Together with Technology

Introduction Chapter 1: Texts and Knowledge Work Discusses texts and their importance to organizations. Texts make knowledge tangible, promote learning, support adaptation, encourage coordination, and support cognitive tasks. Chapter 2: Writing Review and Mediation Discusses the dual purpose for writing review: to produce better texts and better writers. Considers how this work is offloaded to people and technologies. Chapter 3: Affordances of Texts and Textual Technologies Discusses the socio-cognitive affordances of texts in paper and electronic form. Questions the suitability of paper text for writing review, instead promoting textual replay. Chapter 4: Study Design and Data Analysis Discusses the design of a study to test whether paper or textual replay helps writers produce better writing and better organization-specific writing practices. Chapter 5: Differences between Text and Textual Replay Mediation Discusses the differences between text and textual replay mediation use in five organizations. Textual replay helps writers and reviewers focus on writing process. Chapter 6: Textual Replay in Practice-Oriented Organizations Discusses use of textual replay in organizations that employ professional writers. Textual replay helps promote cooperative writing and discussion of process. Chapter 7: Textual Replay in Artifact-Oriented Organizations Discusses use of textual replay in organizations that employ "non-writers". Textual replay promotes contextualization of texts as organizationally-significant artifacts. Process is coordinated with organizational demands. Chapter 8: Designing Technology to Support Practice Summarizes findings from the study and explores ways to use these findings to further the design of writing review technologies. The author offers some suggestions.