of linguistic principles inducted metacognitively (Gombert) in the course of his
exploratory immersion in the foreign language. Document analysis and interviewing have privileged the construction of an
emic perspective through the recording of the participant's perceptions of needs and practices in his various discourse
communities: academe, court, morgue, cemetery and military base, among others.
The kind of understanding sought does not focus on textual outcomes constructed as "progress", but aims instead to
legitimize the nature of hybrid, nativised varieties of written and oral text in both English and Spanish that play a crucial
role in the fulfillment of the Team's communicative needs in the increasingly internationalized communities of practice that
they weave together.
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(Continued from page 1)
is the site of decision-making that directs the future of
the Association. Issues to be addressed at this year’s
AGM include the development of fund-raising strategies
and possible themes for our conference in 2002. As well,
a new Vice-President and a new Secretary-Treasurer will
be elected (Natasha Artemeva, our current VicePresident, will be moving into the President's position).
Let me know of any other concerns you would like to see
on the agenda. Plan on coming to the AGM and
participating in the evolution of CATTW. I look forward
to seeing you there!
organization. SSHRC regulations on travel claims are
quite strict: only original receipts are accepted. For air
travel, SSHRC covers economy airfare only. A set
mileage rate applies for people coming by car, and flat
rates are set for ground travel from major nearby cities.
Eligible travel is from the home university city to the
conference site. Car rentals and local transportation to
and from the conference site are not considered eligible
expenses.
The upcoming conference promises to be an exciting
one, with a record number of presentations scheduled.
The conference will provide us with the opportunity to
exchange ideas, expertise, research findings and teaching
strategies. Be sure to attend the CATTW Annual General
Meeting, scheduled for afternoon of May 25. The AGM
Pamela Grant-Russell
CATTW President
Université de Sherbrooke
Pamela Grant
CATTW President
You’ve got Mail!
Vous avez du courrier!
Membership email list
Répertoire des adresses électroniques
This list of CATTW e-mail addresses was updated over the summer. If you don't see your address on this list, or
if your address is incorrect, please e-mail Amanda Goldrick-Jones with your updated address.
Please note that some "old" names of former members are still on this e-mail list. If anyone can provide
information on the status of these former members, please contact Amanda.
A
C
Christine Adam [email protected]
Jo-Anne Andre [email protected]
Natasha Artemeva [email protected]
Barbara Atkinson [email protected]
Lorraine Carter [email protected]
Sylvie Clamageran [email protected]
Francine Cloutier
[email protected]
Monique Cloutier [email protected]
Jennifer Connor [email protected]
Renee Corbeil [email protected]
Geoff Cragg [email protected]
Ginette Crew [email protected]
Burke Cullen [email protected]
B
Doug Babington [email protected]
Chris Bartholomew [email protected]
Celine Beaudet [email protected]
James Bell [email protected]
Jocelyne Bisaillon [email protected]
Ron Blicq [email protected]
Gloria Borrows [email protected]
Jacqueline Bosse-Andrieu [email protected]
Bill Bunn [email protected]
D
Ruth Derksen [email protected]
Daniel Dunford [email protected]
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Peter Medway [email protected]
Lisa Meyer [email protected]
Emily Misser [email protected]
Ramona Montagnes [email protected]
James Muldowney [email protected]
Rachel Nash [email protected]
Barry Nolan [email protected]
F
Jane Freeman [email protected]
Janice Freeman [email protected]
Jack Freiburger [email protected]
G
Devon Galway [email protected]
Ann Gasior [email protected]
Janet Giltrow [email protected]
Amanda Goldrick-Jones [email protected]
Pamela Grant Russell [email protected]
Roger Graves [email protected]
P
Anne Parker [email protected]
Anne Price [email protected]
Margaret Procter [email protected]
Tracy Punchard [email protected]
R
H
Jaclyn Rea [email protected]
Jules Richard [email protected]
Lilita Rodman [email protected]
Glenn Ruhl [email protected]
Doug Hare [email protected]
