How to teach engineering students to become better writers - Ron Choi ENG 574

Beer, David F. "How to teach engineering students to become better writers." Professional Communication Conference. Garden City, 1989. 106-107.

In this conference paper, Beer asserts that despite the conventional wisdom, engineers can be taught to be effective written communicators.  He goes on to provide a list of specific recommendations for teaching engineering students to write, including:

•  Engineering departments should take responsibility for educating engineering students , not English departments, to provide real-world context and ensure that engineers are taught to write as required by their professions.
• Do not accept the convention wisdom that engineers cannot write.  Engineering students are intelligent, and therefore can be taught.  Beer also recommends using “technical communication” instead of “English”.
• Treat technical communication as a series of tasks for problem solving.  This aligns the teaching style of technical communication to match other engineering classes.
• Use the metaphors of signal noise and control systems (common engineering concepts) to help engineering students relate to issues with syntax, grammar and other undesirable communication traits. 
• Provide relevant assignments.  Tailor the writing tasks to be appropriate for what the engineering students will actually need to do in the future.
• Provide a grading checklist, such that the students can breakdown the task into smaller components, and provide a semblance of objectivity.
• Use visual aids, under the assumption that many engineers are visual learners.
• Motivate learners with a real application, e.g. a class newspaper.

Beer’s paper does not contain any references or bibliography, however, at the time he was a senior lecturer in the department of ECE at the University of Texas, Austin, and taught technical communication to numerous engineering students. 

As a former engineering student myself, I found this source to have a lot of phenomenological validity.  It would also appear to validate some of my own theories on the matter – that engineers are intelligent enough to communicate effectively, however they may not have the motivation or the proper education to learn how to do so.  I would like to find more research data to back up this single qualitative account of what has worked in one professor’s classroom.

Limits to Water Privatization

Draper, Stephen E. “ Limits to Water Privatization,” Journal of Water Resources Planning & Management 134, no. 6 (2008): 493-503.
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu. (Accessed February 8th, 2011).

This article introduces (to me, at least) the stance of allocating the right to use of water in the hands of the private sector, but still having these rights controlled by the public sector. Private, Public, and Private-Public allocation are all discussed, as well as economic and environmental consequences of each. Beliefs of proponents of privatization are discussed. An argument often used is that by charging the public for water, privatization will provide more incentive for the public to conserve water. A lot of this article outlines the economics, which I’m not sure I will be delving into too deeply in my research. The value of water is discussed heavily as a tradable commodity. The possibity of monopolies is also discussed in great detail. I may use this source, but I feel it is not as valuable as a lot of the other sources I have found for my research.

The Water Theives

Luoma, Jon. “The Water Thieves,” The Ecologist 34, no. 2 (2004): 52-57.
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu. (Accessed February 8th, 2011).

This article appears to be very anti-privatization, discussing how privatization will result in billions of dollars for corporations while leaving consumers with polluted water and a high monetary price to pay for water. This article specifically talks about cases where privatization went sour in the United States, such as Atlanta, Georgia where the municipal water supply was privatized by Suez subsidiary United Water. The water quality dropped and violations of federal drinking water standards occurred. Amazingly, United Water insisted that the city pay much more than was previously agreed upon to restore quality. One quote that struck me was as follows:

"Multinational companies now run water systems for 7 percent of the world's population, and analysts say that figure could grow to 17 percent by 2015. Private water management is estimated to be a $200 Billion dollar business, and the world bank, which has encouraged governments to sell off their utilities to reduce public debt, proects it could be wort $1 trillion by 2021"

A lot of other statistics are cited from sources such as the FDA, which will potentially be of value to me. The political aspect of privatization is discussed heavily. The author speaks of cases in which water companies have met in Washington to press their legislative agenda with Congress, "lobbying for laws that would protect companies from lawshits over contaminated water and which would block municipalities from reversing failed privatizations". I anticipate using this source, especially for the data.

SVOs

Summerlot, J., Green, S., & Parker, D. (2009). Student Veterans Organizations.
New Directions for Student Services, (126), 71-79. doi:10.1002/ss.318

This article focuses on the effect that Student Veteran Organizations or SVO’s have on the veteran populations at universities. It details factors to be considered in this transition by campus administrators and faculty. Some of these factors include whether or not the campus climate is supportive, the number of student veterans’ organizations there are on campus, and how effective these communities may be. The authors, all of whom are veterans who have made the transition from military to civilian life, suggest that SVOs are an integral part of any campus life. They can help veterans navigate the bureaucratic pitfalls of the benefits process. They can also lobby on campus and at a local government level. According to the article, this advocacy helped to shape initiatives at college campuses across the country that allowed for ease of readmission after a long deployment. In addition, many SVOs also helped to set up vet specific payment plans. This allowed many veterans to continue their education without the worry of delayed benefit payments. Most importantly, SVOs both past and present provide a social outlet for those who are seeking an environment of common experience. This helps to stem the alienation that veterans can feel amongst fellow students.

Assessment: This article provided insight into the unique student experience felt by many veterans. Advocacy, for whichever cause, is an important ingredient in the whole of academia. This is particularly important for a group that may already feel disenfranchised by campus relations and the difficulty of dealing with the VA. As a drawback, the article often refers back to an SVO based out of the University of Kansas. This might lead the reader to believe that the overall success of these organizations is more limited than the authors would like to think. Furthermore, the article was written by student organizers which demonstrate a potential bias to uphold the effectiveness of these organizations. The article lacked definitive proof that this is a necessary measure to assist veterans transitioning back to student life.

