By Kirk St.Amant and Ann Wiley | Guest Editors
A generation ago, international communication was limited to the few who traveled abroad for business. Now, it is almost a matter of our daily routine. Today, translation and localization are standard aspects of the technical communication process, and the global spread of online media means technical communicators are increasingly working with colleagues and clients all over the world. As online media expand access to international markets, the need to address factors of international communication will only increase.
The New Communication Paradigm
Today, proximity is no longer essential to international communication. That is, one does not need to be located in the same physical space to interact with individuals in different nations. Rather, online access to a growing global population (some 3.3 billion persons) is only a click, swipe, or search away (Internet Usage Statistics). As this access continues to expand, the need for effective international communication will only grow. This new century thus represents an age when technical communicators must increasingly be thinking globally while writing locally.
This idea of “thinking globally” can be a bit overwhelming. After all, given the number of nations, languages, and cultures in the world, where should one begin when trying to understand such contexts? Add the fact that cultures evolve at different rates and in response to varying factors, and the situation can seem overwhelming. So what is the technical communicator to do?
No one, simple answer exists. As many of us are aware, attempts to address international interactions could fill libraries and vary from expert to expert. Additionally, recent research notes certain approaches often used to understand culture and communication are problematic and ill-suited to examine the more complex and nuanced nature of international communication today (Cardon; Yu). These factors have led to alternative approaches for understanding international communication. These new perspectives focus on communication design, parallel product (and documentation) creation, and dynamics of user experience vs. more conventional approaches connected to audience, converting of pre-existing materials, and ideas of a common context of use (Sun; Getto & St.Amant).
The Need for New Approaches
Our ability to communicate globally is changing. As it does, technical communicators need to re-think international communication to reflect the continually evolving contexts related to working with and designing for international users. Thinking globally must precede writing locally to create effective materials for a growing global constituency. Success involves understanding different factors that provide information on user expectations—and patterns of use—in international settings.
To this end, we propose six contexts technical communicators can focus on to better understand the design and communication expectations of users in different nations and from other cultures. These six contexts are:
- Informational Context—This context focuses on identifying the different venues in which technical communicators can learn about the backgrounds, perceptions, and expectations of users from different cultures. There is, for example, a temptation to simply go to existing sources to learn about a culture based upon what others have observed and written. The informational context asks technical communicators to go beyond these secondary sources and engage cultures more directly by examining the venues the members of a culture use to share ideas and information. In so doing, technical communicators must also adopt more open mindsets when interacting with individuals from or reviewing materials created by other cultures. This combination of expanded resources and open attitudes can help technical communicators better understand what prompts different communication behaviors and expectations.
- Technological Context—This context encompasses both the technologies cultures use to interact and how members of a culture use a technology to share information and achieve objectives. This technical context can involve the technologies technical communicators might employ when collaborating with colleagues in other cultures. It could also include the technologies for which technical communicators need to develop corresponding documentation to meet the needs of different international users. The idea is to challenge the assumptions, “we all use the same technologies” or “we all use the same technologies in the same ways.”
- Positional Context—The physical setting in which individuals use a particular device or product can affect expectations of and patterns of use. Understanding such positional context is important, for members of the same culture might have different expectations of a product depending on where they are located when using it. Thus, designing for members of a culture involves knowing more than the culture itself; it also involves knowing where individuals are when using a product. Once technical communicators know these two factors, they can design materials that better address the different physical locations in which individuals use them.
- Experiential Context—Use is connected to life experience and to daily routines. It is not enough to know who will use a given product. Technical communicators must also know how a given item fits into the daily experiences of a group of users. This experiential knowledge can then guide design practices associated with developing materials that better meet expectations. To this end, the better technical communicators can understand (and map) the daily experiences of users from a given culture, the more effectively they can design materials that address—and can be used effectively in—such contexts.
- Professional Context—In many cases, technical communicators develop materials for products used in certain professional settings. In other instances, they interact with clients or colleagues in a range of professional environments to achieve different objectives. These professional contexts, however, are not inert. Rather, they bring with them different expectations of what each individual is assumed to know and do in relation to that context. These factors, however, are not universal; rather, they can vary from culture to culture. To this end, the more technical communicators know about the professional backgrounds and related workplace expectations of individuals from other cultures, the more effectively they can interact with them in professional contexts and the more effectively they can design materials for such contexts.
