"'Intermediate-Level' Communication: A Model of Communication for Multiple Cultures"
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About the AuthorTravis Daniel Griffin attended New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and graduated with a B.S. in Technical Communication in May of 2013. Prior to receiving his degree, Mr. Griffin spent ten years working in an international company, addressing the inherent challenges associated with working with multiple cultures. After receiving his degree, Mr. Griffin and his wife moved to Austin, Texas, where he accepted employment h a growing social media management software company. Mr. Griffin works daily with customers from around the world who use his company's software to manage relationships built through social media. Contents |
Methods for exploration (Continued)Gauging the effectiveness The testwas introduced by a page that detailed the instructions for reading the page and filling out the survey. Once the reader left the instruction page, they were directed to either the control or the research page. Once they read the page, another link directed them to the survey. All participants, whether viewing the research or control page, answered the same survey questions. In addition, no participant was given any indication to whether they viewed the research or control page. The overall time spent on the page was also of interest to the study. To measure time spent, a combination of PHP and JavaScript was applied to two pages linked from the instruction page that redirected automatically to the study page, and from the study page to the questionnaire page. The instructions used for this study are shown in Appendix 2. This code marked the start and end times for the study. Those times were emailed to the researcher for later analysis. In order to identify each participant uniquely, a unique URL was given to each participant made up of random characters. These unique URL’s also allowed the participants to remain anonymous and further kept each reader from knowing whether or not they had viewed the control or the research page. The following survey questions were written to give a qualitative analysis of the reader’s perceptions of the page they viewed: 1. How well did you understand the webpage you visited? a) Not at all 2. Do you feel as if you can trust the writer of the page? a) Yes 3. Was there anything you felt was misleading or difficult to understand about the webpage you view? a) Yes If you answered Yes, Please explain (Space provided) 4. Would you like it if other pages were written this way? a) Yes 5. Please select the answer that describes how you feel about the amount of content on the page. a) Not Enough 6. Please list anything else about this page you feel is important. (Space provided) Selection of Participants To test the website, two study groups were constructed. Since the webpage written was targeted to undergraduates at New Mexico Tech, both study groups were comprised of undergraduates. A “Western” group was composed of native English speakers from a Technical Writing class, a class required of all undergraduates regardless of their individual majors. There were eight participants from the “Western” group. The group was divided into two subgroups of four participants. Four people viewed the modified research page, and four people viewed the control page. An “Eastern” group was comprised of a class of undergraduates enrolled in English as a Second Language class. Five participants from the Eastern group took part in the study. Of these five participants, three viewed the modified research page, and two viewed the control page. All research was done in accordance with the Institutional Review Board policies and procedures.
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