If I derived anything from this article it was where to seek out my sample sources. I believe that campus advocates would be the best conduits for conducting a research survey, as they would be able to help me with response rates, and also to narrow my sample group. The article evoked the notion that student veterans are very interested in bettering the collective. It gives hope that research into their unique situation would be welcome. The article reinforced the notion that approaching a whole community for research is simpler than dealing with individuals.

Student Veterans in Transition

Rumann, C. B., & Hamrick, F. A. (2010). Student Veterans in Transition: Re-enrolling after War Zone Deployments. Journal of Higher Education, 81(4), 431-458. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

This article discussed a study conducted by the authors aimed at addressing the specific transitions made by National Guard and Reserve members of the military. Specifically, they focused on how these individuals defined their roles as soldiers and students. In order to understand these students’ experiences from their unique perspectives, the researchers chose a qualitative, phenomenological research design using Schlossberg’s theory of transition to guide their theoretical framework. They interviewed respondents from one large university for their method of data collection. They sampled students who met the criteria by having withdrawn and re-entered school. In total they interviewed six individuals over the course of nine months.

In their findings it was determined that most all of the respondents reported basic administrative concerns. According to Rumann, “Virtually all respondents reported practical transition concerns, most of which related to university infrastructure or policies that complicated re-enrollment. According to respondents, minor annoyances (e.g., closed e-mail accounts, temporary loss of technology and facilities access) could be readily addressed; more serious problems (e.g., lapses in student insurance, cancellation of financial aid, or being off-sequence for infrequently offered courses) required more time and, in some cases, intervention by others on their behalf ”(Rumann, 2010). Furthermore, the experience of combat affected many of the respondent’s temperament and stress levels. Universally, all of the respondents reported at least mild aspects of Combat Stress Disorder.

Assessment: Although this study was very interesting, in-depth, and related to my topic of interest, it has so narrow a pool of participants that applying it to other types of research would not be advisable. Along these lines, the research has several limitations. Not all branches of service were represented, nor were any of the respondents diagnosed with physical disabilities or PTSD. The emphasis was placed on in-depth analysis of only a few select veterans. The article gave me a better understanding of how to approach a research project. As enviable as their ability to conduct a longitudinal study is, it is not practical for a grad student with limited resources.

From Combat to Classroom

Mangan, K., & Wright, A. (2009). Colleges Help Veterans Advance From Combat to Classroom. (Cover story). Chronicle of Higher Education, 56(9), A1-A28. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.

This brief article examined some of the issues veterans face when reentering civilian life. Dually, it also addresses the measures some administrators would like to see employed to help veterans adjust or readjust to campus life. Unlike some of the other articles I read, this one addressed some factors which may contribute to a veteran’s sense of alienation from his or her peers. These factors can include a difference in age from a veteran and a prototypical 18-year old freshman. Another factor that contributes to a veteran’s difficulty in transitioning is the lack of structure in academia. Those who are used to a 5:30 wake up call, and a set training schedule, may find this to be a source of frustration. Yet another factor comes from those who may still be winding down from battle stress. Those veterans may have difficulty being in a classroom setting, where they are required to be in large groups and sit still for longer periods of time.

The article suggests that counseling services need to evolve to accommodate this growing population of students. As noted in the article, the director of military services at George Mason University would like to see an increase in government funding to GI approved schools to help bolster existing programs. Due to this expanding portion of the student body, many programs find themselves ill-equipped to deal with the number of veterans looking for services.

Assessment: The content of this article remarks upon common themes throughout much of the literature on the soldier to student transition. What lends credence to the article are the interviews with several veterans who have transitioned successfully into campus life. By sharing their experiences they afford those reading a glimpse into the difficulty of assimilating into a foreign lifestyle. Beyond this, the article does not generate much new information. It simply repeats long stated directives about the post 9/11 GI Bill.

I found that this article is too limited to be of much use to my final project. It did not offer in depth analysis of the problems veterans face, nor did it contribute potential ways of stemming such problems. It simply recommended that Veteran’s Affairs throw more money to the effort.

What’s Wrong with Online Privacy Policies?

Pollach, Irene. "What's Wrong with Online Privacy Policies?" Communications of the ACM 50, no. 9 (September 2007): 103-108.

The article relates users’ responses to online privacy concerns to websites’ inadequate and confusing privacy policies. Pollach underscores current users’ practices of falsifying information and refusing to provide information to companies in order to protect their privacy. She also reflects on the companies’ concern about these practices hindering their ability to properly market and deliver good service to those customers.

Pollack points out flaws and outlines ways that companies can improve their online privacy policies in order to allay their customers’ privacy concerns and build trust with them. Relative to existing privacy policies, she outlines some ways in which they are deficient in the following quote:

“Internet users have been found not to read online privacy policies because they find them too legalistic and therefore difficult to understand [9]. Another study has assessed privacy policies by means of readability formulae and found that readers would require at least some college education to understand the complex words and sentence structures in these texts [1]” (Pollach 2007, 2).

Pollach selected 50 popular and successful websites in order to conduct her research chosen from Alexa.com for their traffic rankings. She carried out two separate studies, one to ascertain what the companies’ privacy policies do say and one to determine what the policies don’t say about how they handle consumers’ information. She used a range of familiar company names, from Internet Service Providers like Yahoo to travel companies such as Expedia.com to collect her data. Her research involved assessing the ability to answer 29 questions on corporate data handling relative to users’ privacy concerns using the language in the longest privacy policies from the sample. The results showed that 39.4% of the questions couldn’t be answered because the answer could not be found in the privacy policies. It is worth noting also that many companies exhibit a “privacy seal” on their website which gives customers a feeling of security about their privacy. The results of this study showed that companies that had privacy seals had only slightly better privacy policies than companies that didn’t have the seals.

