Qian Li received a double master’s degree of technical communication and computer-aided translation from the University of Twente (The Netherlands) and Peking University (China). She is now a PhD candidate at the University of Twente. Her research topic is cultural differences and technical communication.
Presentation: June 8 – Cultural Differences and User Instructions: Effects of a Culturally Adapted Manual Structure on Western and Chinese Users
Research shows that Western and Chinese technical communicators structure their documents in different ways. I attempted to systematically explore the effects cultural adaptations of user instructions have on users. Specifically, we investigate whether Western (from Europe and North America) and Chinese (from the People’s Republic of China) users would benefit from a document structure that is theoretically assumed to reflect their cultural preferences.
The results of our study raise questions about the validity and/or the relevance of the current insights regarding cultural differences in the structures of user instructions. Cultural differences found in content analytic research may reflect the habits of technical communicators rather than the preferences of users.
Qian Li
Qian Li | |
Country | The Netherlands |
Company/organization | University of Twente |
Position | PhD student |
Native Language | Chinese |
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