categoryallspace2-Articles Education http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/Education A directory of resources about articles and education in the field of technical communication. en-us Copyright (c) 2005-08 by the EServer. All rights reserved. tclib-editorial@eserver.org (TC Library Editorial Board) webmaster@eserver.org (Geoffrey Sauer) http://tc.eserver.org/images/newlogo.gif http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/Education http://tc.eserver.org/31375.html http://tc.eserver.org/31375.html This hypertext examines from an activity theory perspective the vexed problem of assessment and its relation to planning, accountability, curriculum, and learning. Assessment although only part of the educational process has implications for almost all of education. Local, state, and federal policies that have put great weight and high stakes on a battery of assessment tools that stand outside the daily life of the classroom but are intended to hold classrooms, teachers, and schools accountable for results. While situated evaluation is an aspect of most human practices, institution-wide testing creates substantial difficulties for the local practices of each class, and particularly creates tensions between student-centered classroom practice and subject-centered expectations. Such tensions have been a continuing puzzle for progressive education. Dewey and his followers regularly preferred to keep evaluation and decision-making local, but for various institutional reasons had to seek larger ways of assessing student achievement without ever being able to develop fully appropriate assessment tools. The teaching of writing has faced a similar dilemma, with standardized forms of writing assessment setting reductionist definitions and expectations of writing, and not directing students towards the highest levels of accomplishment. This study considers genre and activity analysis as the basis for defining and assessing writing tasks through analysis of materials collected from a complex sequence of social studies writing assignments on the Maya from a sixth grade class. http://tc.eserver.org/31376.html http://tc.eserver.org/31376.html Activity theory (AT) has for many years been used in studies of human computer interaction, such as computer interface design and computer-supported cooperative work (CSCW) (Nardi, 1996). In the last five years it has begun to be used to understand distributed learning, as technological innovations in education have often "seemed to be designed to exploit the capabilities of the technology rather than to meet an instructional need," to be technology-driven rather than theory-driven. http://tc.eserver.org/31377.html http://tc.eserver.org/31377.html This article attempts to expand and elaborate theories of social "context" and formal schooling, to understand the stakes involved in writing. It first sketches ways Russian activity theory in the tradition of A. N. Leont'ev may expand Bakhtinian dialogism, then elaborates the theory in terms of North American genre research, with examples drawn from research on writing in the disciplines in higher education. By tracing the relations of disciplinary genre systems to educational genre systems, through the boundary of the classroom genre system, the analyst/reformer can construct a model of the interactions of classroom practices with wider social practices. Activity theory analysis of genre systems may offer a theoretical bridge between the sociology of education and Vygotskian social psychology of classroom interaction, and contribute toward resolving the knotty problem of the relation of macro- and microstructure in literacy research based on various social theories of "context." http://tc.eserver.org/31378.html http://tc.eserver.org/31378.html Proposes that educational institutions continue to improve the uses of writing in society in two ways: extend writing across the curriculum efforts and raise the awareness of students, the university community, and the public to the role of writing in society by having those who study writing teach an introductory liberal arts course on it. Both are important steps toward removing the remedial stigma attached to writing and its teaching, and toward combating the myth of autonomous literacy that reinforces the remedial stigma. http://tc.eserver.org/31379.html http://tc.eserver.org/31379.html In the last decade, several groups in the US have also been working toward performance assessment that is tied to the curriculum and assessed by collaboratively by teachers: the New Standards Project, the College Board Pacesetter Project, and several state assessment projects. This paper describes the English system not as a model to be imitated—there are profound differences in the two societies and their education systems—but as a point of reference, a means of seeing the US system and the recent reform efforts in comparative perspective. http://tc.eserver.org/31349.html http://tc.eserver.org/31349.html The importance of oral presentations in professional environments related to Computer Science is unquestionable. Therefore, oral and writing skills are included in the set of competences to be developed by students through the application of recent academic initiatives for Computer Science degrees in an international context. This article describes activities performed at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid aimed at the development of presentation skills in students. This initiative is based on the application of learning activities in combination with the delivery of different presentations that the students themselves evaluate. Results show a significant competence improvement and very satisfactory acceptance results from the students. http://tc.eserver.org/31358.html http://tc.eserver.org/31358.html Supplement your income and provide students with real-world knowledge and experience. Learn what kinds of online teaching opportunities are out there for technical communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/31369.html http://tc.eserver.org/31369.html Electronic portfolios have slipped silently into colleges and universities as effective assessment tools of student work. http://tc.eserver.org/31265.html http://tc.eserver.org/31265.html The ADDIE model is the generic process traditionally used by instructional designers and training developers. The five phases—Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, and Evaluation—represent a dynamic, flexible guideline for building effective training and performance support tools. http://tc.eserver.org/31242.html http://tc.eserver.org/31242.html Unfortunately, the movement to use open educational resources in higher education hasn’t yet realized the full impact that its founders anticipated. Open content is still in its infancy and faces some technical and cultural challenges that affect its widespread adoption. http://tc.eserver.org/31230.html http://tc.eserver.org/31230.html Companies such as GE, Procter & Gamble, General Mills, McKinsey, IBM, FedEx and others began building their leadership engines by doing what any great team does: putting the right people in the right leadership positions in the first place. They then strengthen the leaders’ skills and knowledge and rigorously hold them accountable for hitting their operating and financial targets. Let’s peek under the hood at these leadership engines to see how these great companies not only create but sustain leadership engines that continuously produce strong leaders. http://tc.eserver.org/31081.html http://tc.eserver.org/31081.html Humor in the classroom is about engagement and involvement. Learn some new techniques to use and when to tread carefully. http://tc.eserver.org/31087.html http://tc.eserver.org/31087.html This article proposes that technical and professional communication instructors reconsider the treatment of the concept of plagiarism in current curriculum. I begin by examining existing approaches to teaching technical communication students about plagiarism and explaining the need for rethinking plagiarism in light of contemporary technical communication practices. The second section suggests several preliminary steps for addressing these issues, including revisions to plagiarism policies, classroom practices, and the treatment of plagiarism in textbooks. I conclude with a call for increased industry-academic dialog on the dissonance between the treatment of plagiarism in the classroom and in workplace practices. http://tc.eserver.org/31049.html http://tc.eserver.org/31049.html This is a qualitative case study of two students' composing processes as they developed a documentary video about the Dominican Republic in an urban, public middle school classroom. While using a digital video editing program, the students moved across multiple media (the Web, digital video, books, and writing), drawing semiotic resources from each as they did so. Using sociosemiotic and dialogic-intertextual theoretical frameworks, the author examines how the interface of the video editing program influenced the students' composing by making new types of semiotic resources available and new means of combining these resources. As they moved across these media in a nonlinear fashion, the students created an interactive context for composing that transcended the individual possibilities of each respective medium. This suggests that multimedial composing environments offer a rich intertextual landscape and unique ways of making meanings. http://tc.eserver.org/31021.html http://tc.eserver.org/31021.html This article investigates the introductions of 40 professional speeches from a rhetorical perspective to address the problems audiences seem to have with presentations about engineering. The authors use an exordial model that they derived from classical manuals on rhetoric. This model enumerates and groups rhetorical exordial techniques into 3 main functions: attentum, benevolum, and docilem . The study shows that rhetorically complete introductions are rare. Most of the speakers seemed to prefer a content-oriented, direct approach (docilem) in their introductions and seldom used techniques to garner the audience's attention (attentum) or sympathy (benevolum). The article concludes with an evaluation of the exordial model and a discussion of the study's pedagogical implications. http://tc.eserver.org/31022.html http://tc.eserver.org/31022.html Teachers of intercultural business communication may want to consider using problem-based learning (PBL), an instructional approach that places learners in problem-solving situations, that is, students are presented with messy and complex real-life problems that provide a context for learning concepts and developing skills. This article describes how ill-structured communication problems that emerge in intercultural business relationships in internationalizing small- or medium-sized enterprises are used to provide a context for learning. It explains how these problems are tackled by learners through the