Kathryn Riley

Department Chair; Professor, English; Director, Edit IIT; Editor-in-Chief, Business Communication Quarterly

Office: SH 218B
Office Hours:
Phone: 312.567.3566
Fax: 312.567.5187
Email: riley@iit.edu
Web: www.iit.edu/~riley

Expertise

• Linguistics, especially English grammar, pragmatics, and discourse analysis; Technical and professional communication, especially editing

Education

• B.A., English, University of Maryland, 1972
• M.A., English, Georgia State University, 1976
• Ph.D., English, University of Maryland, 1981
• Ph.D., Linguistics, Louisiana State University, 1987

Curriculum Vitae

Research & Major Accomplishments

Current Projects

• Co-PI, NSF grant on “Ethics in the Details” (2006–2009) Visual Composing (with J. Mackiewicz), in preparation for Prentice-Hall

Awards/Honors

• IEEE Senior Member
• STC Outstanding Article Award (co-recipient with J. Mackiewicz)
• Research Award (Univ. of Minnesota)
• McKnight Fellowship (Univ. of Minnesota)
• LSA Language in the USA Fellowship

Patents

Books

• F. Parker & K. Riley, Linguistics for Non-Linguists: A Primer with Exercises, 4th edition. Boston: Allyn & Bacon, 2005.
• F. Parker & K. Riley, Grammar for Grammarians: Prescriptive, Descriptive, Generative, Contextual. Chicago: Parlay 2005. Revised edition of K. Riley & F. Parker, Approaches to English Grammar: Prescriptive, Descriptive, Generative, Performance. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon, 1998.
• K. Riley, K. S. Campbell, A. Manning, & F. Parker, with J. Tusin. Revising Professional Writing in Science and Technology, Business, and the Social Sciences, 2nd edition. Chicago: Parlay, 2007.
• F. Parker & K. Riley, Writing for Academic Publication. Superior, WI: Parlay, 1995.

Selected Publications

K. Riley, M. Davis, A. Cox, & J. Maciukenas, “Ethics in the Details”: An NSF Project to Integrate Ethics into the Graduate Engineering Curriculum. Proceedings of the 2007 International Professional Communication Conference, IEEE Professional Communication Society (6 pp.)

J. Maciukenas & K. Riley, Toward a Feature System for Analyzing Dynamic Web Interfaces. Proceedings of the 2007 International Professional Communication Conference, IEEE Professional Communication Society(11 pp.)

Guest editor, with G. Lippincott, Technical Communication Feb. 2006 special issue on accessibility.

K. Riley, J. Spartz, & J. Mackiewicz, Writing Readable Consent Forms: How Useful Is the Advice Given by IRBs? IPCC 2004—Communication Frontiers: Proceedings of the 2004 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (Piscataway, NJ: IEEE, 2004), 1–13.  

K. Riley, About Face: Positive Politeness in Dummies Manuals and Conventional Users’ Manuals. The Shape of Knowledge: Proceedings of the 2003 IEEE International Professional Communication Conference (Piscataway, NJ: IEEE, 2003), 336–347.

J. Jenson, J. Mackiewicz, & K. Riley, Human Subjects Research by Business Communication Students: Beyond the Red Tape. Business Communication Quarterly, 66 (2003), 9–22. 

K. Riley & J. Mackiewicz, Resolving the Directness Dilemma in Editing Sessions with Nonnative Speakers. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 46 (2003), 1–16. 

J. Mackiewicz & K. Riley, The Technical Editor as Diplomat: Linguistic Strategies for Balancing Clarity and Politeness. Technical Communication, 50 (2003), 83–94.

 K. Riley, Seven Habits of Highly Effective Writers. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 42 (1999), 47–51.

K. Riley & F. Parker, Parallels Between Visual and Textual Processing. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, 41 (1998), 175–185.

K. Riley, Telling More than the Truth: Implicature, Speech Acts, and Ethics in Professional Communication.Journal of Business Ethics 12 (1993), 179–196.

K. Riley, Passive Voice and Rhetorical Role in Scientific Writing. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 21 (1991), 239–257.

K. S. Campbell, K. Riley, & F. Parker, You-Perspective: Insights from Speech Act Theory. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 20 (1990), 189–199.

 F. Parker, K. Riley, & Charles Meyer, Untriggered Reflexive Pronouns in English. American Speech 65 (1990), 50–69.

K. Riley & F. Parker, Tone as a Function of Presupposition in Technical and Business Writing. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 18 (1988), 325–343.

F. Parker, K. Riley, & C. Meyer, Case Assignment and the Ordering of Constituents in Coordinate Structures. American Speech 63 (1988), 214–233.

K. Riley, Conversational Implicature and Unstated Meaning in Professional Communication. The Technical Writing Teacher [now Technical Communication Quarterly] 15 (1988), 94–104.

K. Riley, Speech Act Theory and Degrees of Directness in Professional Writing. The Technical Writing Teacher [now Technical Communication Quarterly] 15 (1988), 1–29.

K. Riley, The Metalanguage of Transformational Syntax: Relations Between Jargon and Theory. Semiotica 67 (1987), 173–194.

K. Riley & F. Parker, Anomalous Prepositions in Relative Clauses. American Speech 61 (1986), 291–306. 

Professional Society Memberships

• American Dialect Society
• Assn. for Business Communication
• Assn. of Teachers of Technical Writing
• IEEE Professional Communication Society
• Illinois Academic Women’s Network, American Council on Education
• Linguistic Society of America
• Modern Language Assn.
• Society for Technical Communication

Editorial Board Service

Professional Society Service

Grants

Community Service

Lauren Joyce
B.S. in Professional and Technical Communication, 2006

Lauren Joyce earned her bachelor's in Professional and Technical Communication in 2006 specializing in web design and minoring in sociology and psychology. more...