Claire Harrison [email protected]
Charles Horn [email protected]
Henry Hubert [email protected]
Beth Hughes [email protected]
Megan Huston [email protected]
Fay Hyndman [email protected]
S
Linda Sanderson [email protected]
Marlene Sawatsky [email protected]
Barbara Schneider [email protected]
Michael Schneir [email protected]
Cathy Schryer [email protected]
Candace Seguinot [email protected]
Donna Shultz [email protected]
Philippa Spoel [email protected]
Graham Smart [email protected]
Karen Smith [email protected]
Marielle St. Amour [email protected]
Jennie St.-Martin [email protected]
Cheryl Stephens [email protected]
Wendy Strachan [email protected]
I
Sandra Ingram [email protected]
Robert Irish [email protected]
J
Michael Jordan [email protected]
Sharon Josephson [email protected]
K
Eric Kavanaugh [email protected]
John Killoran [email protected]
L
Linda LaDuc [email protected]
Louise Lariviere [email protected]
Roberta Lee [email protected]
Paula Loewen [email protected]
Susan Logie [email protected]
T
Dena Taylor [email protected]
Nadeane Trowse [email protected] [email protected]
Sonya Trudeau [email protected]
M
Janice McAlpine/Strathy Lang. Unit, Queens
[email protected]
W. Brock MacDonald
[email protected]
Jennifer MacLennan
[email protected]
Shurli Makmillan [email protected]
W
Julie Walchli [email protected]
Diana Wegner [email protected]
Douglas White [email protected]
Steve Whitmore [email protected]
25
CATTW
ACPRTS
X, Y, Z
Kristen Yip [email protected]
Yaying Zhang [email protected]
Don’t forget to feed the CATTW! (Fall Bulletin)
The CATTW is hungry for information (and so is the Bulletin). Please send me any or all of the following items:
1. Details of recent publications that would be of interest to our members, especially books published by our
members.
2. News related to our Association's aims and interests: conferences, meetings, teaching ideas, recruiting ideas.
3. Short articles for the IDEAS column – a maximum of 400 words. They will not be peer reviewed and should be
considered as informal contributions to a platform of discussion among CATTW members.
Please contact me for any information on the Bulletin, and let me know if you plan to submit an article for an
upcoming issue. The deadline for the Fall issue is October 31, 2001.
Bill Bunn
Mount Royal College
Calgary, Alberta
(403) 240-5945
[email protected]
Publications
En anglais
Jordon, Michael P., "Paragraphing in Legislative Writing: Linguistic and Pragmatic Foundations," Research Report
commissioned by the English Legislative Language Commission, Department of Justice, Ottawa, pp. 75, March 2001.
In French
Beaudet, Céline, « La lisibilité des énumérations verticales », Rapport de recherche présenté à la Direction des services
législatifs, Justice Canada, décembre 2000, 15 p.
A special thanks to the Centre for Communication Studies at Mount Royal College, Calgary, Alberta, for sponsoring this issue of
the Bulletin.
26
CATTW
ACPRTS
QU’EST-CE QUE L’ACPRTS?
L'ACPRTS regroupe des Canadiens et des Canadiennes qui pratiquent l’enseignement de la rédaction technique et professionnelle
dans les collèges et les universités, au sein du gouvernement ou dans l’entreprise. La rédaction technique englobe ici tous les
aspects de la rédaction fonctionnelle: administrative, scientifique, médicale, spécialisée. L’Association s’intéresse également aux
aspects oraux et visuels de la communication technique, ainsi qu’aux relations entre écriture et informatique. Les membres de
l'ACPRTS peuvent échanger des idées, des techniques, assister à la rencontre annuelle des membres, et recevoir la revue bi-annuelle
de l’Association, Technostyle, ainsi que le Bulletin semestriel. Les frais d'adhésion sont de 25 $ pour les étudiants, de 40 $ pour les
membres individuels et de 50 $ pour les membres institutionnels.
QUI PEUT DEVENIR MEMBRE?
Toute personne qui enseigne ou étudie la rédaction technique ou administrative, ou qui en fait un objet de recherche, ou encore qui
s’intéresse aux aspects visuels, écrits et oraux de la communication technique, peut devenir membre.
OÙ ET QUAND SE TIENT LA RENCONTRE ANNUELLE DES MEMBRES?
Les membres de l'ACPRTS se réunissent chaque année dans une université canadienne accueillant le Congrès de la Fédération
canadienne des sciences humaines et sociales, à la fin du mois de mai ou au début de juin. (En 2001, la rencontre aura lieu à
l'Université Laval, à Québec, du 24 au 26 mai.).
