Type of Document	Dissertation
Author	Hubbard, Mialisa A.
URN	etd-11052006-203558
Title	Knowledge-building spaces in technical communication: navigating a tertiary orality
Degree	Doctor of Philosophy
Department	English
Advisory Committee	Advisor Name Title Rebecca Jo Rickly Committee Chair Craig M. Baehr Committee Member Fred Kemp Committee Member
Keywords	cyberliteracy tertiary orality knowledge-building
Date of Defense	2006-06-28
Availability	restricted
Abstract Technical communication graduate programs facilitate the transition of graduate students into the academy and into the world of business and industry by enabling knowledge of tools and theory in their students, more and more frequently through online communication. Graduate programs within the field of technical communication and their students hold a vested interest in reconciling demand for abstract theoretical knowledge with demand for applied skills and abilities in online technological communication tools, while facing unique constructs of power, voice, and culture. This research, an approach using rhetorical analysis of text and case study which reveals snapshots in time, produces an understanding of individual choices, illustrating not only a culture utilizing online communication in the social construction of knowledge, but also an evolving change specific to cultures of orality and literacy within individuals communicating online. As technical communication graduate students move into a culture of tertiary orality, they need to recognize that they are operating in a new culture, one where they can no longer recognize exactly what it means to be simply print literate, but rather cyberliterate, because these are the individuals who will be responsible for instantiating others into that culture in their future roles as technical communicators in the workplace and/or in the academy. The knowledge gained from understanding individual subconscious changes specific to a culture of tertiary orality informs those within that culture about how they arrived and survived in such a culture and how they might assist others wishing to move into that culture. The individual must recognize that he or she is no longer print literate, but may be placed in a position to help the print literate to move into a culture of tertiary orality. The communicators living beyond the cusp of such a transition should recognize the changes they have undergone, articulating not only how one has changed but how others must change in the future to successfully navigate a tertiary orality. This research focuses on graduate student preferences in the knowledge-building process and graduate program expectations and requirements as they successfully operate in online communities. The research findings were designed to reveal how technical communication graduate students and programs work toward developing theoretical and practical knowledge of technical communication in online communities, in cultures of tertiary orality, and how they might assist others in achieving the same. My research focus consists of four questions related to online communication in technical communication graduate programs. First, what aspects of cyberliteracy do graduate students in technical communication engage in on a regular basis? What types of online communities do graduate students participate in? Are the opportunities to participate in online communities provided by graduate programs in technical communication? If so, what types? Finally, can the online interactions of graduate students in technical communication within graduate programs be considered a tertiary orality or suggest characteristics of a tertiary orality? Technical communication graduate students operate in cultures of tertiary orality when they communicate online, and technical communication programs, faculty, and students need to recognize and articulate a tertiary orality. Determining technical communication graduate program and student means for enabling knowledge online and understanding the evolving changes within the individuals participating in online communication holds significance to the field of technical communication because both offer an understanding of the nature of the shifts into a cyberliteracy, which can strengthen the adaptive ways the cyberliterate cope with cultures of tertiary orality. Graduate students in technical communication were provided with several choices in online communities to enhance the building of knowledge. The choices they made within these online communities and how and how well they adapted to these communities were important to programs, as were the choices the students made about communicating online outside of these formal spaces. Specific characteristics of cyberliteracy, traits seen in tertiary orality, revealed themselves in this study. The case study participants, when communicating online, were addressing shifting hierarchy structures, redefining hierarchy online as being either additive or subordinative, as needed at the time. They were adapting to the nonlinear nature of online communication, addressing specific cultures; yet the online spaces were allowing them, through the use of technology and technology’s memory spaces to free up their own memory space to increase their own high-level cognitive operations. They were exhibiting an explorative nature in cyberspace, engaging in rather entrepreneurial-like behavior. The online world was extending their own human lifeworlds. They adapted to both context and media, exhibiting agonistic and nonagonistic tone appropriate to particular online cultures. They showed both detached and participatory expression of thought. They worked within paradoxes online as well, and ultimately showed traits from both Walter Ong's primary orality characteristics and Michael Kleine’s secondary orality characteristics, cultures of tertiary orality. The cyberliterate participants in this study capitalized on the strengths within both primary and secondary orality cultures, applying them dynamically to online communities and operate within a culture of tertiary orality.
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