Technical Communication & Tabletop Game Rulebooks, an Effectiveness Study

Description
The field of technical communication studies informational documents, such as instruction manuals or research articles and so on. Games have instructions, or rules, which must be documented. Technical communication scholars have studied documents for video games, but similar research on…

The field of technical communication studies informational documents, such as instruction manuals or research articles and so on. Games have instructions, or rules, which must be documented. Technical communication scholars have studied documents for video games, but similar research on tabletop rulebook documents appears to be mostly absent, an absence that creates a gap within technical communication research. Filling this gap, my work studies tabletop game rulebooks, which lie within the genre of instruction manuals. Technical communication has produced a theory of effective manual design, and I present much of that theory as, what I call, standards of effective manual design. I observed 30 tabletop game rulebooks to see how well they follow those standards, and I interviewed or surveyed people who played 15 of those games to see how effective the games’ rulebooks are for those people. This allowed me to see how well a rulebook’s adherence to the standards of effective manual design aligned with its effectiveness. This alignment did not always hold; consequently, though an effective rulebook follows the standards of effective manual design, a rulebook can follow said standards yet be ineffective. I conclude that following the standards is only a necessary, not sufficient, condition for making an effective rulebook. The standards must also be used in the correct way and amount.
Date Created
2024
Agent

Writing for the Biggest Customer in the World: Efficiencies and Inefficiencies in Proposal Writing

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Description
Contracting is an integral component of both government (i.e., public) and private business. As part of the contracting process, contracting companies must submit proposals to federal agencies or private businesses; individuals who write proposals on behalf of contracting companies are…

Contracting is an integral component of both government (i.e., public) and private business. As part of the contracting process, contracting companies must submit proposals to federal agencies or private businesses; individuals who write proposals on behalf of contracting companies are known as proposal writers. Although proposal writers are central to the proposal writing process, they are only marginally represented in available literature on the contracting and proposal writing processes. Additionally, available literature is disproportionately influenced by industry and trade sources, versus academic sources, and completed by industry authorities. As a result, key findings from such reports may not reflect the feedback gathered as part of this research. This research utilized a 25-question survey with both multiple choice and free answer questions to gauge the most and least effective components of the proposal writing process. Communication and collaboration—internally within the proposal team or within the company, and externally between the company and customers, clients, etc.— were cited as both the most and least effective components of the process. Notably, however, communication and collaboration were not the most frequently encountered issues, as only 23.5% of proposal writers reported communication as a common issues. Instead, supporting resources (46.9%), time/ schedule (49.2%), and direction. instructions (44.9%) were reported as the most common issues that proposal writers encountered, although one in four participants noted that issues were not consistent across proposals.
Date Created
2023
Agent

"A Stitch in Time"

Description

"A Stitch in Time" is a creative project that centered around a creative writing project. The story explores the experiences of a witch named Elio who helps people solve issues in their real lives through the power of dreams. However,…

"A Stitch in Time" is a creative project that centered around a creative writing project. The story explores the experiences of a witch named Elio who helps people solve issues in their real lives through the power of dreams. However, he must come to terms with the issues that are present in his own past -- and continue to affect him in the present -- in order to fully reach his potential as a witch. The completed version of this thesis project was two written chapters and a full detailed outline.

Date Created
2023-05
Agent

Examination of the Relationship Between Customizable Heads-up-displays, Difficulty, and Player Satisfaction

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Description
This paper documents a study of the relationship between heads up display (HUDs) customization and player performance. Additional measures capture satisfaction and prior gaming experience. The goal of this study was to develop a framework on which future Human Systems…

This paper documents a study of the relationship between heads up display (HUDs) customization and player performance. Additional measures capture satisfaction and prior gaming experience. The goal of this study was to develop a framework on which future Human Systems Engineering studies could create games that are tailor made to examine a given area of interest. This study utilized a two-by-two design, where participants play a two-dimensional (2D) platformer game with a mechanic that incentivizes attention to the HUD. This study successfully developed a framework and was moderately successful in uncovering limitations and demonstrating areas for improvement in follow-on studies. Specifically, this study illuminated issues with the low amount of usable data caused by design issues, participant apathy, and reliance on self-reporting data collection. Extensions of this study can utilize this framework and should look to recruit beyond crowdsourcing platforms, collect more diverse data, reduce participant effort, and address other considerations that were found during execution.
Date Created
2022
Agent