Less than a third of companies disclosed their data handling policies. Pollach was shocked to find out how many companies don’t disclose any information at all, including how they share customers’ information with third parties. She found a number of other activities that companies participate in to share customers’ data such as e-mail addresses which further confirmed her suspicions.

The language of the privacy policies was analyzed in order to provider a deeper understanding of how they are worded. “The analysis of the language of privacy policies was based on critical linguistics [6], a method that seeks to uncover how authors of texts use language to construct their own versions of reality. In the context of privacy policies, this “version of reality” refers to how companies present their data handling practices to their readers. The goal of this analysis was to determine why privacy policies are difficult to understand and why readers do not consider them worth reading” (Pollach 2007, 105-106).

Several aspects of the language in the privacy policies was evaluated, and it appears as though the companies used various techniques in the wording of them to make them more palatable to the customer, to potentially confuse the customer as to the true intent, or to possibly hide the real facts. Pollach does admit, however, that she can’t be certain the companies’ intent is to deliberately hide or shield the truth. The purpose of the privacy policies seems to mainly defend possible litigation threats against the companies.

In conclusion, Pollach recommends that online companies address the ambiguous wording in their privacy policies using structure that makes the language more easily read and understood by every customer. Some suggestions she makes are to put the salient details of the policy in a table to make it easy for customers to look up specific topics. In addition, she recommends breaking the document up into smaller paragraphs of information to make it easier to read. Overall, Pollach feels strongly that IT departments of online companies need to be clear with their customers about exactly how their using their personal data.

This was a very detailed article, looking at online privacy through a microscope, in essence. I appreciated the authors’ analysis of the language of the privacy policies as a way of specifically defining their inadequacies and providing evidence confirming customers’ privacy concerns in addition to pointing out ways that companies can allay those concerns. Her study was very exacting, and the intra-coder reliability pertaining to the coding of the 50 privacy policies was 98.84%.

This source will fit in well with the rest of my research and address the privacy issue on a much more granular level than other sources I’ve gathered so far. It takes the mystery out of the term privacy and puts the onus back onto the companies that attempt to shield the public from knowing the truth.

All dressed up with something to say: Effects of typeface semantic associations on brand perceptions and consumer memory

Childers, Terry L., and Jeffrey Jass. 2002. All dressed up with something to say: Effects of typeface semantic associations on brand perceptions and consumer memory. Journal of Consumer Psychology (Lawrence Erlbaum Associates) 12 (2): 93−106.

This article discusses a research study on marketing and typeface semantics. The authors examine the visual properties of typefaces and advertisements to see if these factors affect consumer brand perception. The authors performed two separate experiments. Both experiments provided evidence that typefaces do in fact convey meaning and influence consumers’ perceptions and memory of brands. The authors found that typefaces can emit various meanings, and the combination of these meanings is what makes up a consumer’s perception of the brand. They also discussed how the repeated exposure of the visual properties which make up a brand’s image, influences consumers as well.

I believe this article would benefit anyone studying any aspect of visual communication. The article gives comprehensive background information, as the authors define and explain terms that will help readers fully understand the basis of their research. They provide a literature review and cite sources which the reader may also find valuable to his or her own studies. The article is a bit dated, as it was published in 2002, but I believe the information still proves useful.

What types of languages are used in CSR campaigns?

Today businesses are paying more attention to environmental responsibility both in the products they produce and the methods used to produce them. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is a way these businesses are trying to show their responsible efforts to customers and stockholders in an effort to combine social responsibility with greater profits.

This project will delve into what goes into an effective CSR campaign and will explore the language companies use in these campaigns to appeal to the broadest audience possible. Some questions to guide this study are but are not limited to:

What makes up a successful CSR campaign?
Are customers willing to pay more for environmentally responsibly produced products?
Can this language be adapted to create successful social marketing campaigns to encourage sustainable behavior?

By using these questions to analyze a few examples of big business CSR language, I hope to find a correlation, and therefore a more uniform language style to be applied to social marketing campaigns to successfully encourage sustainable behavior.

Consumers’ Understanding of Privacy Rules in the Marketplace

Turow, Joseph, Michael Hennessy, and Amy Bleakley. "Consumers’ Understanding of Privacy Rules in the Marketplace." Journal of Consumer Affairs 42, no. 3 (Fall 2008): 411-424.

This article discusses how consumers’ lack of knowledge of online privacy rules, pertaining to web sites in particular, causes them to be less concerned about online privacy therefore causing them to do less about protecting their privacy online. He cites quotes and information from several other studies to confirm these theories. One quote that I found relevant is “the online marketplace is organized such that consumers drop their sensitivity toward protecting their information to ‘‘pursue other goals that render privacy less salient than other attributes’’ (Nehf 2007, 355)”(Turow 2008,1). He provides evidence of this in other studies done reflecting that consumers’ knowledge of websites’ privacy rules is lacking in many respects. The authors further emphasize that due to the lack of consumers’ demanding greater privacy online as a result of their lack of knowledge; there is a need for the government to create regulations to protect consumers.