DE QUOI TRAITENT LES ARTICLES PUBLIÉS DANS TECHNOSTYLE ?
La revue Technostyle aborde un grand choix de sujets, comme en témoignent les titres d’articles suivants, choisis parmi les plus
récents numéros:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Evaluation: A Holistic Perspective
Proposal Writing and Leadership: Taking a Hermeneutic Approach Toward Professional Writing as Social Action
Le Poids de Trois Siècles de Normativisme Linguistique
Reading Bureaucratic Texts: Analysis of Committee Documents
Pour une typologie des résumés fonctionnels
Journeying Through Paralysis to Praxis: Teaching Professional Writing with Bourdieu and Williams
En plus, Technostyle publie régulièrement une bibliographie sur la rédaction professionnelle et technique au Canada.
COMMENT PUIS-JE DEVENIR MEMBRE?
Il suffit de remplir le formulaire ci-dessous et de le retourner à l’adresse suivante, en y joignant un chèque (à l'ordre de l'ACPRTS):
Amanda Goldrick-Jones, CATTW/ACPRTS
University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Ave.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
CANADA R3B 2E9
Tél.: (204) 786-9453 Fax: (204) 774-4134
E-mail: [email protected]
!
Je désire devenir membre de l’ACPRTS en 2001Nouvelle adhésion ( ) Renouvellement ( )
Nom: (M.) (Mme) (Mlle): ______________________________________________________________________
Univ./collège ou entreprise: _____________________________________________________________________
Adresse: ___________________________________________________________________________________
Code postale: ___________________________________
Tél. (bureau): (
) _____-________ (domicile): (
) _____-________ Courrier électronique: ______________
Les frais d'adhésion: 25 $ ( étudiants avec identification), 40 $ (membres réguliers), 50 $ (institutions/bibliothèques).
27
CATTW
ACPRTS
CATTW IS...
. . . an Association of Canadians who teach technical writing, mostly at universities and community colleges, but in some instances
in government and industry. ("Technical" embraces all aspects of functional writing: engineering, medical, scientific, business,
etc.). The Association also focuses on oral and graphic communication, and computer-mediated writing. CATTW members are
able to exchange techniques and ideas with members at other universities and colleges, attend the annual conference, and receive
the Association's refereed journal Technostyle twice a year as well as a semestrial Bulletin. As of January 1, 1997, the annual
membership fee is $25 for students, $40 for individuals, and $50 for institutions.
WHO MAY BELONG?
Anyone who studies, researches, or teaches technical or business writing, or is concerned with the graphic, written, or oral
presentation of technical/business information.
WHERE IS THE CONFERENCE HELD?
We meet at a different Canadian university every year, as part of the annual Humanities and Social Sciences Federation of Canada
Conference, in late May or early June (2001: Laval University, Laval, Quebec, May 24-26).
WHAT IS THE FOCUS OF TECHNOSTYLE?
A sampling of papers from recent editions of Technostyle illustrates its broad range of interest:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Stylistic Prescriptivism vs. Expert Practice
Evaluation: A Holistic Perspective
Proposal Writing and Leadership: Taking a Hermeneutic Approach Toward Professional Writing as Social Action
Le Poids de Trois Siècles de Normativisme Linguistique
Investigating Summary Typology: Consideration for Classifications
Reading Bureaucratic Texts: Analysis of Committee Documents
Journeying Through Paralysis to Praxis: Teaching Professional Writing with Bourdieu and Williams
Technostyle also publishes a "Bibliography of Administrative and Technical Writing in Canada."
HOW DO I ENROLL?
Complete the application form on the back page and mail it with your cheque (payable to CATTW) to:
Amanda Goldrick-Jones, CATTW/ACPRTS
University of Winnipeg
515 Portage Ave.
Winnipeg, Manitoba
CANADA R3B 2E9
Phone: (204) 786-9453 Fax (204) 774-4134
e-mail: [email protected]
!
Please enroll me in CATTW for 2001
New
( )
Renewal
( )
Name:(Dr)(Prof)(Mr)(Ms): _____________________________________________________________________
Univ./College or Business Affiliation:_____________________________________________________________
Address:____________________________________________________________________________________
Postal Code: ______________________
Tel. bus.: (
) _____-________ home: (
) _____-________ Email: _________________
Fees: student $25 (proof required); individual $40; institution/library $50
28