#13911
For small and mid-sized universities, the 200-level technical writing service course often represents the primary writing experience for students after their freshman year. Our “service” should help students develop the tools for analyzing language and understanding writing in complex ways. Assignment sequences should engage students in active research to develop four primary literacies: rhetorical, visual, information, and computer. This article focuses on disciplinarity and underlying pedagogical goals in technical writing classrooms by describing a search engine assignment sequence which promotes literate practices in three short reports: 1) A preview/instructions report, 2) An analysis/evaluation report, and 3) A narrative review of a research activity. This article concludes with implications for these types of classroom practices.
Nagelhout, Ed. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education
#35003
This article uses theories of space and findability to analyze a public information center as an example of multi-modal risk communication. The Yucca Mountain Information Center is an informational space created by the Department of Energy to inform the public about the proposed nuclear waste repository planned for Yucca Mountain, Nevada. As a public space, the Center uses fact sheets, posters, and three-dimensional displays to make arguments about the storage of nuclear waste; we argue that the physical space, text, displays, and online space are all elements of risk communication. We offer a new way to read these elements of risk communication and suggest potential opportunities for public agency.
Nagelhout, Ed, Julie Staggers and Denise Tillery. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2009). Articles>Scientific Communication>Risk Communication>Case Studies