The authors review various arguments proposed in literature that either defend or refute the need for government regulations in this area, maintaining on one side of the argument that the American marketplace should remain free and open as it has been traditionally. On the other hand, arguments are presented stressing that websites are not set up t o allow consumers to be able to effectively make choices about their privacy while utilizing the benefits of the website. Many websites’ privacy policies are obscure and misleading. Similar problems are cited in the article regarding privacy notices and regulations issued by financial services and health insurance companies which give consumers a false sense of security regarding the privacy of their personal information.

The authors did a study using surveys to find out what knowledge internet users possess about online privacy as part of another more comprehensive study. The larger study sought to ascertain peoples’ knowledge levels of how companies legally collect information about them on and offline in addition to testing their knowledge regarding companies’ practices of charging people differently for the same products. The authors employed a nationwide research company using random digit dialing to conduct a 20 minute survey with adults eighteen years or older from 1500 households. The questions tested their knowledge on a variety of different market privacy practices, including those of e-commerce companies, charities, supermarkets, and financial services companies. The demographic statistics collected in the surveys revealed some substantive information. Knowledge of companies’ online and offline privacy practices are affected by the following factors: the more educated an individual is, the more knowledgeable that person is about privacy, with people holding graduate degrees possessing the greatest amount of knowledge; pertaining to age, people in the 50-64 year old age group had the highest amount of knowledge and people in the 18-29 year old age group had the least amount of privacy knowledge; the privacy knowledge level was also correlated to those who responded as having the greatest amount of computer skills. Overall, the results of the study yielded that only a small percentage of the population are very knowledgeable about all of the idiosyncrasies of different markets’ privacy policies

As a result of this study and other research mentioned in this article and beyond, the authors believe there should be regulations enforced regarding online and offline privacy practices. They compare the lack of accurate and specific privacy information available for consumers to review in order to make decisions about their privacy to the issue of nutrition labeling. In comparison, nutrition labeling has relied on customers’ proclivity to purchase food based on the “claims” that are made on the labels instead of looking at the actual nutritional information. Consumer privacy rights are often presented similarly by making misleading “claims” about privacy or by making their privacy information obscure and difficult to comprehend. The authors recommend that consumers be educated about online and offline privacy practices and that the government enforces regulations regarding privacy practices. They further suggest the creation of a labeling system for consumers that is clear and specific about particular organization’s privacy policies, instead of the overly convoluted one that exists now.

This article was an excellent synopsis of a very complex issue regarding understanding consumers’ knowledge about online and offline privacy. It brought to light the lack of a specific system whereby consumers’ could quickly assess how their privacy could be affected by doing business with a particular organization. The authors did a thorough review of literature and studies done on this subject matter and related it to their own research. The methodology they utilized in taking a random sample of internet users was viable, and they had a strong response rate of over 50%. The questions they asked in the survey tested the subjects’ specific knowledge on a wide range of privacy issues. The results confirmed their initial theory that there is a need for strong and clear regulations about privacy for online and offline businesses to follow that consumers can easily comprehend.

This source fits perfectly into the research I’m doing by answering the question, “How has people's desire to enjoy and utilize the benefits of the World Wide Web superseded the relative importance to them of on-line privacy”? The ’how’ in this article is individuals’ lack of knowledge about privacy practices. The authors correct the perception that people are apathetic about online and offline privacy by relating their seeming apathy to a simple lack of knowledge regarding companies’ online and offline privacy policies. Instead of defining what privacy means, the authors highlight current online and offline privacy issues while advocating better and clearer regulations to protect consumers.

Public Libraries as Access Points to the Internet

What percentage of the people who use the computers at the public library to access the Internet have no other access?

I spend a lot of time at the local public library and have noticed that the computers there get a lot of use, most of it, I'm assuming, to access the Internet. This raises the question of how many people would not have access to the Internet if it were not for public libraries. Considering the prominent role the Internet plays in America today, this point of access could be considered vital to these people's ability to fully participate in modern society.

In light of the importance of such access, the answer to the question of how many people do not have other access to the Internet is of significant interest to those who run the libraries. The answer could be useful in justifying funding for public library computers and Internet service.

I am thinking of a two part observational study at the public library in my community. The questions I would be looking to answer in the first part are
a. How much time does a particular individual spend on the computer in one sitting? The library has a two-hour limit (unless no one else is waiting to use the computer). What percentage of those using the computers use the full two hours?
b. What are the gender and rough age demographics at different times of the day?
c. How long do the computers sit idle between patrons?

In the second part of the study, I would do face-to-face interviews with people using the computers and ask them things like
a. How are you using the computer?
b. Why are you using the computer at the library rather than somewhere else?
c. If you're using the computer to access the internet, what types of sites are you viewing?

A Battle Against the Bottles: Building, Claiming, and Regaining Tap-Water Trustworthiness

Parag, Yael, Timmons J. Roberts. “ A Battle Against the Bottles: Building, Claiming, and Regaining Tap-Water Trustworthiness,” Society and Natural Resources 22, no. 7 (2009): 625-636. http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu. (Accessed February 10th, 2011).

This article’s primary focus was on the environmental effect that bottled water has on the environment, and the fact that residents of the United States have grown distrustful of tap water in part because of the bottled water industry’s advertising campaigns. This article mainly explores how the government can regain the public’s trust in tap water. The article argues that “water providers and the state do not confront this message, do not soundly claim their trustworthiness, and do not attempt to publicly and visibly back and support tap water as good and healthy” (Parag 626) . Because of this, the article claims, the message that bottled water is more healthy for a person is allowed to grow rampant, without rebuttals from the government. That the bottled water industry continues to grow despite that most developed countries water is perfectly healthy leads Parag and Roberts to compare this with Andrew Szasz’s concept of “inverted quarantine”, “wherein people attempt to isolate themselves from a [perceived] dangerous environment around them” (Parag 626). Also discussed is that because bottled water does not compete with providers over consumers (i.e. waste, and any water used for something other than consumption) there is not a strong incentive for tap water providers to start pushing the value of tap water for consumption.