implementation of PBL in four stages: problem identification, information acquisition, information analysis, and problem resolution. Finally, it discusses the reactions of the students, external participants, and instructors to the PBL approach. http://tc.eserver.org/31026.html http://tc.eserver.org/31026.html Digital video production in composition courses is both new and exciting. However, this newness comes with challenges and obstacles as well as more questions than answers. What exactly is so fun, attractive, liberating, and transgressive about digital video work? Is it the time invested in editing minutes or hours of footage into seconds of film clips? Is it the sheer thrill of having the power to overlay images, words, and sounds to produce an effect impossible in the real world and highly effective in the multimodal, rhetorical one? Is it that the composition teacher is finally asking for a product where grammar (understood as punctuation and sentence structure) is mostly invisible? Is it the crisis moments when the software, the hard drive, and/or the accompanying hardware crashes and we are still left with a classroom full of students to teach? Or, is it the mesmerizing effect of the screen that promises sustained attention to a composition assignment? The answer, we think, in all cases is 'yes'--yet sometimes that yes is a hesitant one. http://tc.eserver.org/30852.html http://tc.eserver.org/30852.html The advantages of peer feedback in business writing classes are clear. Students receive more appraisals of their writing than any single lecturer can ever realistically deliver. Also, the feedback comes from different perspectives and sometimes carries extra credibility coming from fellow students. Students gain from giving one another feedback as well. It is certainly learning by doing. Critiquing the work of colleagues raises awareness of the many ways to approach a given task and demands skills of analysis and attention to detail. Delivering feedback also requires tact and the ability to look for positives to commend as well as areas to improve. Reviewing written documents is a skill that students will certainly use in their future work lives. However, many of us have experienced problems with peer reviewing. Students hesitate to criticise their friends and prefer praising in a general way rather than suggesting improvements, which requires confidence. http://tc.eserver.org/30855.html http://tc.eserver.org/30855.html Educating undergraduate business students in the 21st century requires more than addressing the quantitative side of business; rather, it calls for including the more qualitative 'soft skills,' such as speaking and writing. This article examines the design, delivery, and effectiveness of an undergraduate program dedicated to leadership, teamwork, and communication and describes this program within the context of the communication across the curriculum movement. http://tc.eserver.org/30841.html http://tc.eserver.org/30841.html Teachers face two serious difficulties when assigning research papers. The first appears to be an issue of motivation but is really one of mental disposition. Many students are so deeply influenced by contemporary visual culture--especially by film--that they lack familiarity with close reasoning. They are accustomed to absorbing entertaining, but loosely connected, streams of images in an impressionistic way and are uneasy and anxious when given a major assignment in an exclusively written medium. Inexperienced in the systematic compilation and analysis of information, they often perform poorly. These students may appear to be unenthusiastic about their topics; in fact, they do badly because they are methodologically disoriented. They run aground while sailing in the unfamiliar seas of organized, sequential, linear logic. This problem often shows itself in the frequent, and frequently gratuitous, use of illustrations in research papers. Instructors often comment that 'students love pictures.' It would be more accurate to say that students understand pictures and are comfortable with them. The second difficulty is a by-product of the Web. Plagiarism has become so widespread that it poses a real threat to the academic enterprise. Yet its detection is both difficult and time-consuming, and an instructor must be on absolutely solid ground before bringing a student up on such serious charges. Furthermore, even if available, an expensive counter-plagiarism program such as Turnitin cannot always deliver conclusive evidence. Plagiarism must be addressed, but today, articles that existed previously only in print can be optically scanned, free essays are available online, and papers can be purchased and downloaded from numerous commercial outlets. We have addressed both of these problems by strategically using appropriate motion pictures as entrees into the subject matter and as points of comparison to help organize research papers. We first provide our students with a list of films that bear on relevant topics. http://tc.eserver.org/30856.html http://tc.eserver.org/30856.html As business communication instructors, we understand the value of helping students learn, discuss, apply, and manipulate communication strategies on the basis of purpose and audience. This rhetorical bent encourages active learning through activities and multipurpose projects, but active learning often works best when students believe they are engaging concepts that will be useful to them in the future. I learned two very important facts early in my first business communication courses, taught at Iowa State University: First, the majority of my students were required by their majors to take the course, and second, many dreaded or resented taking what they thought of as another boring, impractical, useless 'English' class. To help my students believe that communicating professionally is vital to success, I developed an interview project, completed early in the semester, that encourages students to see beyond their preconceptions while practicing a variety of communication skills with professionals in different workplaces. A Multiphase Interview Project Interview projects are not new in business communication courses but can be extremely effective in actively engaging students. In the multiphase assignment I've developed, students plan, coordinate, conduct, transcribe, and synthesize interviews with three acquaintances or family members who work in different organizations. http://tc.eserver.org/30849.html http://tc.eserver.org/30849.html As many teachers of communication come to realize, students often operate under the misconception that the effective use of language consists primarily of memorizing and applying the rules and regulations of grammar. Even worse, some students believe that they must inherit a talent for language and that without a genetic predisposition, they can never learn to use language well. Demonstrating otherwise isn't easy, but because good communication skills are crucial to success in a professional environment, teachers must attempt to do so. In Introduction to Technical and Scientific Communication, a course I teach at James Madison University, I have students complete a fairly traditional assignment in a somewhat nontraditional way, one that highlights the intricacies of effective communication in a context that students find accessible. A typical assignment for an introductory-level technical communication class requires students to write a set of instructions for a procedure they know well. This straightforward assignment is useful but rather uninspiring, not only because students have difficulty realistically defining the audience they're addressing but also because it's much too easy to tap into the already existing sea of instructions available on the Internet. I remembered an assignment from my days as a graduate student teaching freshman composition. The assignment, based on the rhetorical mode of process analysis, required students to create and explain a game generically called 'Student.' http://tc.eserver.org/30848.html http://tc.eserver.org/30848.html A primary goal of most introductory business and technical communication courses is to introduce students to the idea that the professional communication most of them will engage in is different from the writing they do for academic purposes. This overall idea covers several principles concerning professional writing. First, in an academic essay, a student may tell all he or she knows about a topic to an expert reader (the instructor); in professional writing situations, however, writers are most likely sharing only a small part of the information they know with nonexpert readers. Second, when writing in professional situations, writers must actively envision audiences different from themselves, audiences that will have different concerns and purposes than the writers do. Finally, the audience, purpose, and medium of a professional communication situation drive the choices a writer will make. If students are to understand these principles, discussing them in class is insufficient; students must also practice them. Implementing active learning that applies these principles authentically can be challenging. The makeup of many business and technical communication courses means that not all students share expertise in a given field that they can draw on for common assignments. Hypothetical assignments may not give students a deep sense of context, and students may continue to perceive the instructor as the real audience for such assignments. http://tc.eserver.org/30854.html http://tc.eserver.org/30854.html This article provides details about a comprehensive assignment for teaching sales letters in a business communication course. During the past 5 years, this assignment has evolved, moving beyond one that focused almost exclusively on strategies for making the letter persuasive, and therefore effective, to an expanded form that devotes time and attention to the ethics and visual rhetoric of the letter. In addition to composing a sales letter, each student is required to write a detailed, thoughtful analysis of the ethics and visual appeal of his or her letter. http://tc.eserver.org/30845.html http://tc.eserver.org/30845.html Teaching students to write persuasive messages is a critical feature of any undergraduate business communications course. For the persuasive writing module in my course, students write a persuasive message on the basis of the four-part indirect pattern often used for sales or fund-raising messages. The course text I use identifies these four components by their rhetorical functions: gain attention, build interest, reduce resistance, and motivate action. http://tc.eserver.org/30839.html http://tc.eserver.org/30839.html This article describes a holistic, discourse-based method for assessing the critical thinking skills of undergraduate senior-level finance majors. Rejecting a psychometric assessment approach in which component features of critical thinking are disaggregated, this