{"title":"Tuning to Place: Using Photos to Better Understand Problems in Technical Communication Classes","authors":"Erin Brock Carlson, Trinity C. Overmyer","doi":"10.1177/10506519231179965","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article highlights the role of place in understanding problems, specifically within community-engaged projects in upper-level technical and professional communication courses. Drawing on a year-long participant-generated imagery study with students, instructors, and community partners, the authors argue that photographic research is effective in helping participants and researchers tune to place. Taking photos offers opportunities for documentation, individual interpretation, and collaborative reflection, resulting in a deeper, more nuanced sense of place. Ultimately, this article demonstrates how a greater awareness of place, cultivated through reflecting on visual evidence, enhances engagement projects and helps technical communicators address complex problems.","PeriodicalId":46414,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Business and Technical Communication","volume":"37 1","pages":"378 - 408"},"PeriodicalIF":1.8000,"publicationDate":"2023-06-20","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Journal of Business and Technical Communication","FirstCategoryId":"98","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/10506519231179965","RegionNum":2,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"BUSINESS","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article highlights the role of place in understanding problems, specifically within community-engaged projects in upper-level technical and professional communication courses. Drawing on a year-long participant-generated imagery study with students, instructors, and community partners, the authors argue that photographic research is effective in helping participants and researchers tune to place. Taking photos offers opportunities for documentation, individual interpretation, and collaborative reflection, resulting in a deeper, more nuanced sense of place. Ultimately, this article demonstrates how a greater awareness of place, cultivated through reflecting on visual evidence, enhances engagement projects and helps technical communicators address complex problems.
期刊介绍:
JBTC is a refereed journal that provides a forum for discussion of communication practices, problems, and trends in business, professional, scientific, and governmental fields. As such, JBTC offers opportunities for bridging dichotomies that have traditionally existed in professional communication journals between business and technical communication and between industrial and academic audiences. Because JBTC is designed to disseminate knowledge that can lead to improved communication practices in both academe and industry, the journal favors research that will inform professional communicators in both sectors. However, articles addressing one sector or the other will also be considered.