Doctors Create: An Analysis of Doctor Created Educational Videos on YouTube

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Description
Educational videos are a large part of the YouTube community, and an emerging niche of these videos is educational videos created by professionals in the field. Creating content on their profession establishes them as experts and trustworthy sources of information…

Educational videos are a large part of the YouTube community, and an emerging niche of these videos is educational videos created by professionals in the field. Creating content on their profession establishes them as experts and trustworthy sources of information that audiences can turn to while researching topics relating to the field. This study includes eighteen videos from three doctors creating medical-educational content posted to YouTube. The purpose of this study was to determine if these content creators use best practices for educational videos and the common themes these videos share. The best practices were gathered from previous research conducted on educational videos. These practices are viewability, timing, accessibility, reliability, and confidence. Commonalities noted across channels were then coded to find common themes within the niche. These themes do not need to be in every video, but they should be present on two channels. These themes include formatting videos and thumbnails, styles of videos, and their use of humor and entertaining additional content. These videos also break down the negative perceptions of authority that are often attached to doctors by humanizing the doctors to the audience. Combining these best practices and the use of the found common themes strengthen the videos to create engaging and educational content.
Date Created
2022
Agent

Course Facilitation During a Time of Global Pandemic

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Description
The Covid-19 global pandemic saw many college and university faculty scrambling to quickly transition their on-site courses online owing to various city, state, and national lockdowns and social distancing efforts in order to stem the spread of the disease. Nearly…

The Covid-19 global pandemic saw many college and university faculty scrambling to quickly transition their on-site courses online owing to various city, state, and national lockdowns and social distancing efforts in order to stem the spread of the disease. Nearly 90 percent of institutions had to resort to some sort of online or remote learning in order to accommodate continued student learning amongst the lockdowns and required social distancing that was implemented. Similar methods were implemented for the following summer and fall semesters of 2020, bleeding into the spring 2021 semester. These restrictions meant that faculty could not teach their courses wholly, or in some circumstances at all, in an on-site delivery method. Instead, many higher education faculty members had to make the shift to teaching their courses completely online, or in a mixed method of delivery, on-site and online. The purpose of this study was to determine if learner-centered teaching was a key component of the quick transition of on-site to remote teaching in the Spring and Fall 2020 semesters and how this information may provide insight for future online course development.
Date Created
2021
Agent

Using a Web Survey to Evaluate the Effectiveness of a Podcast on Organizational Outreach for the State Bar of New Mexico

Description

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the State Bar of New Mexico's (SBNM) new podcast series, SBNM is Hear. The podcast was initially developed as a member outreach tool and a new platform for professional development and survey…

The purpose of this project was to evaluate the State Bar of New Mexico's (SBNM) new podcast series, SBNM is Hear. The podcast was initially developed as a member outreach tool and a new platform for professional development and survey questions were developed to gauge the podcast’s effectiveness in these two areas. An electronic survey was deployed to active members of the SBNM through email. Respondents were asked questions regarding their demographics, whether they had listened to the series, and what content they would like to hear in the future. The survey resulted in 103 responses, of which 60% indicated that they had not listened to the podcast. The results showed that listenership was evenly divided between generations and that more females listened to at least one episode. The open-ended responses indicated that the two cohorts of respondents (listeners and non- listeners) viewed the podcast a potential connection to the New Mexico judiciary. Future recommendations include conducting an annual survey to continue to understand the effectiveness of the podcast and solicit feedback for continued growth and improvement

Date Created
2020-12-10
Agent

An Investigation of the Portrayal of Mental Health Issues in Comics Books from 1939 to the Present

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Description
Since 1939, Batman has been a staple character of the comic book industry. He has been used throughout the last 80 years as a conduit through which to portray mental health content. This thesis analyzes how mental health content has…

Since 1939, Batman has been a staple character of the comic book industry. He has been used throughout the last 80 years as a conduit through which to portray mental health content. This thesis analyzes how mental health content has changed in Batman comic books from 1939 to today. Based on existing research, I identified that mental health content has been present in Batman comic books for as long as they have existed. According to my research results, content can be traced back to the Golden Age of comic books (1939-1956), with a decrease in content in the Silver Age of comic books (1956-1970) due to the emergence of the Comics Code Authority. In the Bronze Age of comic books (1970-1986), mental health content reached its peak. In the Modern Age of comic books (1986-Present), content once again dropped, but not as low as in the Golden and Silver Ages. Identifying how mental health representation has changed since 1939 can help researchers to better understand how comic books can be used to communicate with readers.
Date Created
2020
Agent
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