Blog Post #2: Research Topic and Ten Tentative Sources

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 For my research topic I will be exploring comics and their use in the field of Technical Communication. Technical writing is about changing people's behavior, and research shows that comics can be more accessible to the general public which make them excellent tools for education and instruction. I will be looking at how comics can be used to advocate for the arts and make them more accessible and welcoming to the general public. In order to do this I must explore successful examples of visual art instruction using comics. I will be conducting a content analysis of the Japanese manga: The Blue Period using a technical communications' lens to understand how this medium can be used by arts nonprofits to advocate for the arts and increase public accessibility in the arts. 

All of my ten sources come from the July 2020 issue of Technical Communications Quarterly   

1. Comics and Graphic Storytelling in Technical Communication -Erin Kathleen Bahl, Sergio Figueiredo, and Rich Shivner

2. Sequential Mapping: Using Sequential Rhetoric and Comics Production to Understand UX Design -Robert Watkins and Tom Lindsley

3. "Speaking so that We are Heard:" A Zulu Comic Book as Women's Social Action in 1990s South Africa -Emily January Petersen and Breeanne Matheson

4. Examining Methectic Technical Communication in an Urban Planning Comic Book -Fernando Sanchez

5. Book Review: The Good, the Bad, and the Data: Shane the Lone Ethnographer's Basic Guide to Qualitative Data Analysis by Sally Campbell Galman -Reviewed by  Elizabeth Losh 

6. Conceptual Art or Readable Contract: The Use of Comics in Technical Communication -Han Yu

7. Lapses in Literacy: Cultural Accessibility in Graphic Health Communication -Veronica Garrison-Joyner and Elizabeth Caravella

8. "Figure 4, Peyote": Comics and Graphic Narrative in Anarchist Cookbooks, 1971-Present -Hilary A. Sarat-St. Peter and Austin L St. Peter

9. Book Review: Rhizcomics: Rhetoric, Technology, and New Media Composition by Jason Helms -Reviewed by Anastasia Salter

10. Tires, Cigarettes, Tampons, and the Gendering of Instructional Comics -Lawrence Abbott

Comments

  1. Mary MSeptember 14, 2022 at 4:35 PM

    I love your idea. I met a student once who said he doesn't read, but then in class, he perfectly described story arcs. I said, "I thought you said you don't read." He proceeded to tell me that he read a lot of Manga, but people always told him that it didn't count because it wasn't educational. I did my best to convince him all reading is educational. Manga isn't my thing, but there is no doubt that it and other comics/graphic novels have educational benefits.

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    Replies
    1. BrettStanfieldENGL6401September 14, 2022 at 7:14 PM

      Thank you for the comment Mary. I am excited for this project. I also found in my research that comics are classified as "reading" because they are a fragmented sequential narrative, meaning our minds have to work to fill in the blanks, similar to when we read texts out of books. When we watch TV, everything is provided for us so our minds do work in the same way, as when we read a comic, or a book. Just a nugget I found from my research!

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  2. BrettStanfieldENGL6401September 14, 2022 at 7:11 PM

    The database that is the most resourceful, so far, for my topic is Technical Communications Quarterly. Only looking/using articles from this publication may lead to an imbalance as it may create a bias. I am looking at one publication where every article is dedicated to my topic of comics as TC, and these articles were curated by three authors. Only looking at the articles in this publication would make it seem that these three authors who edited this volume of the publication are experts in the field, and I am not sure if that is true. My current ten sources are a great place to start, but I also need to look at other publications for articles about comics and their use in the field of technical communication.

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