Technical Communication from 1950-1998: Where Are We Now?
http://www.attw.org/TCQarticles/8.2/8-2Staples.pdf
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  peer-reviewed

Staples, Katherine E.
Technical Communication Quarterly
1999

Abstract:

The changes in technical communication education between 1950 and 1998 have led to disciplinary maturity: the development of academic programs and of a body of innovative research.  This disciplinary maturity parallels the professional identity and growth of numbers of technical communication practitioners.  As a thriving multidiscipline with many direct research and pedagogical connections to the workplace, technical communication can uniquely influence workforce values, providing a new, evolving disciplinary model for higher education.  However, technical communication’s disciplinary maturity also means a movement away from practice and from the service course, the foundations of technical communication as a discipline and the sources of its workplace influence.