"'Intermediate-Level' Communication: A Model of Communication for Multiple Cultures"

 About the Author

Travis 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

    Introduction

    Literature Review

    Literature Review (cont.)

    Literature Review (cont.)

    Methods

    Methods (cont.)

    Discussion

    Discussion (cont.)

    Conclusion

    References

    Appendix A

    Appendix B

Background and Literature Review

Contribution to the Field

While there has been a great deal of work done in facilitating effective cross cultural communication, much of this work has been focused on predetermined audiences. One of the concepts that continually arises in the current work is the use of effective audience analysis to shape communication between two cultures. While this work is indeed important, technical communication is a field that is growing beyond the boundaries of American companies and universities. For example, there are already successful technical communication programs located in China that are taught in English (Ping &Weiping, 2005).

In addition to the programs that are located outside of the United States, technical communicators are often given the responsibility of preparing webpages and online documents that serve many people from many different cultures. These webpages are often written to purely American standards (Schaffer, 2009). It is important for the field of technical communication to grow beyond the established concepts and adopt new strategies in communication (Amant, 2002).

Reviewing websites for organizations and companies that have learned to create effective communication for multiple cultures could be helpful in creating an effective model of communication. Organizations like the Helen Keller International (HKI) ( http://www.hki.org/take-action/) are already creating websites that are built to communicate to audiences from many cultures to address issues from around the globe. Using rhetoric that respects the reader and clearly defining the concepts contained within the website allows HKI to reach many cultures in their pursuit to combat the health problems faced by the impoverished members of our global society.

Looking outside the confines of the United States may help technical communicators find the keys to unlocking this new method of intermediate-level communication. Companies like Zensho in Japan have been required to effectively communicate information on the web that originated from a High-Context culture and make it readable by Low-Context cultures. This move has been made effective by means similar to those explored in this paper. Sentence shortening, respectful overtones that are designed to build relationships with the users, and clear definitions of terms are used throughout the English version of the Zensho website. These tools are effectively used to translate key concepts of the company to the reader. ( http://www.zensho.co.jp/en/)

As communicators, we often find ourselves in the position of translating key concepts to our audiences. Not only are we writers and designers, we are teachers. We have been trained in skills to both communicate concepts, and to teach concepts to many different audiences. We are already familiar with many educational concepts that allow us to effectively adapt information for a target audience, so the adoption of education concepts into a well formed communication model is natural for trained communicators. By analyzing the concepts with English as Second Language (ESL) training and the narrower teaching field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), technical communicators can increase their value within international companies and organizations.

Current Technical Communication Concepts

Current publications on cross-cultural communication focus on “High Context vs. Low Context” cultures and the inherent audience analysis that is done to bridge the gap between various cultures. Much of the work is focused on specific audience analysis. While this type of analysis and subsequent modeling of communication is effective when a writer knows exactly what culture he or she will communicating with, communicators do not always know with whom they will be communicating (Niemeier et al., 1998).

Individuals from “High-Context” cultures, such as those from China, Japan, and France, place a high value on forming working relations with those with whom they communicate. Trust must be built through the communication with these individuals from these cultures. They are often referred to as “group” oriented, and individuals identify themselves as members of a group. Often non-confrontational, these individuals are people oriented and put a strong focus on building and maintaining relationships. It is therefore important to focus on communicating the importance of the relationship between the writer’s company and organization and the target audience (Andrews, 2001).

Other applicable work involves the design of “user friendly” documents. Authors often state that documents produced for an international audience need to be designed to be “friendly” to target cultures. Imperative statements, warnings, and strong language are often avoided when preparing communication. Words that may be familiar to the international audience are used in coordination with familiar visuals that are easily recognized in other countries (Andrews, 2001).

Closer looks at communication between cultures display concepts of added wording that may feel awkward to modern technical communicators. In preparing documents for “High Context” cultures, communicators are instructed to add talks concerning the weather, the highlights during the current time of year, and very polite and personal overtones. While this concept of enhancing the content for a high context society may be stressed, communicators are often ill-prepared to take on the challenges that setting this type of setting offers (Andrews, 2001).

From the perspective a “Low-Context” culture, communication can be frustrating because individuals from these cultures are very open to forming new relationships quickly. They are action and solution oriented. Often times, individuals from a “Low-Context” culture distinguish between any conflict and the conflicting parties, and therefore building the relationship between the writer and the reader comes second to the message being conveyed. Communication is often very procedural in nature, so adding content into communication can seem unnatural and superfluous. Writers must write in a way that may feel uncomfortable and alien to them (Andrews, 2001) (Niemeier et al., 1998).

In addition to the work that focuses specifically on the types of cultures that communicators will be working with, Kwadzo and Bokor focused research on the various types of English that are used throughout the world. Their research stated the importance of understanding the ways in which world English varies from place to place (e.g. British English, Euro-English, Australian English, etc.) (2011).

The current work on international technical communication is expanding, but many of the concepts being used are several decades old and focused primarily from programs that were developed inside the United States.

Technical communicators are encouraged to write very direct messages for the web. Information must be easy to read. Writers design pages with the expectation that readers will “skim and jump” through content while searching for the specific information they are trying to find while navigating. Oftentimes, heavier content is written at deeper levels within a website to read after the reader commits themselves to reading. There is often a heavy emphasis on visual elements in web design as a way to connect the readers to the content (Andrews, 2001).

While visual elements in web design are important, websites for higher content cultures are written knowing that high context cultures are both more sensitive to advertising and wary of images or distractions from the content of the message. Visuals can be used to quickly convey information from writer to reader, but caution should be used to ensure that the visual adds to the context of the message rather than the distracting the reader away from the message. Familiar to the procedural style writing of “Low-Context” cultures, bulleted information is encouraged when building websites. While there is strength in using this type of writing for both types of cultures, care should be taken to use them freely when writing and designing webpages for higher context cultures. Technical communicators must remember that writing a webpage has all of, if not more, of the pitfalls common to all communication methods and treat the webpage the same as any official or important document produced by the writer’s company or organization (Andrews 2001).