Parag and Roberts argue that tap water trust can be restored by creating public awareness, revising the setting of tap water standards and policies and actively enforcing these standards and policies. Also discussed is that water providers should start to be more open about their purifying methods in order to restore public trust. According to this article, most water companies employ perfectly acceptable methods and have perfectly acceptable water for consumption, but the companies lack public relations skills, creating a barrier between citizens and the water companies, and facilitating a lack of trust of the water companies due to lack of information. Parag and Roberts suggest that bottled water contain labels that explain the detrimental effect the plastic bottles have on the environment compared to tap water. In addition to this they suggest that every bottle of water sold should contribute a small amount to treating bottled water waste, as opposed to making those who do not drink bottled water pay for the process through taxes. I feel that Parag and Roberts present some excellent points here, and I fully intend on using this source as a reference for my research project, especially their ideas on how to employ methods to restore trustworthiness between the public water distributor and the consumer.

Toward a Typology of Internet Users and Online Privacy Concerns

Sheehan, Kim Bartel. "Toward a Typology of Internet Users and Online Privacy Concerns." Information Society 18, no. 1 (January 2002): 21-32.

This article explores the differences in consumers’ attitudes towards privacy online and the concept of privacy in the traditional sense. The author, Sheehan, borrows a topology of traditional consumers developed by another researcher, Alan Westin. Sheehan’s aim is to determine whether online consumers’ can be categorized in the same way as Westin categorized traditional consumers, by dividing them into three distinct groups based on their attitudes towards privacy.

She first examines the literature on this subject and discusses the contextual nature of privacy as well as the definition of privacy, highlighting that the definition depends on the context. People’s attitude towards privacy tends to fluctuate on a sliding scale depending on how much knowledge they have of the concept and what situation they are presented with. Some studies done in the late 1990’s suggest that people’s desire to enjoy the benefits of e-commerce outweigh their privacy concerns. In addition, those same studies uncovered that peoples’ increased familiarity and experience using the internet resulted in them having less concern over privacy issues. She touches on these studies as part of her literature review and in contrast to her own research.

Her study of internet users’ attitudes about privacy was done using an e-mail survey sent to 3,724 people, where she presented the participants with scenarios related to online privacy. She also collected demographic data and information about their computer usage. She used a probability sampling method of randomly selected internet users for her sample that could potentially be generalized to the larger population. Using a 7 point bipolar scale with numbers ranging from 1 to 7 indicating levels of concern between not concerned and highly concerned, the respondents were asked to choose their level of concern relative to the various privacy related scenarios that were presented to them.

In analyzing the results of her survey, Sheehan found that her findings were much different than that of Westin. This resulted in her further dividing the topology of internet users into four groups instead of three, veering from Westin’s idea of using three. The four groups she identified were the following: unconcerned Internet users, circumspect Internet users, wary Internet users, and alarmed Internet users.

Overall, the study revealed that the majority of internet users were concerned about privacy at the time when this study was done in 2002. Sheehan found that most internet users could be classified as “pragmatic” about privacy denoting that their attitude about privacy online depended on the particular situation they were in. Additionally, the demographic information allowed her to discover that people who are more educated tend to more concerned about privacy; younger peoples’ attitudes towards privacy are more pragmatic; people over the age of 45 tend to be split on this issue, with half of them being very concerned about online privacy and half of them not concerned at all.

Sheehan suggests future studies including one that would determine how knowledgeable people are about protecting themselves online. One of the purposes of this study was to provide a structure and a baseline of knowledge in order to conduct future studies on peoples’ attitudes towards internet privacy.

Sheehan has done a very thorough job with her research, detailing every aspect of her methodology and documenting all of the challenges that she faced. Her literature review is very detailed, and she attempts to explore the definitions of traditional privacy in contrast to online privacy. In this attempt, she also expertly and creatively redefines ideas about privacy through well chose references from her literature review as in the description of privacy as a “continuum”. Her data analysis is very meticulous and appears to be completely unbiased, as she is not looking for a particular “reaction” from her respondents but aims to create a framework to conduct further research studies from. She strives to understand attitudes towards online privacy, the factors that influence those attitudes, and understanding for others in her field.

Although this article could be considered somewhat dated due to its publishing date of 2002, it provides a reference point for understanding how peoples’ attitudes towards online privacy were during that time. One of the objectives for my research paper is to underscore that peoples’ attitudes towards online privacy have become more relaxed. This may be partially due to a lack of knowledge on the subject and partially due to their keen interest in participating in all of the riveting activities that now exist on the web. Their desire to participate in those activities has outweighed their concerns for online privacy. This paper provides substantial evidence that people were fairly concerned about their online privacy in 2002, and it would be interesting to see where things stand now.

Internet users’ perceptions of ‘privacy concerns’ and ‘privacy actions’

Paine, Carina, Ulf-Deitrich Reips, Stefan Steiger, Adam Joinson, and Tom Buchanan. "Internet Users' Perceptions of 'Privacy Concerns' and 'Privacy Actions'." International Journal of Human Computer Studies 65, no. 6 (June 2007): 526-536.

