The Academic Job Market in Technical Communication, 2002-2003    

Analysis of the academic job market in 2002-2003 reveals that 118 nationally advertised academic jobs named technical or professional communication as a primary or secondary specialization. Of the 56 in the "primary" category that we were able to contact, we identified 42 jobs filled, 10 unfilled, and 4 pending. However, only 29% of the jobs for which technical or professional communication was the primary specialization were filled by people with degrees in the field, and an even lower percent (25%) of all jobs, whether advertised for a primary or secondary specialization, were filled by people with degrees in the field. Search chairs report a higher priority on teaching and research potential than on a particular research specialization, and 62% of all filled positions involve teaching in related areas (composition, literature, or other writing courses).

Rude, Carolyn D. and Kelli Cargile Cook. Technical Communication Quarterly (2002). Careers>Academic>TC>History

Administrative Decisions in Online Graduate Education  

Much of the discussion about online education appropriately focuses on pedagogy and technology. Any planning for online education must consider teaching methods and the technology to support them as well as the appropriateness of these methods and technology for the students and course materials. However, administrative decisions also influence the success of the course or degree program. This paper reviews these issues based on the experience of Texas Tech University in five years of offering an online Master of Arts in Technical Communication. Issues include course concept, costs, administrative authority within the university, and student selection and retention. The paper looks briefly at legal issues and at the concern about impersonality in online education.

Rude, Carolyn D. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Graduate

Expanding Our Borders to New Sites of Practice  

Vital academic programs have a component in practice and an obvious connection of research and theory to the undergraduate classroom. This position (not a truth) could explain, in part, the growth of technical communication as an academic discipline over the past two decades while the study of literature, often in the same department, has declined.

Rude, Carolyn D. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>TC

Identity, Research Funding, and Political Economy

Five presentations about supporting research, particularly for junior faculty, within the present funding and support structures offered by academic departments.

Rude, Carolyn D., Kelli Cargile Cook, Ryan M. Moeller, Cheryl E. Ball and Joanna Castner Post. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Management>Research

Is There a Place for Technical Communication in the Public Sphere?  

Programs in technical communication have, at least in their recent history, emphasized the preparation of students for corporate positions. We claim the ubiquity and relevance of our work to all areas of life, and indeed it is easy enough to find examples of 'technical communication' everywhere. But this observation is not the same as observing that there is a role for technical communicators everywhere.

Rude, Carolyn D. CPTSC Proceedings (2002). Presentations>TC>Cultural Theory

Participatory Decision Making, Technology, and the Environment: Overview  

Technical communication is increasingly identified with high tech and particularly with documentation. This affiliation and the issues that technology raises have spurred the field to grow not just in numbers but also in knowledge. For example, the concepts of users and usability offer rich ways to look at documents and their development and implementation.

Rude, Carolyn D. STC Proceedings (2001). Presentations>Collaboration>Technology

Technical Editing Assignments

These documents are suitable for take-home, graded assignments or in-class workshops. As whole documents created in the 'real world,' they complement the sentence- and paragraph-level editing tasks in the textbook Technical Editing.

Rude, Carolyn D. Allyn and Bacon (1998). Academic>Course Materials>Editing

Technical Editing: Discussion and Application Materials

Assignments to complement Carolyn Rude's Technical Editing textbook. Instructors can load the materials onto a server or student disks so that the students can respond at the computer.

Rude, Carolyn D. Allyn and Bacon (1998). Academic>Course Materials>Technical Editing

Toward an Expanded Concept of Rhetorical Delivery: The Uses of Reports in Public Policy Debates    

Preparing students for civic engagement requires new knowledge about the uses of documents for advocacy and social change. Substantial social change results from repeated rather than from single rhetorical acts. Reconsideration of the rhetorical canon of delivery suggests expanding the concept beyond its present connection to publication (visual design, medium) to a rhetorical situation comprehensively defined. Delivery may take place over time and embrace a web of activities including field work, updates, and interconnections with other publications.

Rude, Carolyn D. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>TC>Reports>Rhetoric

A Week in the Life of a Technical Communicator

A website which details the events in one technical communicator's (active) week.

Rude, Carolyn D. Texas Tech University (2002). Careers>TC

Mapping the Research Questions in Technical Communication    

Agreement about research questions can strengthen disciplinary identity and give direction to a field that is still maturing. The central research question this article poses foregrounds texts, broadly defined as verbal, visual, and multimedia, and the power of texts to mediate knowledge, values, and action in a variety of contexts. Related questions concern disciplinarity, pedagogy, practice, and social change. These questions overlap and inform each other. Any single study does not necessarily fall exclusively into one area. A mapping of a field’s research questions is a political act, emphasizing some questions and marginalizing or excluding others. The emphases may change over time. This mapping illustrates reasons for the tensions between the academic and practitioner areas of the field. It also points out their shared research interests and opportunities for future research.

Rude, Carolyn D. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2009). Articles>TC>Research