Howdy or Hello? Technical and Professional Communication

Second Edition

Texas A&M English 210 OER Committee

Editors

Matt McKinney, Kalani Pattison, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Anders, and Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt

Contributing Editors

Gia Alexander, Claire Carly-Miles, Kimberly Clough, James Francis, Jr., and Gwendolyn Inocencio

Contributing Authors

Gia Alexander, Kathy Anders, Claire Carly-Miles, Kimberly Clough, James Francis, Jr., Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, Sarah LeMire,  Matt McKinney, and Kalani Pattison

OER Authors

David McMurrey, Allison Gross, Annemarie Hamlin, Billy Merck, Chris Rubio, Jodi Naas, Megan Savage, Michele DeSilva, Suzan Last, Candice Neveu, Monika Smith, Tiffani Reardon, Tamara Powell, Jonathan Arnett, Monique Logan, Cassandra Race, Steve Miller, Cherie Miller, Megan Gibbs, Jennifer Nguyen, James Monroe, Lance Linimon, Deborah Bernnard, Greg Bobish, Jenna Hecker, Irina Holden, Allison Hosier, Trudi Jacobson, Tor Loney, Daryl Bullis, Peter Bobkowski, Karna Younger, Carrie Branstiter, Terri Pantuso, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Anders, William Little, Sally Vyain, Gail Scaramuzzo, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Heather Griffiths, Eric Strayer, Nathan Keirns, Ron McGivern, Rebecca Weaver, Lynne Bost, Michelle Kassorla, Karen McKinney-Holley, Kathryn Crowther, Lauren Curtright, Nancy Gilbert, Barbara Hall, Tracienne Ravita, Kirk Swenson, Melanie Gagich, Amanda Lloyd, Robin Jeffrey, John Lanning, Yvonne Bruce, Emilie Zickel, Jason Swarts, Stacey Pigg, Jamie Larsen, Julia Helo Gonzalez, Rebecca De Haas, Elizabeth Wagner, William Meinke, and Daniel W. Turner III

With thanks to

Sherry Adadi,  John Arndt, Susan Boswell, Zachary Fears, Brandi Gomez, Emily Hill, Gwendolyn Inocencio, Christopher McLean, and Miriam F. Williams

©2022 by Matt McKinney, Kalani Pattison, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Anders, and Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, except where noted.

All contributing works are copyrighted and Creative Commons licensed by their respective authors.

Howdy or Hello? Technical and Professional Communication is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where noted. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.

Suggested Citation

McKinney, Matt, Kalani Pattison, Sarah LeMire, Kathy Anders, and Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, eds. Howdy or Hello? Technical and Professional Communication. 2nd ed. College Station: Texas A&M University, 2022. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Textbook Creation

This textbook was created as a collaboration between the Texas A&M English Department and the Texas A&M University Libraries. The creative process was partially funded by a University Libraries Information Literacy Development Grant.

Contributing Open Texts

This OER textbook was developed by drawing upon a number of existing OER textbooks. All contributing works are copyrighted and Creative Commons licensed by their respective authors. Texas A&M authors have also added original text. The following OER texts were used:

Bernnard, Deborah, Greg Bobish, Jenna Hecker, Irina Holden, Allison Hosier, Trudi Jacobson, Tor Loney, and Daryl Bullis. The Information Literacy User’s Guide: An Open, Online Textbook, edited by Greg Bobish and Trudi Jacobson. Geneseo, NY: Open SUNY Textbooks, Milne Library, 2014. http://textbooks.opensuny.org/the-information-literacy-users-guide-an-open-online-textbook/. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Bobkowski, Peter, and Karna Younger. Be Credible: Information Literacy for Journalism, Public Relations, Advertising and Marketing Students. Lawrence, KS: Peter Bobkowski and Karna Younger, 2018. https://dx.doi.org/10.17161/1808.27350. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.