study is based on a holistic scoring of student memos. Students were asked to recommend and justify a course of action to a lay client facing an ill-structured finance problem. Analysis of student memos reveals critical thinking weaknesses that may be ameliorated by changes in assignments or instructional methods. The memos reveal four kinds of critical thinking problems: (a) failure to address the client's problem, (b) random rather than purposeful application of finance tools and methodologies, (c) inability to translate finance concepts or methods into lay language, and (d) inability to construct rhetorically useful graphics. The curricular implications of this study are discussed. http://tc.eserver.org/30783.html http://tc.eserver.org/30783.html Looks at what it means to be professional as a technical writer, as a teacher, and as a student and explains how to teach professionalism in the classroom. http://tc.eserver.org/30761.html http://tc.eserver.org/30761.html As this issue of the journal goes to press, the Europe-wide professional bodies representing the Schools of Librarianship and Information Studies (EUCLID -- The European Association for Library and Information Education and Research) and the Library Associations (EBLIDA -- the European Bureau of Library, Information and Documentation Associations) will be meeting together for the rst time since they were both founded some 15 years ago. The meeting is intended to focus on the effects of profound social changes related to digitization, multiculturalism and the growth of the knowledge economy. http://tc.eserver.org/30698.html http://tc.eserver.org/30698.html As college instructors endeavor to integrate technology into their classrooms, the crucial question is, 'How does this integration affect learning?' This article reports an assessment of a series of online modules the author designed and piloted for a business communication course that she presented in a hybrid format (a combination of computer classroom sessions and independent online work). The modules allowed the author to use classroom time for observation of and individualized attention to the composing process. Although anecdotal evidence suggested that this system was highly effective, other assessment tools provided varying results. An anonymous survey of the students who took this course confirmed that the modules were effective in teaching important concepts; however, a blind review of student work produced mixed results. http://tc.eserver.org/30714.html http://tc.eserver.org/30714.html This paper reports findings from an exploratory study about how students majoring in humanities and social sciences use the Internet and library resources for research. Using student discussion groups, content analysis, and a student survey, our results suggest students may not be as reliant on public Internet sites as previous research has reported. Instead, students in our study used a hybrid approach for conducting course-related research. A majority of students leveraged both online and offline sources to overcome challenges with finding, selecting, and evaluating resources and gauging professors' expectations for quality research. http://tc.eserver.org/30717.html http://tc.eserver.org/30717.html This paper reports findings from an exploratory study about how students majoring in humanities and social sciences use the Internet and library resources for research. Using student discussion groups, content analysis, and a student survey, our results suggest students may not be as reliant on public Internet sites as previous research has reported. Instead, students in our study used a hybrid approach for conducting course-related research. A majority of students leveraged both online and offline sources to overcome challenges with finding, selecting, and evaluating resources and gauging professors' expectations for quality research. http://tc.eserver.org/30691.html http://tc.eserver.org/30691.html If you asked your students whether they'd rather listen to a lecture, take notes from PowerPoint slides, or work with classmates on a project, most would probably opt for the project. Although definitions vary, active learning strategies are classroom techniques that engage students with the subject they're studying by discussing it, writing about it, applying it in some meaningful context, or otherwise working it into the fabric of their own experience and prior knowledge. They become active creators of knowledge rather than passive recipients of information. http://tc.eserver.org/30725.html http://tc.eserver.org/30725.html This study investigates the influence of students' perceptions of task similarity/ difference on the transfer of writing skills. A total of 42 students from a freshman ESL writing course completed an out-of-class writing task. For half of the students, the subject matter of the writing task was designed to be similar to the writing course; for the other half, it was designed to be different. All students were also interviewed about the writing task. Reports of learning transfer were identified in the interview transcripts, and students' performances on the task and on a recent assignment from the course were assessed. Results indicate that the intended task similarity/difference (i.e., in subject matter) did not have the expected impact on learning transfer; however, students' perceptions of task similarity/difference did influence learning transfer. Implications of these findings for theory, practice, and future research are discussed. http://tc.eserver.org/30695.html http://tc.eserver.org/30695.html The most ambitious project of many undergraduate business communication courses is the formal report. This assignment typically requires the use of many writing skills nurtured throughout the course. Skills such as proper style, tone, organization, flow, and mechanics are enhanced through the writing of memos and various types of letters (persuasive, bad news, etc.). While these skills are all evident in a report, it is a much different kind of document. This synthesis of writing skills can be complemented by the integration of fundamental business subject knowledge. Both skill sets can be concurrently developed through business simulation report assignments, particularly in upper division business communication courses. Such courses are often required in business programs where students have already completed courses in business law, management, basic business statistics, and computer applications. Choosing an appropriate topic and scope for such a report writing assignment can be challenging. As offered in Business Communication Quarterly, many good assignments lend themselves to adoption, each with varying degrees of flexibility, coverage of current topics, and data analysis requirements. The following formal report assignment provides the opportunity to present a wide enough scope to integrate several business disciplines. http://tc.eserver.org/30692.html http://tc.eserver.org/30692.html Given that many doctoral programs do not provide extensive training on how to present course information in the classroom, the current paper looks to educational psychology theory and research for guidance. Richard Mayer and others' copious empirical work on effective and ineffective instructional design, along with relevant research findings in cognitive science, are summarized and adapted to the management education context. The goal of this article is to enhance instructors' ability to effectively relay course material and to offer specific advice for how instructors can implement prior research findings. http://tc.eserver.org/30722.html http://tc.eserver.org/30722.html To be effective, writers must understand what knowledge they share with the audience and what they do not. Achieving this understanding is made difficult by the knowledge effect--a tendency of individuals to assume that their own knowledge is shared by others. Understanding the knowledge effect and methods for reducing it is potentially useful for understanding and teaching writing. In Study 1, we explored the impact of an individual's knowledge of technical terms on that person's ability to estimate other people's understanding of those terms. We assessed how individuals' familiarity with technical terms influenced their predictions that college freshmen and college graduates would understand those terms. Results indicate that familiarity with the meaning of technical terms leads to substantial overestimation of others' knowledge. In Study 2, we evaluated an online tutor designed to improve writers' predictions of other's word knowledge by providing them with feedback on the accuracy of their judgments. http://tc.eserver.org/30723.html http://tc.eserver.org/30723.html This study reports about a yearlong study of the initiation of novice grant writers to the activity system of National Institutes of Health grant applications. It investigates the use of cognitive apprenticeship within writing classrooms and that of social apprenticeship in laboratories, programs, departments, and universities, which introduced students to the genre system of National Institutes of Health grant proposals and helped them in moving from peripheral participation to more central participation. While cognitive apprenticeship employs devices such as modeling, scaffolding, coaching, and collaboration to enhance learning in formal settings, social apprenticeship requires socialization, interaction, and collaboration with experts, colleagues, and peers in informal settings to acquire disciplinary knowledge and experiences. The study suggests that writing instructors should acknowledge and incorporate resources in other activity systems in which students participate, i.e., their laboratories and home departments, and teach genre systems rather than specific genres to better facilitate students' enculturation to activity systems of disciplinary discourse communities. http://tc.eserver.org/30598.html http://tc.eserver.org/30598.html Technical writing may be seen as a marginal activity without clear economic benefit to an organization. Yet writing and editing can be tied to an organization's bottom line. Writers can use training and other interventions to demonstrate their own effectiveness. Such interventions can raise the efficiency with which their organizations produce documents and improve the quality of the documents themselves. Customer-oriented organizations will be most receptive to these interventions, but even unreceptive organizations can change their practices. Successful interventions require working with others and will mean added responsibilities for the writer. http://tc.eserver.org/30572.html http://tc.eserver.org/30572.html Institutions of higher education often hire technical and business communicators on a part-time basis to teach professional and technical writing courses. This workshop prepares practitioners for teaching positions by offering practice planning syllabi for courses, developing and critiquing writing