This article advocates for web scraping as an effective method to augment and enhance technical and professional communication (TPC) research practices. Web scraping is used to create consistently structured and well-sampled data sets about domains, communities, demographics, and topics of interest to TPC scholars. After providing an extended description of web scraping, the authors identify technical considerations of the method and provide practitioner narratives. They then describe an overview of project-oriented web scraping. Finally, they discuss implications for the concept as a sustainable approach to developing web scraping methods for TPC research.
AndersenR. (2014). Rhetorical work in the age of content management: Implications for the field of technical communication. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 28(2), 115–157. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651913513904
2.
BatovaT.ClarkD. (2015). The complexities of globalized content management. Journal of Business and Technical Communication, 29(2), 221–235. https://doi.org/10.1177/1050651914562472
3.
BoettgerB. R. K.FriessE. (2020). Content and authorship patterns in technical communication journals (1996–2017): A quantitative content analysis. Technical Communication, 67(3), 4–24.
4.
CagleL. E.TilleryD. (2015). Climate change research across disciplines: The value and uses of multidisciplinary research reviews for technical communication. Technical Communication Quarterly, 24(2), 147–163. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2015.1001296
5.
CarlinerS.CoppolaN.GradyH.HayhoeG. (2011). What does the transactions publish? What do transactions’ readers want to read?IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 54(4), 341–359. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2011.2173228
6.
ChasinsS. E.MuellerM.BodikR. (2018). Rousillon: Scraping distributed hierarchical web data. In The 31st Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology—UIST ‘18 (pp. 963–975). https://doi.org/10.1145/3242587.3242661
7.
FriessE.BoettgerR. K.CampbellK. S.LamC. (2017). Are we missing the boat? A roundtable discussion on research methods and how they define our field. IEEE International Professional Communication Conference, 1–3. https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.2017.8013942
GallagherJ. R. (2015). Five strategies internet writers use to “continue the conversation.”Written Communication, 32(4), 396–425. https://doi.org/10.1177/0741088315601006
GallagherJ. R.ChenY.WagnerK.WangX.ZengJ.KongA. L. (2020). Peering at the internet abyss: Using big data audience analysis to understand online comments. Technical Communication Quarterly, 29(2), 155–173. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2019.1634766.
12.
GallagherJ. R.HolmesS. (2019). Empty templates: The ethical habits of empty state pages. Technical Communication Quarterly, 28(3), 271–283. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2018.1564367
13.
GrahamS. S.KimS.-Y.DeVastoD. M.KeithW. (2015a). Statistical genre analysis: Toward big data methodologies in technical communication. Technical Communication Quarterly, 24(1), 70–104. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2015.975955
14.
GrahamS.MilliganI.WeingartS. (2015b). Exploring big historical data: The historian’s macroscope. World Scientific.
15.
LauerC. (2017). Re-considering research: Why we need to adopt a mixed-methods approach to our work. Communication Design Quarterly, 4(3), 46–50. https://doi.org/10.1145/3071078.3071085
16.
LauerC.BrumbergerE.BeveridgeA. (2018). Hand collecting and coding versus data-driven methods in technical and professional communication research. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 61(4), 389–408. https://doi.org/10.1109/TPC.2018.2870632
17.
MehlenbacherA. R. (2017). Crowdfunding science: Exigencies and strategies in an emerging genre of science communication. Technical Communication Quarterly, 26(2), 127–144. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2017.1287361
18.
MehlenbacherA. R. (2019). Science communication online: Engaging experts and publics on the internet. Ohio State University Press.
19.
MelonçonL.St.AmantK. (2019). Empirical research in technical and professional communication: A 5-year examination of research methods and a call for research sustainability. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 49(2), 128–155. https://doi.org/10.1177/0047281618764611
20.
MelonçonL.WarnerE. (2017). Data visualizations: A literature review and opportunities for technical and professional communication. In IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (pp. 1–9). https://doi.org/10.1109/IPCC.2017.8013960
21.
MoriartyD.Núñez De VillavicencioP.BlackL. A.BustosM.CaiH.MehlenbacherB.MehlenbacherA. R. (2019). Durable research, portable findings: Rhetorical methods in case study research. Technical Communication Quarterly, 28(2), 124–136. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2019.1588376
SackeyD. J. (2020). One-size-fits-none: A heuristic for proactive value sensitive environmental design. Technical Communication Quarterly, 29(1), 33–48. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2019.1634767
24.
ScottJ. B.MelonçonL. (2017). Writing and rhetoric majors, disciplinarity, and “techne.” In Composition Forum (Vol. 35). Association of Teachers of Advanced Composition. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1137850.pdf
25.
St.AmantK.GrahamS. S. (2019). Research that resonates: A perspective on durable and portable approaches to scholarship in technical communication and rhetoric of science. Technical Communication Quarterly, 28(2), 99–111. https://doi.org/10.1080/10572252.2019.1591118
26.
WelhausenC. A. (2015). Visualizing a non-pandemic: Considerations for communicating public health risks in intercultural contexts. Technical Communication, 62(4), 244–257.
