Huiling Ding

The Use of Cognitive and Social Apprenticeship to Teach a Disciplinary Genre: Initiation of Graduate Students into NIH Grant Writing.

This study reports about a yearlong study of the initiation of novice grant writers to the activity system of National Institutes of Health grant applications. It investigates the use of cognitive apprenticeship within writing classrooms and that of social apprenticeship in laboratories, programs, departments, and universities, which introduced students to the genre system of National Institutes of Health grant proposals and helped them in moving from peripheral participation to more central participation. While cognitive apprenticeship employs devices such as modeling, scaffolding, coaching, and collaboration to enhance learning in formal settings, social apprenticeship requires socialization, interaction, and collaboration with experts, colleagues, and peers in informal settings to acquire disciplinary knowledge and experiences. The study suggests that writing instructors should acknowledge and incorporate resources in other activity systems in which students participate, i.e., their laboratories and ho...

Rhetorics of Alternative Media in an Emerging Epidemic: SARS, Censorship, and Extra-Institutional Risk Communication

This article examines how professionals and the public employed alternative media to participate in unofficial risk communication during the 2002 SARS outbreak in China. Whereas whistle-blowers used alternative media such as independent overseas Chinese Web sites and contesting Western media, anonymous professionals and the larger communities relied more on guerrilla media such as text messages and word of mouth to disseminate risk messages during official silence and denial.

Transcultural Risk Communication and Viral Discourses: Grassroots Movements to Manage Global Risks of H1N1 Flu Pandemic

This article proposes a theoretical framework of transcultural risk communication to examine how global connectivities influence communication about H1N1 flu. A case study was conducted to investigate risk management policies at global, regional, and translocal levels to cope with health threats posed by the emerging H1N1 flu epidemic. We explored how risk management approaches by Chinese Internet users facilitated the employment of a unique risk measure of exit and entry screening for returnees to China.

360-Degree Rhetorical Analysis of Job Hunting: A Four-Part, Multimodal Project

This article proposes the use of a four-component multimodal employment project that offers students a 360-degree understanding of the rhetorical situations surrounding job searches. More specifically, we argue for the use of the four deliverables of written resumes and cover letters, mock oral onsite interview, video resume analysis, and peer critique of social media profiles in a widely taught employment project to help students better analyze the complicated rhetorical situations surrounding job applications and to facilitate better peer collaboration and serious revision of the two high-stakes documents of cover letters and resumes.

Technical Communication Instruction in China: Localized Programs and Alternative Models

In this article, I argue that to understand technical communication instruction in non-Western countries, one has to pay close attention to the impacts of local cultural, educational, political, and economic contexts on technical communication practices. I identify two localized programs that share features of technical communication in China and review their programmatic positioning at national and local levels. I also suggest ways for U.S. technical communicators to start cross-cultural collaboration with local programs.

Transnational Quarantine Rhetorics: Public Mobilization in SARS and in H1N1 Flu

This essay examines how Chinese governments, local communities, and overseas Chinese in North America responded to the perceived health risks of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and H1N1 flu through the use of public and participatory rhetoric about risk and quarantines. Focusing on modes of security and quarantine practices, I examine how globalization and the social crises surrounding SARS and H1N1 flu operated to regulate differently certain bodies and areas. I identify three types of quarantines (mandatory, voluntary, and coerced) and conduct a transnational comparative analysis to investigate the relationships among quarantines, rhetoric, and public communication. I argue that health authorities must openly acknowledge the legitimacy of public input and actively seek public support regarding health crises. Only by collaborating with concerned communities and citizens and by providing careful guidance for public participation can health institutions ensure the efficacy of quarantine orders during emerging epidemics.

Open Source: Platform for virtual service learning and user-initiated research

Traditional service learning theories stress the face-to-face collaboration with community partners to produce learning results featured by real-world audiences and real-world purposes. This article proposes a virtual service learning model through collaboration and partnership with open source communities to introduce user-initiated research and documentation to professional communication classrooms.

Cross-Culturally Narrating Risks, Imagination, and Realities of HIV/AIDS

The author employs both rhetorical move analysis and corpus-assisted discourse analysis to examine online “patient narratives” collected from one of the largest AIDS discussion forums in the USA. Focusing on possible contraction of HIV/AIDS after perceived high-risk behaviors, this genre differs from traditional patient narratives because of its preoccupation with risk assessment and testing. Three types of rhetorical moves were identified, namely, informative, interactive, and emotional, which suggests posters’ need for accurate information, empathy, and communal support. Serving as an intermediary genre, the online risky AIDS narratives could help bridge the gap between at-risk populations and health communicators and public health educators to enhance the existing understanding of possible health, emotional, social, and psychological concerns that such individuals may have when seeking medical help.