assignments, examining student writing and criticizing its strengths and weaknesses, testing and discussing strategies for handling the paper flow and effective time management, and consulting with two experienced professors who are also researchers in the field. Participants will work in small groups to examine real papers, real syllabi, and real problems. http://tc.eserver.org/30537.html http://tc.eserver.org/30537.html Most graduate students at the Air Force Institute of Technology's School of Logistics and Acquisition Management write their theses as a team project. However, the Institute has gathered no systematic information about how students manage their collaborative thesis-writing processes. This research gathers descriptive quantitative and qualitative data from 1992 graduates concerning how they composed the teem-authored thesis. In addition, this research extends the collective vocabulary concerning collaborative writing, particularly when applied in academic settings. http://tc.eserver.org/30542.html http://tc.eserver.org/30542.html Producing brochures for real clients teaches college-level technical writing students about constraints of cost, time, and the availability of materials. Brochure writing also provides opportunities for learning more about editing, collaborative work, document design, and the problems which may occur during the production of real documents. Brochures of good quality can be produced by a class in approximately three weeks, or nine classroom hours. Grading brochures is expedited through the use of a simple heuristic. http://tc.eserver.org/30548.html http://tc.eserver.org/30548.html With the growth of multimedia, design techniques to manage the contents and data structures for the media are becoming required We call this courseware in distinction from hardware or software, and we produce a production model by developing a uique technique not in imitation of the conventional ones using the following three points, layout, framework and linkage management. http://tc.eserver.org/30487.html http://tc.eserver.org/30487.html Responding to the concerns and issues we face, the workshops, panels, papers, discussions, and demonstrations in the Education, Training, and Professional Development Stem share common experiences, uncommon insights, and bold forecasts for the future to enlighten our community of technical communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/30500.html http://tc.eserver.org/30500.html How can business address a local shortage of competent technical communicators? Identifying and educating resources available within the community provides one solution. The intent of this paper is to give a brief account of a project that was undertaken jointly by participating businesses and the Dallas Community College System to address a shortage of technical communicators in the immediate area. http://tc.eserver.org/30524.html http://tc.eserver.org/30524.html Information theory began as a mathematical study of the process of communication. Originally associated with telecommunications, information theory proposes that information is the number of messages required to completely reduce the uncertainty of the situation. To apply this postulate to telecommunications, Shannon and Weaver developed a model which describes the communication system as a source formulating a message consisting of signals to be transmitted over a channel (where they are distorted by noise) to a receiver. http://tc.eserver.org/30432.html http://tc.eserver.org/30432.html The use of real materials in a technical writing class involves both advantages and drawbacks. Use of real materials makes the class relate well to the work environment, improves self-esteem, critical thinking, and student motivation. Drawbacks include the problem of finding materials, a lack of course continuity, a lessening of use of the class text, and legal implications. Overall, the use of real materials for classroom editing is recommended. http://tc.eserver.org/30391.html http://tc.eserver.org/30391.html Developing a strong student STC chapter is a challenging and rewarding experience. Those of us who are involved in this process can certainly benefit from sharing our ideas in a directed workshop atmosphere. Participants will exchange ideas and formulate working strategies for the development, maintenance, and growth of a student chapter. http://tc.eserver.org/30370.html http://tc.eserver.org/30370.html Creating and maintaining a high quality work environment that attracts and retains talented editors requires a commitment to excellence at all levels of a company or organization. A company dedicated to a nurturing work environment for its employees provides systematic training opportunities for professional growth. This paper describes how a company can meat its ongoing training needs for editors by offering formal and informal training programs and fostering learning at the group, department, division, and company levels. http://tc.eserver.org/30371.html http://tc.eserver.org/30371.html Style checkers are software programs designed as writing tools. Despite their popularity in both academic and industrial settings, the effectiveness and advisability of using the technology is still unproven. A main issue is the ability of users to determine whether the program's suggestions are useful and to ignore inappropriate advice. Freshmen composition students, beginning technical writing students, and advanced technical writing students were asked to mark all suggestions made by RightWriter 4.0 as 'useful,' 'wrong,' or 'ignored.' Results show that all students ignored approximately 50% of the suggestions; however, freshman writers perceived a larger percentage of the suggestions that they ignored to be wrong rather than just not useful. http://tc.eserver.org/30369.html http://tc.eserver.org/30369.html Addressing a department's learning requirements is a tough call because of the different levels of complexities and challenges involved. With learning requirements poorly understood and sometimes even out of sync with department goals, a majority of training programs fail to achieve any major business objectives. What you need is the right approach to develop, monitor and standardize a cost-effective, people and result-oriented training program that works magic for you and your department. http://tc.eserver.org/30352.html http://tc.eserver.org/30352.html Structure is a fundamental construct of mathematics. The field of discrete mathematics, in fact, is the foundation of data structures, upon which computer science is built. http://tc.eserver.org/30335.html http://tc.eserver.org/30335.html Whether one teaches business communication or technical writing (or some amalgam of the two), the first statements an instructor makes in class should be to apprise students that the course upon which they are embarking is but a specialty within a larger field of writing, that their courses in English composition, philosophy and survey of literature (and the papers written for those courses) will all apply to the specialized communication field they now must address. http://tc.eserver.org/30263.html http://tc.eserver.org/30263.html The electronic tools available in the technical communication classroom have increased in number and sophistication over the last decade. Our three panelists examine the implications to the classroom of virtual reality, E-mail, and 'the information superhighway.' http://tc.eserver.org/30233.html http://tc.eserver.org/30233.html To prepare today's students for the world of work, language arts curricula should include reading and writing about technical subjects as well as about works of literature. Many students have difficulty comprehending computer documentation, safety instructions, and product manuals. They are also ill prepared to do the kinds of writing and speaking required on the job. This panel will address the following topics, as well as others raised by the audience. http://tc.eserver.org/30235.html http://tc.eserver.org/30235.html This Progression Roundtable brings together leading experts (Dr. Karen A. Schriver, Dr. Russel Hirst, Dr. Susan D. Kleimann, Dr. Dianne Atkinson, Dr. Teresa C. Kynell, and Dr. David McMurrey) on academic programs in technical communication. The Roundtable focuses on existing and 'start-up' technical communication degree or certificate programs in community colleges and universities. Presenters will discuss issues such as curriculum development, marketing strategies, student chapters of STC, student and faculty internships, and linkages with industry. Information about existing programs will be made available to all participants. http://tc.eserver.org/30250.html http://tc.eserver.org/30250.html Corporate writing skills deficits may be minimized by effective technical writer training programs. One way to effect long-term writing improvement is to cast a skilled technical editor in the role of resident writing teacher. The successful editor-as-writing-teacher must confront personal writing processes and attitudes, develop a positive and trusting relationship with clients, develop writing assessment skills, analyze and understand the corporate culture and language, and keep abreast of new techniques and tools in writing education. Acquistion of these attributes and skills is a realistic goal for a seasoned technical communicator. http://tc.eserver.org/30251.html http://tc.eserver.org/30251.html Whether we are new or experienced technical communicators, formal and continuing education and training are vital for our careers. And the basis for much of our education and training is developed from research. http://tc.eserver.org/30254.html http://tc.eserver.org/30254.html A key element for the success of any business that operates in today's fast changing business environment is the optimization of communication and training resources. This is especially critical for a medical device company. The challenges of local language, culture, and regulations must be addressed by an iterative examination and adaptation of sales training and product literature to local needs. We developed strategies for planning, training, translating, producing, and implementing that provide our sales staff, physicians, and patients with useful product and therapy information. http://tc.eserver.org/30239.html http://tc.eserver.org/30239.html For years, technical employers have been lamenting: 'We want to hire employees who can communicate well with their co-workers, their supervisors, and the company's customers!' Now, a new course being taught in Canadian high schools will prepare students to do exactly that. The course has been developed by the Province of Manitoba, the first province to start teaching Technical Communication in the Canadian public school system. The curriculum has been pilot-tested for two years and the program goes full stream in September 1996. http://tc.eserver.org/30244.html http://tc.eserver.org/30244.html Technical communication instruction prepares high school students for