Introduction to Technical Writing

Technical Writing is not a grammar class but an applied writing course in which you will learn to: write clearly, concisely, and accurately for intended readers; apply good writing skills to technical documents; write various technical documents common in business and industry; write as a member of a team; and use word processing, electronic mail, and graphics software applications on a personal computer.

Lippincott, Gail. University of North Texas (2003). Academic>Courses>Undergraduate>Technical Writing

The Orlando Chapter/University of Central Florida Partnership: A Win-Win-Win Scenario!  

The twenty-year partnership between the Orlando Chapter and the technical writing program at the University of Central Florida (UCF) has reached new heights in the past two years. This paper reviews several highly successful programs that have either grown directly out of the UCF-Orlando Chapter partnership or which have benefited from and been improved by it: (1) an annual scholarship program; (2) student projects that benefit the chapter (or feature the chapter as client); (3) strong student support to the STC AccessAbility SIG; (4) an annual fund-raising initiative; (5) an educational outreach initiative to Central Florida high schools, and (6) a highly successful formal mentoring program pairing students with professionals.

Lippincott, Gail and Jennifer Selix. STC Proceedings (2005). Articles>Collaboration>Industry and Academy>STC

Selected Bibliography for Technical Communication Professionals: Gender, Communication Strategies, and Audience Analysis  

Effective technical communication relies on an analysis of the intended audience. If such an analysis includes the demographics of an audience, it is often primarily concerned with the level of the readers’ knowledge or how much the readers need to know in order to complete a task. Rarely is the gender of the audience taken into consideration, ignoring several decades of research on the different communication styles used and preferred by women and men. When gender is considered, writers often rely on prescriptive guidelines to avoid sexist language or, more positively, to use inclusive language to eliminate bias from their writing.

Lippincott, Gail. STC Orange County (1998). Resources>Bibliographies>TC>Gender

"Something in Motion and Something to Eat Attract The Crowd": Cooking With Science at the 1893 World's Fair    

Studying past examples of successful technical communication may offer insight into strategies that worked with technologies and audiences in an earlier time. This article examines the texts documenting a controversy before and during the Chicago World's Fair of 1893. Ellen Swallow Richards, chemist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Bertha Honore Palmer, president of the Fair's Board of Lady Managers, had distinctly different visions of how cooking technology should be presented. Palmer invited Richards to create a Model Kitchen in the Woman's Building, but Richards wanted to avoid gendering the new knowledge of nutrition and she fought to control her exhibit. The multimedia Richards used in her resulting Rumford Kitchen exhibit reminds us that sometimes an entertaining but familiar atmosphere might be the best way to introduce threatening new knowledge and technology, particularly to our increasingly international and intergenerational audiences.

Lippincott, Gail. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>TC>History>Rhetoric

Web Spinning: Developing Information Architecture and Content for the Web

This course will help you understand the process for developing the architecture and writing the content for informational websites. Proceeding from a rhetorical standpoint that emphasizes audience, purpose, and context, you will investigate and apply recent audience research, proven usability principles, and traditional design guidelines to critique as well as to design effective websites.

Lippincott, Gail. University of North Texas (2003). Academic>Courses>Information Design>Web Design