This article outlines a study conducted on online privacy to identify users’ privacy concerns while using the internet; to determine how they protect themselves while on the internet; and to assess their attitudes towards internet privacy. The study was done using a DIP (Dynamic Interviewing Programme (DIP)) which is an online survey program that asks users questions simultaneously while they’re online. The sample was extracted from a population of ICQ users worldwide, which is an instant messaging program, and 530 people responded to the survey.

The article first attempts to define the meaning of privacy, citing definitions from several academic papers, and then concluding that there isn’t one final definition of the concept. The other factor they pointed out regarding the definition of internet privacy is that it falls outside of the traditional definitions of privacy and therefore should be reexamined and properly redefined.

The lack of a common understanding of what internet privacy means is one of the reasons the authors determined they wanted to approach their study differently. They felt previous studies gave respondents’ choices for their answers on surveys and did not probe deeply enough to find out the respondents’ individual opinions, knowledge of, and thoughts about the questions being asked. So the survey was designed with a portion of open ended questions that allowed the participants to fill in responses in their own words.

The authors felt they would be able to better understand the participants’ knowledge of privacy and real concerns this way. The authors found their results reflected the study participants had greater concerns about privacy than previous studies revealed in addition to a wider range of concerns about privacy. One of the interesting correlations they made was that the older the study participant was, the more concerned about privacy they were. They also discovered a lack of understanding of what internet privacy means. For example, many of the participants’ equated receiving spam to privacy concerns. Another aspect of the study was to review what people did to protect their online privacy and draw correlations between those variables. It was discovered that the more experience with computers and the internet the respondents’ had, the more they protected themselves from privacy threats, and in some cases, the less worried they were about privacy issues as a result.

The authors’ conclusions lead them to recommend doing more specific studies about internet users’ privacy concerns as well as expanding their sample to reach other populations in the future.

This study was a valid approach to assess internet users’ privacy concerns, and their usage of DIP was a good way to get instant feedback from users while they were on line. Although the study appeared to be relatively unbiased from the authors’ point of view, there were some shortcomings in the methodology that they used to conduct the study. First of all, although they attempted to segment the respondents into age groups and draw correlations based on age, the average age of the respondents was 24.6 years old. Secondly, the survey was sent out to a global population with the majority of respondents located in Russia and Germany. The authors didn’t seem to take these two factors into account in their analysis pertaining to the limitations they may have injected into the results of their study including: results slanted towards one age group; global participants whose individual cultures may influence their ideas about privacy; language barriers, etc. In addition, the questions on their survey, which they have screenshots of in the article, seem to cover too much ground to allow them to make specific conclusions regarding their research. They did admit, however, that additional and more specifically targeted research needs to be done on the subject.

This article would fit in well with one aspect of my research question relative to finding out the importance of privacy to internet users. Although it only addresses a narrow sample of people, it does address some of the issues that are present in doing a research study like this. The most challenging aspect of researching this issue, as the authors have highlighted, is the lack of a common definition of what internet privacy is. This relates to suspicions that I have pertaining to peoples’ apathy about internet privacy being more related to their lack of knowledge about it. Although the article does confirm my objectives and theories regarding the subject matter, my research needs to include other points of view and studies derived from a wider sample of people.

Research Topic: How has people's desire to enjoy and utilize the benefits of the World Wide Web superseded the relative importance to them of on-line privacy?

I’m interested in this topic because I’ve watched technology evolve over the last twenty years, and I’m still surprised by the twists and turns it’s taken, especially in the area of online privacy.

One of my first jobs was working at a computer leasing company, and we were early adopters of Microsoft Windows and Office in the 1980’s. On the technology continuum many things happened between then and now. I was part of the dot com bust in the 1990’s, watching scores of companies with exciting new ideas come to fruition and then die on the vine before they ever had a chance to make their first dollar. All the while, there was an underlying feeling of skepticism with each new wave of technology development.

Throughout all this transformation, it appeared as though people wanted to hold on to their online privacy regardless of a dizzying array of technology offerings that were available to them. Somewhere between that time of resistance to relinquish online privacy and now, there was a gradual transition towards accepting less privacy. I can’t pinpoint exactly when it happened, but it was sometime in the last 5 to 10 years.

It surprises me that there is an almost compulsive desire to use technology now, especially in the areas of social networking and media with little regard for one’s right to online privacy. Even though people have been made aware of the dangers of revealing too much information on social networking sites and in other areas of the World Wide Web, they still continue to plunge fearlessly and recklessly into cyberspace. I’m interested in “why” and “how” this happened so quickly and whether most people are even aware that it happened.

Research topic: how cultures perceive visual images

For my topic, I’d like to explore how cultures perceive visual images. My interest in non-native English speakers and visual images stems from my participation in two classes at MSU Mankato. I really enjoyed the topic discussed in both the International Technical Communication class and the Visual Technical Communication class, both taught by Dr. MacKenzie. I had never given much thought to how culture impacts how people interpret images and pictures.

In the International Technical Communication class, I remember reading a specific article that analyzed an image in a public health pamphlet given to women in a primarily Muslim country. The article showed several revisions of the same image as it was changed to incorporate more relevant cultural images. I thought it was interesting how much thought and research was required to produce a fairly simple line drawing for a public health pamphlet. I found that the Visual Technical Communication class opened my eyes to things like colors, font selection, iconography—small details that make a big image in visual communication.

As most of my career has been spent in the healthcare field, I am especially interested in health topics and barriers that affect access to healthcare. All of these factors collaborated to give me an idea for my final project.

I find that my research question is constantly evolving, so this is likely to change. At this time, my research question is as follows:

Are visual images designed with input from the audience’s culture more effective than visual images designed without such input?