success in the workplace and life-long learning. It prepares the community to compete for business opportunities with an articulate, flexible, and motivated workforce. To succeed for the greatest diversity of students, a techcom curriculum should be an integral part of solutions to larger problems of student reading and language deficits, overpopulated classrooms, inadequate teacher training and administrative support, and limited resources. Innovative teachers use their lesson plans to direct their greatest creative resource--their students--to learning and service to their schools and communities. http://tc.eserver.org/30163.html http://tc.eserver.org/30163.html Recent scandals in the business community have alerted professional writing teachers to the importance of highlighting ethics in the curriculum. From former experiences in teaching courses emphasizing ethics, the authors have adapted the curriculum to include a limited discussion of ethical approaches and terms and assigned group writing projects that consider the effects of business on the broader community. As a result of the integration of this ethical component into the entire course, students learn major ethical approaches; gain a vocabulary of ethical terms they can apply in the business world; interrogate the larger questions of business and its interactions with the local, national, and international community; and engage in the kind of dialectical discussions that require critical thinking. http://tc.eserver.org/30164.html http://tc.eserver.org/30164.html Critical thinking pedagogy offers a supportive environment for teaching ethics in the professional communication classroom. Four important aspects of critical thinking which particularly encourage ethical thought and behavior are identifying and questioning assumptions, seeking a multiplicity of voices and alternatives on a subject, making connections, and fostering active involvement. Focusing on these behaviors allows an ongoing incorporation of ethics into many different aspects of the classroom. http://tc.eserver.org/30167.html http://tc.eserver.org/30167.html This article shows how to move students from paper-bound text to hypertext. We explain why the web is an important new communication medium--with numbers and testimony to substantiate our opinion; discuss techniques for teaching web-page construction--samples, HTML coding, and document design; show how traditional resumes, proposals, manuals, and newsletters can go online in the classroom, and examine the benefits of teaching online documentation, including instant gratification, new skills, and problem-solving opportunities. http://tc.eserver.org/30168.html http://tc.eserver.org/30168.html This study examines the effects of acquaintance on performance ratings. Models of cognitive processes in performance rating support the expectation that raters will judge ratees with whom they are acquainted differently from ratees with whom they are not acquainted. To test that expectation, 104 Air Force officers enrolled in Master's Degree communication methods courses watched four video-taped briefings and rated each briefer's performance. This population more accurately represents supervisors in the work force than previous studies. Results show that raters more accurately rated those with whom they were acquainted. http://tc.eserver.org/30174.html http://tc.eserver.org/30174.html The International M.B.A. Program at the University of Memphis exemplifies corporate/educational cooperation. It focuses on international business theory and practice, excellent oral and written communication skills, computer skills, and a required internship in the student’s second language. Through the internship and other strategies, educators model the goal of working closely with industry to make students marketable in the global community. Both native and nonnative speakers of English master a second language in order to communicate effectively in international business settings. http://tc.eserver.org/30162.html http://tc.eserver.org/30162.html Rather than acting on less examined beliefs, I am personally comfortable acting on ethics that have been burnished by repeated polishing from my colleagues, community, and profession. Let us use our professional conferences and journals to further that conversation. http://tc.eserver.org/30175.html http://tc.eserver.org/30175.html Advanced technical communication students analyzed information about pediatric AIDS that was designed for dtrerent segments of the public. They then produced individual projects for local segments of the university and surrounding community. Through this assignment, students learned the importance of community standards in designing accurate and locally 'acceptable' communication about a difficult subject. http://tc.eserver.org/30176.html http://tc.eserver.org/30176.html A hypothetical 'technical writing machine' was created as an aid in teaching writers how to develop troubleshooting procedures. Students use a schematic diagram of the 'machine' to determine possible faults and their causes. They learn to consider factors such as reliability and support equipment requirements as they determine a fault isolation strategy and presentation format. The 'machine' eliminates the need for students to have specific system technical knowledge and allows them to concentrate on the techniques of writing troubleshooting procedures. http://tc.eserver.org/30177.html http://tc.eserver.org/30177.html With the increasing use of technological resources such as the Internet and World-wide Web, the concept of the 'virtual campus' where there is little or no face-to-face contact between colleagues is becoming commonplace. Students will be more attractive to potential employers if they are ready for this environment prior to graduation. To prepare students for this challenge, educators must work to ensure technical communication programs remain current with the technology field. Knowledgeable educators and up-to-date programs will produce graduates that are adequately prepared to enter the professional workforce. http://tc.eserver.org/30178.html http://tc.eserver.org/30178.html Employees, whether they are hourly workers on a manufacturing line, salaried supervisors, or owners of their own businesses, often need to develop newsletters, make presentations, create WWW Home pages, and communicate via e-mail. Therefore, students enrolled in professional writing courses need to acquire skills in manipulating desktop publishing and presentation software, hypertext and multimedia authoring programs, programs that display numerical data graphically, and programs that integrate graphics onto a Web Home Page. However; the visual displays that the generation raised with Nintendo's Mario Brothers prefer differ from those of the textbooks. They are more glitzy, colorful, and busy. http://tc.eserver.org/30181.html http://tc.eserver.org/30181.html Many students enter the workplace technologically under-prepared. Too many technical communication classrooms still do not strike a balance between the pen and paper environment and the use of technology. Educators must recognize computer literacy as a legitimate form of literacy that must be taught to our students. To bridge the gap between indusby and the classroom, educators must create assignments that mimic electronic communication used in corporate settings. http://tc.eserver.org/30183.html http://tc.eserver.org/30183.html While chemistry faculty agree that writing is an important professional skill, few know how to teach it. They lack a strategy for incorporating writing into their courses, skill in designing eflective writing assignments, and knowledge of evaluation methods. Our practical manual, funded by the Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation and the College of Arts and Sciences of the University of Tennessee Knoxville, will provide chemistry and other science faculty with these skills along with a set of ready-to-use assignments for their courses. The manual will allow chemistry faculty to teach writing purposefully and effectively, focusing on the scientific content while systematically developing this all-important skill. http://tc.eserver.org/30143.html http://tc.eserver.org/30143.html Students can earn Master's degrees or continuing education certificates by at tending courses offered live satellite or compressed video or on videotape for delayed viewing. This panel discussion evaluates the effects of the various forms of technology and modes of interaction on the classroom dynamics in a live satellite class offered by Rensselaer Polytechnic institute (RPI). http://tc.eserver.org/30137.html http://tc.eserver.org/30137.html The Engineering Writing sequence at the University of California, Santa Barbara, teaches fundamental college writing and research skills emphasizing the discourse and genres common to professional engineering. The first quarter emphasizes library, electronic-database, and literature-type searches, culminating in a literature review on a current technological topic. The second quarter integrates primary research and interviewing with the above, while the students design solutions to actual university building and plant resource problems. The third quarter involves advanced issues of document design and publication, as students post web sites not only pertinent to this year's theme, Engineering and the Environment, but also useful to the local community. http://tc.eserver.org/30149.html http://tc.eserver.org/30149.html The results of a Motorola human resources survey revealed an inadequate procedure for selecting training programs pertinent to specific job functions and individual career aspirations. A cross-functional team was formed to remedy the situation within one division. The team selected skill and knowledge criteria for career paths (early, middle, and late) in specific technical disciplines, such as applications engineering, technical communications, applications support, etc. The new training database also includes training, book, and article evaluations that other employees can review. In addition, the database provides access to the Motorola University training catalog and the Motorola technical libraries. http://tc.eserver.org/30150.html http://tc.eserver.org/30150.html An increasing number of articles are appearing in communications journals calling for the need for instruction in new technology in the classroom. However, there are several obstacles in integrating new technology, such as Iack of teacher experience, lack of equipment, and adjusting the curriculum. To successfully integrate new technology into the curriculum, technical communication educators need to cooperate with other departments, make themselves available for training, and decide on which courses will integrate which technologies. http://tc.eserver.org/30151.html http://tc.eserver.org/30151.html The evolving roles of technical communicators threaten the comfortable assumptions of many educators who see themselves as primarily