Technical Communication Research: Update

[DShapir1 -at- bwiil -dot- jnj -dot- com]

Hi All,

I want to thank all of you who have indicated that you are willing to 
participate in my research project.

In answer to your questions: 

1) Yes, you may feel free to pass on my invitation to other colleagues 
involved in Technical Communication.
2) If you are working as a translator, I leave the decision up to you to 
participate. I am adding a field to my survey to cover this option.
3) The survey is currently being pre-tested and analyzed. I expect it to be 
finalized by early October. I expect to contact each of you (off list) 
sometime in October.
4) For those who asked, a copy of my invitation is attached at the end of 
this e-mail.

Thanks again!

Debbie


This e-mail is sent with the permission of the moderators.
Please answer to the e-mail below, not to the sender. Thank you!
---------------------------------------------------------------

Dear Technical Communicator: 

You are invited to participate in an academic research project on 
technical
communication and personality types. 

Participation Details 

* If you choose to participate in this study, you will receive within a
couple of months a url for accessing an online survey that gathers
background information about you, your work, and your personality (using 
the
"Big Five" personality model). 

* The time requirement to complete the survey is 20 minutes. No further
participation is needed. 

* You may choose to receive a summary of the results of the study but are
not required to. 

How to Participate 

To participate in this study, please return the sample email (located at 
the
end of this email) to debbies -at- barak-online -dot- net
<mailto:debbies -at- barak-online -dot- net>. This information is required to 
validate
your participation in this study. Also, if you know of other technical
communicators who might be interested, you may forward this invitation on 
to
them. 

Anonymity
If you choose to complete this survey, all results will remain anonymous 
and
cannot be traced back to you. The survey tool may record your e-mail
address; however, to assure your anonymity it is not included in the data
used for analysis. Your answers may be saved and used in subsequent
analysis. Your name will not be sold or given to any other party. 


About the Big 5 Personality Model 

The personality portion of the survey is an on-line version of the
International Personality Item Pool (IPIP) representation of a Five Factor
Inventory that examines five different dimensions of personality (the Big
Five). This version of the personality survey was designed by a 
personality
researcher specifically for the purpose of internet-based research, and is
used with permission. For more details, you may refer to the following
sites. 
*	The Big Five Quickstart: An Introduction to the Five-Factor Model of
Personality for Human Resource Professionals:
<http://www.centacs.com/quik-prt.htm> 
*	A Broad-Bandwidth, Public-Domain, Personality Inventory Measuring
the Lower-Level Facets of Several Five-Factor Models:
http://ipip.ori.org/ipip/text.htm#Text <http://ipip.ori.org/ipip/text.htm>

About the Surveyor

I am currently pursuing my Masters in Technical Authorship from
Sheffield-Hallam University, UK, and this research project is part of my
thesis. My studies in Technical Communication and interest in psychology
have led me to wonder if there are certain personality characteristics 
that
technical communicators may have in common. Basically, I would like to 
find
out more about the personality characteristics of people who are (or were)
employed as technical communicators, or are studying some aspect of
technical communication. Do we have characteristics in common with each
other? How do we differ? Are there correlations between certain 
personality
characteristics and certain focus areas of technical communication? 

If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to email me. Otherwise, 
if
you want to participate, just complete the email response below and email 
it
to me. 

Thank you for participating! 

Debbie Shapiro 
Technical Communicator 
debbies -at- barak-online -dot- net <mailto:debbies -at- barak-online -dot- net> 
POB 44417, Haifa 31444, Israel 


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