Bringing Practitioners into Programs

Four presentations about how to connect academic programs with workplace practitioners in technical communication.

Barker, Thomas, David Dayton, Elizabeth O. (Betsy) Smith and Tracy Bridgeford. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Education>Collaboration>Workplace

The Changing World of the Independent: A Broader Perspective     

The past few years have brought many changes in the profession of technical communication: the expansion of professional roles within organizations, new technologies for document design and presentation, and the global cultural influence as technology expands to overseas markets. Perhaps the most important change in the profession, however, is not external like these, but internal in the ways that the core business model has adapted to the new, information-based development model.

Barker, Thomas and Kathryn Poe. Technical Communication Online (2002). Careers>Freelance

Coming into the Workplace: What Every Technical Communicator Should Know—Besides Writing  

Working successfully as a technical communicator involves a great deal more than a thorough knowledge of professional skills and capability in the craft. Working at this kind of job means dealing with all sorts of people, handling all sorts of assignments and dealing with all sorts of corporate agendas and requirements that have seemingly little to do with getting the project out the door. But it’s all in a day’s work, and if you want to keep the job, you’ve got to accept and actually operate within all of those guidelines, strictures, rules (written and unwritten) and mores that make up the corporate structure.

Barker, Thomas, Rebecca A. Fuller, Deborah J. Rosenquist, John Schladen and Thea Teich. STC Proceedings (1995). Careers>Workplace>Writing>Technical Writing

Consulting and Independent Contracting  

The Consulting and Independent Contracting progression will focus on both beginning and advanced topics relating to independent work. Independent work requires attention to two main areas: maintaining professional standards and practices; and building a successful contracting or consulting business. As the role of contractors and consultants continues to evolve practitioners face issues articulated in the topics below. Individual topics addressed are: choosing between contracting and consulting, marketing a business, and addressing legal issues. For those already established we look at ways to expand the consultant’s personal resource network and issues of incorporation as a growth alternative.

Barker, Thomas. STC Proceedings (2001). Careers>Freelance>Consulting

Consulting: Keeping Up in a Down Economy  

Barker explains how consultants can prepare for survival and long-term growth in the technical communication business, even in the midst of an economic downturn.

Barker, Thomas. Intercom (2003). Careers>Consulting

Developing Instructional Materials

This is a course in the process and techniques used in the technical communication profession for developing and delivering instructional materials for software: computer applications programs. Instructional materials includes all forms of manuals, procedures, step-by-step, tutorials, getting started, booklets, online help, performance support, Wizards, and other methods of supporting the work of software end users. This course also represents a culmination of preparation for professional work. In this course we explore both professional issues and practical issues with the intention of giving you the chance to apply principles to representative projects.

Barker, Thomas. Texas Tech University (2004). Academic>Courses>Instructional Design

The Empowered User: A New Approach To Software Documentation  

User empowerment offers a strategy for addressing the software end user's needs. The definition of user empowerment emphasizes a user-driven, informationmanagement oriented approach in response to changes that have taken place in the modern workplace after computers and computer software arrived. Working with software requires a significant shift in thinking and learning, responding to increased abstraction, isolation, and information volumes. Computermediated work demands that users develop new skills and job roles, and that documentation writers develop new techniques for manuals.

Barker, Thomas. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Documentation>User Centered Design

Family Business Members' Narrative Perceptions: Values, Succession, and Commitment    

The purpose of this article is to investigate the values, succession, and commitment issues found in a convenient sample of 26 family-owned businesses. An organizational commitment scale is used to determine the level of commitment of family members and its relationship to specific demographics variables. Family business stories were also developed using Narrative Paradigm Theory and then evaluated by this sample. Significant relationships were found between commitment and the variables Studied. Content analysis of the story evaluative narratives suggests similar content themes across family-owned businesses.