writing teachers. These threats can become opportunities if we perceive ourselves as participants in the evolving paradigms. This new perception requires significant interaction with colleagues. As we start to see ourselves as collaborators at work, in education, across disciplines and boundaries, we can make larger contributions and can enjoy greater professional recognition. Technical communicators can be partners with engineering faculty in developing innovative curricula; can achieve educational objectives by becoming partners with industry and practitioners; and can lead the shift in education through instructional technology. http://tc.eserver.org/30153.html http://tc.eserver.org/30153.html Teaching non-writers how to write can be challenging, especially when they are adults using new software to do their jobs. But who knows best how to write about their jobs than the end users. Through field experiences and case studies, this paper describes methods and approaches for eflectively including the end user in the documentation process, as well as educating experienced writers who are new to the system. http://tc.eserver.org/30128.html http://tc.eserver.org/30128.html Even the most confident writers may panic when they are asked to teach a writing class for their company. Ensure success with this basic tenet of adult education: Teach what the learners want to know. The second tenet follows: Don't teach any more than the learners need to know. Focus on three to five writing problems you see within your company. Use a 'teach and do' method: Teach a topic, such as passive voice, then do an exercise to practice what you have just taught. Adults like hands-on writing experience, and they like to work as teams to analyze problematic writing. Provide handouts that participants can use later, and include resources for future reference. Get evaluations from the participants so that you can improve with each subsequent workshop. And don't forget to order the donuts! http://tc.eserver.org/30096.html http://tc.eserver.org/30096.html Burnout has been identified as a significant issue among those in instructional positions. The purpose of the present research was to identify and describe the status of burnout among higher education online instructors. The population for this study included responses of 76 online instructors employed by baccalaureate granting institutions within the United States. A demographic survey and the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Educators Survey (MBI-ES) were used to collect data from respondents. Data analysis revealed online instructors possessed an average score on the emotional exhaustion subscale, high degree of depersonalization, and low degree of personal accomplishment. http://tc.eserver.org/30097.html http://tc.eserver.org/30097.html There has been a remarkable improvement in access and rate of adoption of technology in higher education. Even so, reports indicate that faculty members are not integrating technology into instruction in ways that make a difference in student learning. To help faculty make informed decisions on student learning, there is need for current knowledge of faculty integration practices. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to examine the nature of the relationship between faculty integration of technology into classroom instruction and students' perceptions of the effect of computer technology to improve their learning. A sample of at least 800 undergraduate students at a participating medium-sized midwest public university was selected using a stratified random sampling technique. The researcher delivered and administered the surveys to the participating students and collected them after completion. 98% of the questionnaires were complete and retained for analysis. http://tc.eserver.org/30086.html http://tc.eserver.org/30086.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/30090.html http://tc.eserver.org/30090.html To teach technical writing effectively, technical writing teachers should know enough about their students' fields to understand what their students write and help them learn how to write appropriately for non-academic audiences. This paper discusses the need for additional preparation to teach technical writing. It presents the results of an informal survey of science and business faculty, identifying resources teachers can use to learn basic concepts in science and business. Also, the paper considers the value of such a survey in developing writing assignments and rapport with faculty whose majors take technical writing courses. http://tc.eserver.org/29922.html http://tc.eserver.org/29922.html To date, STC has not been very aggressive or innovative in terms of electronic delivery of educational content to our members or others in the profession. Aside from telephone seminars/Webinars and the online availability of articles from Intercom and the journal, the Society has largely ignored the methods that its members, their companies, and other professional organizations are using to deliver content to stakeholders. Because only a fraction of the membership attends the annual conference and regional/chapter conferences, and because the Society is attempting to reach out to members of the profession outside North America, it is imperative that STC pursue other means of offering educational opportunities. By truly leveraging the power of the Web and other emerging technologies, STC can address a worldwide audience and provide significant educational offerings to members and prospective members alike. http://tc.eserver.org/29904.html http://tc.eserver.org/29904.html This study explored the usability of an online tutorial in a diverse community of users at a major Midwestern university. The analysis of data revealed a significant difference between American and international users in such usability components as learnability, memorability, and number errors; however, no difference was found in the users' satisfaction rate. The difference in usability may suggest that the online product's effectiveness is largely dependent on background of the audience; therefore, online education may require additional adjustments to fit the needs of a diverse community. http://tc.eserver.org/29906.html http://tc.eserver.org/29906.html A report on the use of pocket PCs in a document design course and a graduate course researching the emerging technology of handhelds. http://tc.eserver.org/29887.html http://tc.eserver.org/29887.html This paper describes how undergraduate students at Mercer University designed and performed hands-on usability tests on seven different products from a wide range of outside clients. Though the projects were challenging and quite difficult for undergraduates, they resulted in significant learning for students and important usability data for the clients. The professor describes the course design and discusses the clients and projects, and three undergraduates report their experiences serving on project teams as project leader, usability specialist, and technical specialist. http://tc.eserver.org/29890.html http://tc.eserver.org/29890.html The purpose of this paper is to help educators and trainers design realistic working environments for team writing assignments and, thus, to prepare students to function on high-performance teams in the workplace. This paper describes differences and similarities between academic and industrial team working environments. It focuses on the kinds of tasks teams are asked to perform, the time and other constraints under which teams operate, the types of considerations that go into selecting people to participate in a team, the members' expectations about teamwork, the rewards used to recognize effective teamwork, and the role of the manager or course instructor. This paper offers suggestions to address some of the key challenges. http://tc.eserver.org/29891.html http://tc.eserver.org/29891.html The demands of former students, of industry, and of the accreditation board have prompted the engineering education community to investigate the integration of communication proficiencies into the four-year engineering curriculum. While much literature has been devoted to this task in the last several years, the engineering communication programs at most institutions can be described as employing either a peripheral or diffuse model to offer technical communication instruction. Each of these models is problematic. This article describes a novel 'hybrid' engineering communication education model under development at NC State University that is vertically integrated and discipline conscious. http://tc.eserver.org/29892.html http://tc.eserver.org/29892.html This article provides a review and analysis of asynchronous chat sessions used by students to produce a collaborative formal proposal in an undergraduate technical communication service course at Bowling Green State University. The author/investigator reviewed archived chat sessions of the two most successful student groups and compared their experience to the conclusions drawn by a previous study on collaborative writing in the virtual classroom. The current study represents an initial exploratory attempt to replicate and/or refute the results of the prior study. http://tc.eserver.org/29893.html http://tc.eserver.org/29893.html This study uses an online survey of technical communication educators to examine trends in the technical writing service course with regard to web design. Participants for the study were representatives of programs in technical communication in four-year institutions of higher education throughout the United States. The study contributes to research into the function of the technical writing service course in the current technological climate. Identifying trends is one component in an evaluation that will aid effective evolution of this significant course. http://tc.eserver.org/29898.html http://tc.eserver.org/29898.html What do those who teach technical communication think about the present state of the field? How do they envision its future? This article answers those and related questions by presenting results from a survey of technical communication teachers in higher education. The Web-delivered survey was administered in 2003 by the author in collaboration with Stephen Bernhardt (University of Delaware). The data we analyzed came from 228 members of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW), almost half of the organization's members. Among the respondents were 185 teaching faculty. These teachers' diverse views about the future of technical communication reflect a fundamental fault line within the academic sphere of our discipline. http://tc.eserver.org/29901.html http://tc.eserver.org/29901.html Technical writing classes can be excellent launch pads for students to begin the journey of discovering what IA is and how it works. Following instructional design principles, educators must first determine what students know about IA and guide learners to what they need to