Each year, the editor of Technical Communication appoints a judging committee to select the outstanding article from the previous year's issues. Judges base their decisions on article content and form. The award honors the memory of Frank R. Smith, during whose 18-year tenure as editor Technical Communication became established as the flagship publication of STC and the profession. This year's judging team for the Frank R. Smith competition consisted of Saul Carliner (chair), Roger Munger, and Vici Koster-Lenhardt.
The judges are pleased to announce that the Frank R. Smith Outstanding Article Award goes to Han Yu for her article “Putting China's Technical Communication into Historical Context: A Look at the Chinese Culinary Instruction Genre” in the May 2009 issue of Technical Communication. The summary for the article states that it “examines the Chinese culinary instruction genre, analyzes culinary texts produced from 500 BC to the present, and argues for a historicized and contextualized understanding of technical communication in China.”
The article was cited for being “an analysis of recipe books that concludes there's no recipe book for cross-cultural communication. This article raises questions about Western-based conceptions of Chinese culture, and challenges readers to develop, instead, a deeper understanding of that culture and its context.”
In addition, the judges also named a Distinguished Article for the year. Congratulations to Nicole St. Germain-Madison, lauded for her article, “Localizing Medical Information for U.S. Spanish-Speakers: The CDC Campaign to Increase Public Awareness About HPV,” in the August 2009 issue of Technical Communication. The judges praised the article as “a solid research study that offers practical insights into cross-cultural communication.”
Congratulations to both Han Yu and Nicole St. Germain-Madison for their excellent work.