Barker, Randolph T., George W. Rimler, Evandro Moreno and Thomas E. Kaplan. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2004). Articles>Management

Graduate-Level Technical Communication Instruction in the United Kingdon   

This paper describes the results of a study of graduate technical communication programs in the United Kingdom begun in the Fall of 1998. The study intended to 1) describe the general structure of graduate instruction in technical communication, and 2) to analyze the field according to 3 key topics in technical education in the UK: What is the international orientation of programs? What are the subject-matter components of technical communication programs? What delivery methods and other classroom practices do the programs embody The formation in these four areas can be useful to a number of readers. Those in the education can benefit by comparing practices in the U. S. A. to those in the UK, especially comparing delivery methods and subject matter. Practitioners of technical communication seeking employment in the UK or European Union markets can benefit by learning the requirements of work in these areas. Members of professional societies such as the Society for Technical Communication can benefit by learning about the state of the profession of technical writing in the UK as it is supported by and reflected in the education of advanced practitioners.

Barker, Thomas and Anna Sallee. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Regional>United Kingdom

Growing Your Practice by Managing Business Relationships  

Independent contractors and consultants know the value of working cooperatively with other professionals to complete complex projects. 'Other professionals' includes subcontractors, other independent contractors and consultants, and business partners. The formation of these kinds of strategic relationships can help meet the demands of today’s diverse markets and clients. This paper outlines some of the basic issues that surround business relationships, including planning (estimating and bidding), formalizing project-based contractual relationships, and exploring more permanent partnership arrangements.

Barker, Thomas, Ryan Bernard, Melanie G. Flanders, Rob Moschak and Nicole Wycislo. STC Proceedings (2003). Careers>Freelance>Consulting>Collaboration

How Have You Advanced Your Career?  

Three technical communication gurus answer the question, 'What single action or decision did more to advance your career than any other?'

Barker, Thomas, Janice Gelb and Donald E. Zimmerman. Intercom (2002). Careers>Advice>TC

Modeling the Empowered User  

An STC-funded study of computer users in an R & D organization attempts to identify users who reflect a high degree of productive integration of computers into workplace tasks. The study reveals user stratification along the lines of low-strategic and high-strategic users: users who choose to use computers to accomplish information and communication-oriented tasks. The study attempts to confirm this stratification by indicating that users identified in this way also use computers to perform a higher frequency of information-related computer behaviors, such as use of email, electronic information transfer, archiving, and software learning. Identifying users in this way can help writers and documention designers by providing models of integrated computer use.

Barker, Thomas and Patricia Goubil-Gambrell. STC Proceedings (1996). Design>Human Computer Interaction>User Centered Design

Professional Report Writing

Instruction covers primary and secondary research techniques, analysis and interpretation of information, audience analysis, report design, format and graphics, and oral reporting. Instruction also covers writing in its social context and the management of complex research and writing projects.

Barker, Thomas. Texas Tech University (2004). Academic>Courses>Writing>Reports

Project Evaluation Form

This form shows a generic, fill-in-the-blank evaluation form for small- and medium-sized projects.

Barker, Thomas. Texas Tech University (2004). Academic>Course Materials>Project Management

Teaching Technical Communication

This course covers the theoretical and practical aspects of teaching the technical communication service course in particular, and the teaching of technical communication in general. Topics covered include technical communication pedagogy (social, literacy-based, cultural, and constructivist) and pedagogical methodology (including service-learning), theoretical approaches to ethics, genre studies and workplace writing, relations between academia and industry, and various theoretical approaches to assessment of courses, programs, and instructors.

Barker, Thomas. Texas Tech University (2004). Academic>Courses>TC>Education

Technical Manuals

English 5373 covers the management and production of forms of print and online manuals, including software and hardware manuals, instructions, and performance support.  Students will learn how to manage projects, and how to address issues of user analysis, text design, graphics design, task orientation, and translation. Class activities will include exercises and presentations focused on student project work.

Barker, Thomas. Texas Tech University (2003). Academic>Courses>Documentation>Technical Writing

Technical Communicators Put the "Public" in Public Health    

How does Web 2.0 fit into the world of public health? STC Fellow, Dr. Thomas Barker discusses the values of social networking in regards to largescale public disasters, such as Hurricane Katrina and the SARS outbreak.

Barker, Thomas. Intercom (2009). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Social Networking