know. This journey can begin by defining IA using the rich resources that exist in print and on the web. Following this, students are introduced to IA authorities, many of whom have tutorials posted on the web. The learning culminates in case histories that ask students to learn IA principles and apply them as part of a written critical analysis of web sites that is also part of an oral presentation. http://tc.eserver.org/29886.html http://tc.eserver.org/29886.html The conviction that writing can be improved with a knowledge of grammar has prevailed for quite a long time. But research has shown no correlation between grammatical knowledge and writing ability. http://tc.eserver.org/29827.html http://tc.eserver.org/29827.html One way to resolve some of the conflict in English studies and technical communication over their diminishing cultural capital is to recognize the place of instrumental discourse in communication studies. Instrumental discourse is individually verified social agreements to coordinate and control physical actions. One purpose of literary works is to voice new concerns about social inequities. A purpose of rhetoric is to persuade others of the validity of those concerns. Instrumental discourse registers agreements about those concerns and brings them to temporary closure in laws, instructions, contracts, and constitutions. Instrumental discourse is the culmination of a process that often begins with a literary monolog, is continued in many rhetorical dialogs, and ends, for a while, in a chorus of approval. Each phase of this communication process--monolog, dialog, and chorus--has a place in English studies. If more English studies faculty would recognize the need to study the communications that promote dissensus and consensus, then they might contribute more to global discussions about social justice, cooperation, and sustainability, and they might gain more cultural capital and social influence. http://tc.eserver.org/29825.html http://tc.eserver.org/29825.html While research in international technical communication has flourished during the last 10 years, there has been little published on technical communication programs outside the United States. This article addresses this need by describing 12 representative academic technical communication programs in Germany, including Germany's first master's degree program. While there are no statistics on the number of technical communicators working in Germany, tekom (Gesellschaft für technische Kommunikation), the German professional society for technical communication, estimates roughly 4,400 members. While German academic programs in technical communication share many features with their counterparts in the United States, German academic programs do stress internships, foreign language study, and study abroad exchange programs more than technical communication programs in the United States. http://tc.eserver.org/29823.html http://tc.eserver.org/29823.html Students in business communication classes are expected to write various types of documents. Research has illustrated that undergraduate student writing skills have not improved even though most states have begun writing proficiency tests at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. By the time students enroll in college, students are expected to be proficient writers. In some cases, this is true. In far too many cases, students continue to need writing development. In business communication classes, these weaknesses cannot be ignored. This article's purpose is to give guidance to instructors to motivate their students to produce better written products. The difficulty is how to do this most effectively. The authors present some ideas on how to improve student writing through some creative teaching and evaluation strategies. http://tc.eserver.org/29824.html http://tc.eserver.org/29824.html This study examines the skills that recent technical communication graduates and managers believe technical communication students need before entering business and industry as new technical communicators. Through questionnaires and interviews with recent graduates and managers of technical communication departments as well as an analysis of the participating schools' curricula, this study suggests areas where technical communication may need more preparation, including business operations, project management, problem-solving skills, and scientific and technical knowledge. Further research is needed at local, state, and national levels to analyze technical communication undergraduate curricula along with responses from recent graduates of technical communication programs and managers of technical communication programs. Only through continued research can we ensure that future technical communicators receive an education that eases their transition into the world of business and industry. http://tc.eserver.org/29826.html http://tc.eserver.org/29826.html This article argues that the small school context has been a relatively unexamined or under-examined context for technical and professional communication program development. While graduate program development holds a large share of the field's attention in recent national forums, growth in graduate programs is a consequence of demand in the job market among mostly "teaching" schools. Thus, the field must consider how well we are socializing new Ph.D.s into the values and the real work of institutions where they will find employment. Toward this end, this article articulates three mediating forces of program development in the liberal arts and humanities settings of small schools: 1) interdisciplinarity and flexibility are lived dynamics of small schools; 2) the campus-wide privileging of writing and communication skills presents ongoing opportunities for curricular initiatives and program development; and 3) compression of decision-making structures leads to more involvement of/with administrators and units across campus. http://tc.eserver.org/29803.html http://tc.eserver.org/29803.html This study examines a paradox in findings regarding the effects of media literacy training on adolescents' decision making about tobacco use. Recent experiments have found that media literacy training successfully reduced participants' beliefs associated with risky behavior, whereas at the same time, their positive affect toward individuals portrayed in advertising increased. Study results confirm the hypothesis that media literacy training changes the way individuals think about the desirability of portrayals in the media. Although desirability usually represents individuals' affect toward portrayals, reports gathered after media literacy training also appear to reflect participants' increased awareness of the efforts made by advertisers to produce attractive portrayals designed to sell products and services. This awareness reduces or eliminates the impact that positive affect otherwise would have on decision making. Because this analysis suggests that individuals may respond to survey questions differently depending on their level of skill or involvement, the results raise important issues regarding issues of reliability and validity that may extend well beyond tests of this theoretical model or particular evaluation. http://tc.eserver.org/29768.html http://tc.eserver.org/29768.html This paper overviews a discipline-specific educational technology assistance program titled Digital Language and Literacy, which links technologically literate graduate students in English with faculty developing online courses for the first time. Such models not only help with online course design but also help to establish technological and pedagogical learning communities among current and future faculty. http://tc.eserver.org/29730.html http://tc.eserver.org/29730.html Online courseware is being simultaneously hailed and criticized by experts and learners. We're succeeding in delivery and accessibility, but failing in interactivity and interest. What makes online courseware work? This article looks at how online course authors engage their audiences. What kinds of interactivity are successful in Web-based courses? This article reviews strategies for pulling learners into scenarios, encouraging experimentation, and using gaming techniques in e-learning. This article also glimpses into the world of m-learning on a handheld device. http://tc.eserver.org/30291.html http://tc.eserver.org/30291.html Trainers and others in the professional development field have a dual mission (among other responsibilities): to identify written 'coffee stains' and, equally important, to find and use as many effective approaches as possible to get the word out to the largest number of users. http://tc.eserver.org/29629.html http://tc.eserver.org/29629.html This paper presents an analysis of the various textual and visual ways that emotions are typically communicated in online learning environments. It also looks at the importance (and limitations) of both verbal and nonverbal online communication from the perspective of Daniel Goleman’s concept of “emotional intelligence.” Descriptions of three case studies demonstrate situations that involve emotionally-based student-instructor interactions that could have become problematic without the instructor’s awareness of the actual emotional issues involved. The paper concludes with a set of recommended guidelines for instructors addressing emotions in online learning situations. http://tc.eserver.org/29637.html http://tc.eserver.org/29637.html As increasing numbers of multinational corporations, consultants, universities, and instructional designers create Internet-based learning (IBL) courses or require courses to be taken via the Internet, not all are aware of the need to adjust their design expectations and assumptions due to cross-cultural considerations involved in such online courses. Eight critical considerations discussed in this paper include the following: language, culture, technical infrastructure, local/global perspective, learning styles, reasoning patterns, high/low context communication, and social context. Recommendations are listed for low-context designers to design with more cultural sensitivity for global learners and also for high- context learners who take low-context IBL courses. http://tc.eserver.org/29643.html http://tc.eserver.org/29643.html STC supports students through scholarships, the honor fraternities, and recognition of student chapter achievements. STC members provide a network for information and contacts for employment. The academic community can strengthen its ties to STC by encouraging students to apply for the awards and recognitions and to take advantage of the network of professionals. http://tc.eserver.org/29652.html http://tc.eserver.org/29652.html This paper reports on some disconnects between best practice teaching principles about user analysis and actual student practice. This research documents the facts of these disconnects and indicates some of their causes. Recommendations for academia