The Big Chill: Seven Technical Communicators Talk Ten Years After Their Master's Program    

Recounts the experiences of seven professionals entering the field and the ways their perceptions of the profession and roles within it have changed. Explores the variety of roles technical communicators are expected to assume

Wilson, Greg and Julie Dyke Ford. Technical Communication Online (2003). Academic>Education>Graduate

Doctoral Research in Technical, Scientific and Business Communication, 1989-1998    

This article is an update of the article by Rebecca S. Kelly and me in an earlier issue of Technical Communication (Rainey & Kelly 1992). My purpose here is the same as we had then: …we focus on making known the wide variety of doctoral research in professional communication emanating from many academic institutions. Specifically, we look at doctoral research in professional communication with a view to learning what academic institutions sponsor it, what methods researchers employ, and what topics doctoral candidates explore. (553) In this article, I use 'professional communication' to mean technical, scientific, and business communication.) In what follows, I first summarize the findings of this current search and then discuss the method of collecting information. Next, I identify the academic institutions that have doctoral programs in technical, scientific, and business communication, what methodologies the researchers use, and what topics they have researched in the period since 1989.

Rainey, Kenneth T. Technical Communication Online (1999). Academic>Education>Graduate>History

Graduate Programs in Professional Writing, Technical Writing and Rhetoric

An international directory of graduate academic programs in PW, TW and Rhetoric.

GradSchools.com. Academic>Education>Graduate

Professional Writing Mentoring

The main objective of this practicum is to encourage your pedagogical, technical, and professional development.

Romberger, Julia and Kate Agena. Purdue University (2003). Academic>Courses>Graduate>Education

Reflective Instrumentalism as a Possible Guide for Revising a Master's Degree Reading List  

Although we only used Durst's model as an initial starting point to help us articulate one of the main tensions in our revision process and then basically abandoned it, the final reading list we generated--although not perfect--does reveal a degree of 'reflective instrumentalism.' Students who have seen the new list make positive comments about it because the list manages to bring what seem to be opposite poles--reflection and instrumentalism--into a single reading list that represents the current state of our discipline. Although we seemed during the process have lost sight of our model, our list, though not perfect, does seem to represent reflective instrumentalism.

Williams, Sean D. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Graduate

Thoughts on Designing a Master's Certificate Program  

Despite the success of internship components, however, a common complaint from industry professionals still exists: that students still don't know how to write. Part of this complaint could be explained by specific industry practices for which students still need to be trained. Another part could rest in the need for more research about industry contexts. Still another, and probably the most likely, is the perceived differences in academe and industry expectations for theoretical components of curricula. Academics assume that industry professionals seek practical skills dealing with 'correctness' in language (e.g., grammar, spelling, punctuation) at the expense of theory; while industry professionals assume academics seek more conceptual components (e.g., philosophy) at the expense of practice. I think both parties are asking for the same thing: they seek students/employees who can develop an understanding of the how and the why of their work (Miller, 1979); that is, students who possess productive knowledge about a particular craft. In other words, they exemplify a techne (Atwill). In classical rhetoric, techne is associated with the 'knowledge of arts and crafts associated with the making of things' (Johnson, 1998, p. 51). In Technical Communication, one way to think of techne is through genre knowledge, that is, knowing which form suits a particular situation and why.

Bridgeford, Tracy. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Graduate

Timing is Everything: Integrating Low-Profile "Concentration" Courses into a High-Profile Master's Degree  

This paper discusses the phenomenon of a sense of timing as a sense of timely design and of timing as active response to unfolding demands as the key elements in making any program effective and durable. Indeed, I claim that timing is everything. Auburn's extended experience developing a new, high-profile Master's degree out of beginnings as a low-profile adjunct to a deeply conservative 'Great Books' English department has shown this clearly. Across the chronological stretch of a decade occupied with paying close attention to program elements, not only was effort required for time-keeping, or chronos, to establish and stabilize program elements, but a strong sense of timing, or kairos was also needed to meet and adjust to shifts in academic, political and industrial climates in and around the program. Rather than following a model or sticking to a set design, our decade of experience in transforming a 'concentration' program primarily serving undergraduates to a fully professional Master's degree has been a decade of improving our sense of timing.

Hundleby, Margaret N. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Graduate