At this time, my argument is that visual images designed by participatory research are more effective in communicating information than visual images designed without the input of the target culture.

Cultural Differences in Perception: Observations from a Remote Culture

Davidoff, Jules, Elisabeth Fonteneau, and Julie Goldstein. “Cultural Differences in Perception: Observations from a Remote Culture.” Journal of Cognition and Culture, no. 8 (2008): 189-209.
This journal article examines perceptual similarity in a remote culture (the animal-herding Himba of Africa) compared to that of a Western culture (native English-speaking graduate students at Goldsmith’s University of London). In this study, researchers presented both groups with optical illusions. Study participants were judged on their ability to accurately judge the size of an object within the illusion. The study found that Western participants were more susceptible to the illusion, and that the Himba were more likely to gauge the size of the object. The study also noted that cultural aspects impact cognitive perception of visuals. The researchers stated that collectivist cultures pay more attention to the entire visual display, while individualistic cultures (for example, Western culture), pay more attention to objects within visual displays. The researchers theorize that collectivist cultures are even more susceptible to misjudging the size of an object within an optical illusion. This article is fairly current (published approximately 3years ago), and was published in a peer-reviewed journal. The researchers employed a number of data analysis methods, such as ANOVA, F-tests, and P-tests. This article, while very narrow in scope, could prove useful for my research question. It provides evidence that culture affects how one perceives visual images. This would lend support to my research question that visuals developed by a specific culture for their own use are better suited than visuals developed by someone outside of that culture.

Developing Health and Family Planning Print Materials for Low-Literate Audiences: A Guide

Zimmerman, Margot, Nancy Newton, Lena Frumin, and Scott Wittet. Developing Health and Family Planning Print Materials for Low-Literate Audiences: A Guide. (Seattle, WA: Program for Appropriate Technology in Health [PATH], 1996).

This manual is specifically geared towards organizations looking to create their own print materials. The manual outlines the techniques used by an organization called Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) to communicate to illiterate and low-literate people. The manual states that PATH’s techniques have been used in over 40 countries; however, they do not provide data on the efficacy of their own material. This manual would be most useful to organizations who are developing health education materials for specific populations. I had hoped that this manual would contain more specifics on how different cultures perceive images. However, this manual outlines ways define the target audience, methods for gathering data from target audiences (including types of research), how to tailor information to specific stages of behavior adoption, and design considerations. While the content appears credible, and PATH is an established nonprofit organization, this source doesn’t specific data that could be included in my research project. It isn’t clear if the suggestions and tips contained in this manual have been peer-reviewed, subject to research, or follow an established standard. However, the manual does provide a 20-item bibliography that may be provide additional resources for my research topic. While the manual is not an appropriate source for a research paper, the bibliography may prove invaluable when searching for more information on the topic of developing culturally relevant visuals.

Visual Literacy in Non-Western Cultures

Miltenburg, Anne. “Visual Literacy in Non-Western Cultures,” in Morf 3 (2005). http://anne miltenburg.com/morf/ (accessed February 10, 2011).

This article was originally published in a Dutch-language design magazine. While it is not a traditional journal article, it describes issues that affect how non-Western cultures interpret visuals developed by Western cultures. The author notes that non-Western cultures often have higher illiteracy rates than Western cultures, and are often have limited exposure to visuals developed by Western cultures. The author cites research on visual literacy by scholar and art-director Andreas Fuglesang. Fuglesang found that people who are visually illiterate have trouble reading two-dimensional images like photos and illustrations. This translates into difficulty perceiving differences in shape, size, height, and perspective. As many non-Western cultures convey information through oral means, people in these cultures may also be less familiar in the use of visuals to convey information. In this article, Miltenburg outlines areas where non-Western cultures have trouble interpreting visuals, specifically regarding photos, depth perception, portraying movement, object identification, cropped images, and illustrations. Miltenburg also discusses the use of color, as the significance of various colors can vary from culture to culture, impacting the interpretation of the visual. Miltenburg cites Fuglesang’s research throughout her article, and provides a citation to his book Applied Communication in Development Countries, Ideas and Observations (as this article was originally written in Dutch, the English title may be slightly different). The primary drawback to this source is that it relies on the author’s interpretation of Fuglesang’s research—there isn’t any new research described in this article. Also, Fuglesang’s book is out of print, so it would be hard to analyze his research directly. I also noted that Miltenburg describes Fuglesang as Norwegian in this article, and as Swedish in a different article. This discrepancy does shed some doubt as to the credibility of this piece.

Translating Global Recommendations on HIV and Infant Feeding to the Local Context: The Development of Culturally Sensitive Counseling Tools in the Ki

Leshabari, Sebalda C., Peggy Koniz-Booher, Anne N. Astrom, Marina M. de Paoli, and Karen M. Moland. “Translating Global Recommendations on HIV and Infant Feeding to the Local Context: The Development of Culturally Sensitive Counseling Tools in the Kilimanjaro Region, Tanzania.” Implementation Science 1, no. 22 (October 3, 2006). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/
pmc/articles/PMC1599750/ (accessed February 10, 2011).