- Educational Context—The education individuals receive influences their perceptions and uses of the items they encounter. These educational experiences also shape how individuals interact with others in a range of settings. The more technical communicators know about the educational contexts that shape such perspectives, the better they can design for such contexts. An understanding of such contexts can also help technical communicators work more effectively with individuals trained in particular educational settings.
Each of these contexts examines how cultures develop different foundations for perceiving and interacting with the world around them. They also provide a mechanism for helping us better understand other cultures. These contexts, moreover, often overlap in different ways and affect expectations and uses of a device, an interface, or a text. By understanding these contexts, technical communicators can better research and more effectively work with or design for users from other nations and cultures.
The Contents of This Issue
Each article in this issue represents an example of these six contexts. The ideas and approaches in these entries provide items to consider or approaches to use when applying this contextual framework to thinking globally while writing locally.
The first entry, by Benjamin Lauren, presents strategies for examining informational contexts to learn about, learn from, and interact with individuals from other cultures. These strategies can facilitate understanding of cultural groups through interaction and by reviewing how groups communicate. The second entry, Clint Lanier’s article on open-source software (OSS), examines technological contexts by reviewing international situations in which technical communicators might work with OSS developers from different nations to create documentation for software users from other cultures.
In the issue’s third article, Filipp Sapienza examines positional context by discussing how immigration creates new settings to consider when developing materials for the members of a culture. Sapienza notes how the context in which immigrants live often means developing materials different from those used by individuals still living in the home country. Next, Gustav Verhulsdonck explains how the concept of personas can help technical communicators understand the expectations of users in different cultures. Verhulsdonck reviews how personas help with understanding the daily routines of individuals from different cultures and the contexts in which those persons use information, where, when, and how.
As noted, professional contexts affect the expectations individuals bring to business interactions, and Han Yu and Melanie G. Flanders examine such factors by reviewing technical communication practices in the People’s Republic of China (China). The two also note the close connections between translation and technical communication in China and summarize common processes Chinese organizations use to generate product documentation. In the issue’s final entry, Yvonne Cleary and Darina M. Slattery examine educational contexts affecting technical communication in international settings. They do so by reviewing collaborative projects used to train technical communication and translation students in Ireland, the United States, and France. Cleary and Slattery also offer suggestions on how educators and industry practitioners in technical communication can participate in such international educational projects.
In examining these ideas, the six entries reveal how certain contextual factors shape and provide insights into international communication practices. They also offer examples of how to approach such contexts and apply related ideas when investigating connections between culture and communication.
The Next Steps
Thinking globally while writing locally is not easy. Success involves understanding users and the contexts in which they gain access to and employ materials. The six-context framework reflected by the entries in this issue represents one perspective on how to approach culture and communication. Thus, the ideas covered here are not meant to be final, definitive ones. Rather, they should prompt readers to ask questions and engage in their own examinations of contextual factors affecting how we design for users from other cultures. By considering, applying, and enhancing these ideas of context, technical communicators can develop the flexible, responsive, and adaptable methods needed to effectively think globally while writing locally.
In sum, this issue is an invitation to engage in a greater discussion of these issues and ideas. We, the editors, look forward to how this conversation will proceed from here!
—Kirk St.Amant and Ann Wiley (stamantk@ecu.edu) (ann@annlwiley.com)
References
Cardon, P. 2008. A Critique of Hall’s Contexting Model: A Meta-analysis of Literature on Intercultural Business and Technical Communication. Journal of Business and Technical Communication 22.4: 399–428.
Getto, G., & K. St.Amant. 2014. Designing Globally, Working Locally: Using Personas to Develop Online Communication Products for International Users. Communication Design Quarterly 3.1: 24–46.
Internet Usage Statistics. 2016. Internet World Stats. Retrieved 4 March 2016 from www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm.
Sun, H. 2012. Cross‐cultural Technology Design: Creating Culture‐sensitive Technology for Local Users. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.
Yu, H. 2016. Teaching Cultural Heuristics Through Narratives: A Transdisciplinary Approach. Pp. 219–238 in K. St.Amant & M. Flammia, eds., Teaching and Training for Global Engineering Perspectives on Culture and Professional Communication Practices. Piscataway, NJ: IEEE Press.
