ENGLISH 5387 Publications Management Spring 2010, Progress Report 1.25.10

Professor Baehr says, "Narrow your potential single-sourcing topic choices to one or two. For each, briefly outline some of the major goals and objectives of larger project. What two potential new source documents could you create? Also, identify some of the information needs of users of these deliverables."

Update 5.16.11
The goals of my updated project are essentially the same: To increase my understanding about current research using techniques in identification of high risk strains of human papillomavirus in men and to increase my knowledge about what the government, industry, and non-profits are telling the public about HPV and men, in order to incorporate my finer understanding into my master’s thesis. Another major goal of this project is to learn XML well enough to list it as a skill on my C.V.

Legacy documents will include a list of ten websites about human papillomavirus and men, generated for the XML Scripting Exercise in this class. I will create an annotated bibliography of this list in XML for completion of the XML-based single-sourcing project.

Another legacy document is my term paper from my virology class; it is a survey of science literature published before November 2008 for techniques in indentification of high risk strains of HPV in males.

The final legacy documents include all relevant science journal articles published since Nov. 2008 about techniques for testing HPV in males. I will create an annotated bibliography of these papers in document formatting for completion of the second single-sourcing project.

I am the main user of all the information I will be creating; the information will be incorporated into my thesis. I need to consider my thesis committee, two experts in rhetoric (one medical, one science) and a virologist, and write text both subgroups of experts in my committee can understand clearly while keeping an academic tone.

My single-sourcing topic choice is analysis of legacy document “Planned Parenthood 2009 Curriculum Development Project: Managing HPV, A New Era in Sexual Health” for information about males and Human papillomavirus (HPV). This 76-page curriculum includes information and methods of teaching for educating the medical community, parents, and students K-12 about managing HPV. It is the last document I will analyze for my thesis, which focuses on high risk HPVs, types of cancers they are known to cause, lack of medical diagnosis for males although males are known reservoirs of the virus, and the social implications of not being able to know if your male partner is infected with an ubiquitous Sexually Transmitted Infection (STI) that condoms can’t protect against.

The major goal of this project is to increase my understanding of this document through my projects in this class, and to incorporate my finer understanding into my master’s thesis. Another major goal of this project is to learn XML for future use in my job as a full-time technical communicator at Texas Tech University.

An indirect goal of this class is to create a model for single-sourcing the thesis writing process, using my own thesis content, through use of Microsoft Windows SharePoint Services 3.0 (WSS 3.0), with the portfolio for this class included in the Webpages of this model. Another indirect goal will be auditing of and assessment for appropriate Texas Tech University Howard Hughes Medical Institute (TTU/HHMI) WSS 3.0 SOPs for this project (how to create lists, wikis, document libraries, upfront content; SOPs authored by technology scholars and students at the TTU/HHMI Science Education Program at the Center for the Integration of Science Education and Research [CISER]), during the creation of my ENGL 5387 online portfolio.

An objective of this project is to create two new source documents from the legacy document, one in XML format. The first project will be to “summarize” the legacy document content into XML for use in creation of WebPages that summarize content into a minimalistic formatting that will facilitate writing the second source document, a scholarly paper. The second document will necessarily use the language styple of my partially completed thesis.

I am the primary user of both new source documents, although the scholarly paper will make its way into my thesis, where the main users will be the members of my thesis committee at Texas Tech, Chairperson Amy Koerber, Ph. D., Technical Communications; Shan Bilimoria, Ph. D., Biology; and Ken Baake, Ph. D., Technical Communications.

My information needs are to organize the large content of the legacy document into a meaningful visual aid (website) that helps me then write the same content in a scholarly style. My interdisciplinary committee information needs are to understand content that isn’t part of their field of expertise. Because this legacy document is written in very basic language, even for the education needs of medical professionals, there will be no time spent in translating hard science into an interdisciplinary language suitable for my committee, and more time spent to carefully analyze this larger document through the lens of bridging the Humanities and Sciences.