This journal article describes how researchers worked with women in Tanzania to develop culturally sensitive material about breastfeeding practices. Specifically, researchers sought to develop culturally relevant “job aids” to help women with HIV reduce the risk of passing the virus to their breastfeeding infants. While women with HIV are generally advised to avoid breastfeeding, in some areas access to formula or animal milk is limited, or these alternatives are just too expensive for women to purchase.HIV positive women who alternate between feeding their baby breastmilk and breastmilk substitutes has been shown to increase the risk of HIV transmission from mother to infant. Researchers interviewed community elders, birth attendants, health care workers, and conducted focus groups with community members to determine attitudes on breastfeeding, safe sex, and ways to decrease HIV transmission to infants. Researchers also took digital photos that were adapted into colorful illustrations for the educational material. The illustrations were field tested in the focus groups. Upon reviewing data gained from interviews and focus groups, researchers determined a set of performance objectives for HIV positive mothers—to exclusively breastfeed for up to6 months, or exclusively replacement feed. Researchers developed materials first in English to outline these objectives. The material was then translated into Swahili. While the materials incorporated quite a bit of text, colorful illustrations were also included for to enhance comprehension. The illustrations included aspects of the culture and locally available technologies to the reader could better identify with the situation depicted in the illustration. This article could be a useful case study on how to use a participatory approach to design culturally relevant materials for non-Western audiences.

A Participatory Approach to Communication for Developing Countries

Andrews, Deborah C. “A Participatory Approach to Communication for Developing Countries,” in Managing Global Communication in Science and Technology, ed. Peter J. Hager and H.J. Scheiber (New York: John Wiley & Sons, 2000), 67-83.

This article, which appears as a chapter within the book Managing Global Communication in Science and Technology, outlines the complexities involved when developing solutions to problems in developing countries. The author advises that organizations can only develop effective solutions to problems by listening to the voice of the local people. The article advises that soliciting feedback from local people empowers them and makes them more fully vested in the outcome of the project. The author cites several case studies, and also reviews how focus group discussions (FGDs)can be used to facilitate feedback. The article specifically focuses on how one non-governmental organization (NGO) called Program for Appropriate Technology in Health (PATH) uses FGDs to design health information materials. Initially, PATH determines the level of audience (policy/decision makers, program managers, clinicians, fieldworkers, or clients), profiles their needs, then develops their message. The message is then tested on audience to see if it meets their needs. The article provides 6 different sets of visuals that were created and then adapted based on this feedback. One specific image was designed to show Kenyans that pregnant women should carry lighter loads than women who aren’t pregnant. The initial image depicted a woman carrying a heavy load with an “X” superimposed over the women’s figure. Low-literate audiences in Kenya initially did not understand the meaning of the “X”, so the image was redesigned to show a visibly pregnant woman carrying a smaller load than a non-pregnant woman. I feel that this article and its accompanying bibliography could prove helpful for my paper, as it outlines specific research done with the assistance and input of the local people.

ENG 574: Thesis Idea (Anna Marciniak)

Thesis: Although not yet fully formed, my thesis will most likely focus on the bottled water industry and how privatization of water, relating specifically to the bottled water industry, is detrimental and ethically unfair to the American public.

Why I am interested in this topic:

Americans spend billions of dollars annually on bottled water. Companies such as Pepsi, and Coca-Cola are literally taking water from public municipalites, reprocessing the water, and selling it back to consumers for a price. I find it completely demoralizing that companies are allowed to do this, and we continue to buy water that we could get right out of a tap. A study published in the Canadian Dimension showed that that most tap water is absolutely fine to drink and is not any more detrimental than bottled water (1). If someone does not like the taste of tap water, they can always buy a filter at a fraction of the price that buying bottled water on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis will eventually add up to! Another study analzying 17 different brands of bottled water and published in the International Journal of Environmental Health Research reports that bottled water is in no way healthier for you than tap water, and is actually deficient in essential minearals that are found in a majority of tap water (2), so why are we forking out billions of dollars to corporations for what seems like nothing more than a plastic bottle? The plastic from the bottled water alone can be detrimental to the environment, yet America continues to pay for the service. What used to be seen as a luxury item is now the norm. I want to explore this topic in more depth in order to create awareness, for myself, and for others, and also to understand what I see as something as a phenomina, in more detail. Bottled water is just a small part of water privatization, and, in most cases, bottled water companies do not own the water source....however, there are some companies that do own the source of the water, such as Nestle, which is actually a foreign corporation. It seems strange that we allow a foreign company to take our water, and sell it back to us, yet, it happens, and is continuing to happen. What really is beginning to build the cornerstone of my research project is the idea that bottled water will lead to more privatization of water sources, which is really what is most troubling about privatization of water. Yes, it is pretty silly (to me) that companies can use public municipalities and sell back to us what is ours to begin with, but it seems even worse that companies can and are buying the source of water (i.e. Nestle)! Right now, only approximately 15% of water is owned by the private sector; I want to explore the potential that more will be reallocated to the private sector. It all comes down to money, and from what I have already found in my research, a lot of government owned municipalities are very expensive to upkeep, which is where private companies see openings to take over! I want to explore this in more depth, and find out in more detail what the effect of private owned municipalities has on the residents of the United States.

Possible Research Questions:

1. What will the effect of water privatization have on the American public?
2. Is the bottled water industry acting as a gateway for all public municipalities to become privately owned?
3. Do the negitive aspects of water privatization actually outweigh the positives?
4. Why is America so obsessed with bottled water when, in most cases, it is no healthier than tap water?

1.“The Bottled Water Scam,” Canadian Dimension 40, no. 1 (2006): 6-6.
http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu. (Accessed February 8th, 2011).

2.Mahejan Rk and others “Analysis of Physical and Chemical Parameters of Bottled Drinking Water,” International Journal of Environmental Health Research 16, no. 2 (2006): 89-98. http://web.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.mnsu.edu. (Accessed February 8th, 2011).