Gagich, Melanie and Emilie Zickel, with contributors Amanda Lloyd, Charlotte Morgan, John Lanning, Rashida Mustafa, Sarah M. Lacy, William Breeze, and Yvonne Bruce. A Guide to Rhetoric, Genre, and Success in First-Year Writing. MSL Academic Endeavors. https://pressbooks.ulib.csuohio.edu/csu-fyw-rhetoric/. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Gross, Allison, Annemarie Hamlin, Billy Merck, Chris Rubio, Jodi Naas, Megan Savage, and Michele DeSilva. Technical Writing. Open Oregon Educational Materials, n.d. https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/technicalwriting/. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Last, Susan, with contributors Candice Neveu and Monika Smith. Technical Writing Essentials: Introduction to Professional Communications in Technical Fields. Victoria, BC: University of Victoria, 2019. https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Little, William, with contributors Sally Vyain, Gail Scaramuzzo, Susan Cody-Rydzewski, Heather Griffiths, Eric Strayer, Nathan Keirns, and Ron McGivern. Introduction to Sociology – 1st Canadian Edition. Victoria, BC: BCcampus, 2014. https://opentextbc.ca/introductiontosociology/. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

McMurrey, David. Online Technical Writing. N.d. https://www.prismnet.com/~hcexres/textbook/. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Meinke, William. “Copyright, Creative Commons, and Public Domain.” In UH OER Training. University of Hawai’i Outreach College, 2018. https://pressbooks.oer.hawaii.edu/oertraining2018/chapter/copyright-creative-commons-and-public-domain/. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Pantuso, Terri, and Sarah LeMire and Kathy Anders, eds. Informed Arguments: A Guide to Writing and Research. College Station, TX: Texas A&M University, 2019. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Reardon, Tiffani, Tamara Powell, Jonathan Arnett, Monique Logan, and Cassandra Race, with contributors David McMurrey, Steve Miller, Cherie Miller, Megan Gibbs, Jennifer Nguyen, James Monroe, and Lance Linimon. Open Technical Communication. 4th Edition. Athens, GA: Affordable Learning Georgia, n.d. https://alg.manifoldapp.org/projects/open-tc. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Swarts, Jason, Stacey Pigg, Jamie Larsen, Julia Helo Gonzalez, Rebecca De Haas, & Elizabeth Wagner. Communication in the Workplace: What Can NC State Students Expect? North Carolina State University Professional Writing Program, 2018. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pMpVbDRWIN6HssQQQ4MeQ6U-oB-sGUrtRswD7feuRB0/edit#heading=h.n2a3udms5sd5. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Turner, Daniel W., III. “Qualitative Interview Design: A Practical Guide for Novice Investigators.” The Qualitative Report 15, no. 3 (2010): 754-760. https://doi.org/10.46743/2160-3715/2010.1178. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 International License.

Weaver, Rebecca, Lynne Bost, Michelle Kassorla, Karen McKinney-Holley, Kathryn Crowther, Lauren Curtright, Nancy Gilbert, Barbara Hall, Tracienne Ravita, and Kirk Swenson. Successful College Composition, 3rd Edition. (2016). English Open Textbooks. 8. https://oer.galileo.usg.edu/english-textbooks/8. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

University of Minnesota. Business Communication for Success. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing, 2015. https://open.lib.umn.edu/businesscommunication/. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Cover Image Credits

The cover was designed by Kalani Pattison using the following images.

Baer, Rhoda. Researchers Review Results. July 24, 2008. Wikimedia Commons. Accessed August 17, 2020. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Researchers_review_documents.jpg. This work is in the public domain.

Shinealight. Items on a Wikipedian’s Office Desk 20060403. April 3, 2006. Wikimedia Commons. Accessed August 17, 2020. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Items_on_a_Wikipedian%27s_office_desk_-_20060403.jpg. This work is in the public domain.

Carstens-Peters, Glenn. Keyboard Warrior (Unsplash). February 5, 2017. Wikimedia Commons. Accessed August 17, 2020. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Keyboard_Warrior_(Unsplash).jpg. This image is made available under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.

The cover uses Garamond, Impact, and Sancreek fonts.

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We have undertaken every effort to make this textbook as accessible as possible. Please direct any communication about this book’s accessibility to Gia Alexander at Gia.Alexander@tamu.edu.