and industry are offered. stereotypes to derive a model of audience. To what extent, however, does principle inform practice? http://tc.eserver.org/29864.html http://tc.eserver.org/29864.html This article, as well as the conference presentation, recounts the trials, tribulations, and ultimate triumph of a dedicated research team in the Orlando Chapter and at the University of Central Florida who parlayed an $8K STC Special Opportunities grant into 55 minutes of fully narrated, animated multimedia in support of the chapter’s and the Society’s outreach initiative to secondary education. The grant was performed by current and former technical communication students at UCF, under the oversight of Dr. Dan Jones and Dan Voss. Four research assistants contributed to the project: Cindy Hauptner, Bob Stultz, Suzanne Shomate, and John Donovan. Cindy and Bob created the immortal Shanna the Hip and Dan the Nerd. http://tc.eserver.org/29865.html http://tc.eserver.org/29865.html Freshman engineering students are bombarded with classes in chemistry, physics, math and other highly technical and demanding courses. This intense schedule leaves little time for learning other important subjects critical to future engineers such as ethics and professionalism. The College of Engineering and the Writing Program at the University of California Santa Barbara offer a unique sequence of courses that meet general education requirements while also addressing the development of ethics and professionalism in future engineers by using a combination of case studies, practical applications and readings. http://tc.eserver.org/29875.html http://tc.eserver.org/29875.html This paper presents the results of a study that contributes to our understanding of how to conduct and manage usability in the workplace. The study’s participants provided the dual perspective of practitioners working in industry and who are simultaneously enrolled in graduate studies. Recommendations for industry and academia are offered. The results have implications for helping technical communication professionals prepare for their expanding role in user-centered design. http://tc.eserver.org/29876.html http://tc.eserver.org/29876.html Because of the increase of fully online courses within the University setting, educators need to look more deeply at the teacher and student readiness and success in these environments. Assessment measures, such as self-assessments of technological comfort and online-specific course evaluations can assist with this examination. I will focus this discussion on observations and collection of interview data at Bowling Green State University using second semester fully online writing courses. http://tc.eserver.org/30286.html http://tc.eserver.org/30286.html The Research and Technology stem offers 47 sessions in the areas of usability, online documentation, hypertext and multimedia, the Internet, advancing technology, and academic research--including a few miscellaneous topics. As much as possible, the sessions in each area have been scheduled in different time slots. http://tc.eserver.org/29882.html http://tc.eserver.org/29882.html Adult learners in the online classroom present new challenges for educational institutions and instructors. Often instructors create the online course by copying course syllabi, content, and assignments to the online course website. Along with the using the same content, instructors try to adapt their current pedagogical practices to the online classroom. This paper explores the aspects of adult learning in an online environment, discusses how it differs from the traditional educational environment, and offers suggestions for facilitating a successful online classroom for the adult learner. http://tc.eserver.org/29687.html http://tc.eserver.org/29687.html The author shares some stories from her own life that may be useful in helping Web page designers and product developers better understand issues surrounding low vision, hearing loss, and mobility restrictions using her 'art of accommodation.' In this article, she discusses this art as it applies to seven areas: (1) reading structural cues and wayfinding, (2) multimedia, (3) graphics, (4) text design and visual threshold, (5) contrast, (6) glare and size of electronic displays, and (7) mobility. http://tc.eserver.org/29690.html http://tc.eserver.org/29690.html It, perhaps, may not be an exaggeration to say that the words 'Technical Communication' and 'Technical Writing' became familiar to Indians only in the late Eighties. As the software companies in India started hiring writers for their counterparts in the US and Europe, there was new demand for a specialized breed of writers. The authors felt that to ensure there was a steady supply of trained writers, a structured training program on the subject was vital. This paper takes a look at the involvement of the authors, the industry, and teaching methodology employed in a course on Technical Writing offered by an Indian University. http://tc.eserver.org/29540.html http://tc.eserver.org/29540.html Many engineering undergraduates receive their first and perhaps most intensive exposure to engineering communication through writing lab reports in lab courses taught by graduate teaching assistants (TAs). Most of the TAs' teaching of writing happens through their comments on students' lab reports. Technical writing faculty need to be aware of TAs' response practices so they can build on or counteract that instruction as needed. This study examines the response practices of two TAs and the ways the practices shifted after the TAs began using a grading rubric. The analysis reveals distinct patterns in focus and mode, some reflecting best practices and some not. It also indicates encouraging changes after the TAs started using the grading rubric. The TAs' marginalia became more content focused and specific and, perhaps most important, less authoritative and more likely to reflect a coaching mode. The article concludes with implications for technical writing courses. http://tc.eserver.org/29539.html http://tc.eserver.org/29539.html Scholarly conversation within the field of professional communication increasingly has focused on the practice, research, and pedagogy of visual rhetoric. Yet, visual thinking has received relatively little attention within the field. If our programs produce students who can think verbally but not visually, they risk producing writers who are visual technicians but are unable to move fluidly between and within modes of communication. This article examines the literature and pedagogical practices of visually oriented disciplines to identify strategies for helping students develop the ambidexterity of thought needed for the communication tasks of today's workplace. http://tc.eserver.org/29468.html http://tc.eserver.org/29468.html Wiley shares the components of a quality system in higher education and offers examples of quality-management efforts undertaken by institutions of higher education. http://tc.eserver.org/29460.html http://tc.eserver.org/29460.html New approaches in e-learning are stretching boundaries in exciting and game-changing ways. Find out about one of the newest ideas--work-embedded e-learning--that integrates learning materials directly into the work environment. http://tc.eserver.org/29378.html http://tc.eserver.org/29378.html English departments, eager to boost enrollment, may press teachers into duty teaching technical writing courses on short notice and with little preparation. http://tc.eserver.org/29377.html http://tc.eserver.org/29377.html Let's resist seduction by the mythologies of teaching and keep our grasp on the realities of learning. http://tc.eserver.org/29379.html http://tc.eserver.org/29379.html Recommends in-service training programs, including summer institutes and monthly workshops, to teach technical writing techniques to literature-trained English teachers who have plunged into unknown waters. http://tc.eserver.org/29283.html http://tc.eserver.org/29283.html Over the past 14 years blogging has evolved from crude and blunt internet ramblings, technical or inspired dialogues to a diverse and creative web phenomenon capable of calling the world's media to scrutiny, and no longer the province of late-night diarists but increasingly a platform and media release opportunity for industry and commerce. http://tc.eserver.org/29281.html http://tc.eserver.org/29281.html With already over three times the number of mobile phones on the planet than desktop or portable computers the Web was destined to go mobile. For developers versed in standards-compliant markup the most immediate and obvious opportunity to render an existing site for the mobile web is via a the addition of and alternate stylesheet. http://tc.eserver.org/29261.html http://tc.eserver.org/29261.html Learning style refers to your natural preference for having new ideas and information conveyed to you. It does not mean that you can't learn in other ways, only that you have a particular manner that suits you best. When things are not presented in your preferred method, it can become frustrating for both you and your instructor as you struggle to understand concepts which seem to be clearly within your grasp. http://tc.eserver.org/29248.html http://tc.eserver.org/29248.html This paper presents a summary of the results of several relatively large studies which attempted statistical analysis of audit trails created by learners accessing information in typical hypermedia or hypertext learning environments, and interpreted them in relation to learner characteristics and study tasks. Significant differences in the information access strategy, amount of information accessed, student estimates of achievement and knowledge outcome were observed between learners in these studies. This paper concluded that some learners may be systematically disadvantaged where support for (or the delivery of) the curriculum depends on hypermedia, such as via a networked learning environment delivered passively over the WWW. It is suggested that the audit tools available from the WWW provide an opportunity to develop multi-discipline evaluation mechanisms which may enable researchers to provide learners with standard 'learning profiles' with which to reflect on their own learning effectiveness when using hypermedia educational materials. http://tc.eserver.org/29223.html http://tc.eserver.org/29223.html Instructors in multi-major professional communication courses are asked to teach students a variety of workplace genres. However, teaching genres apart from their contexts may not result in transfer of knowledge from school to workplace settings. We propose teaching students to research genre use via activity theory as a way of encouraging transfer. We outline theory and research relevant to teaching genre and provide results from a study using activity theory to teach genre in two different professional communication courses. http://tc.eserver.org/29215.html http://tc.eserver.org/29215.html Technical communication practices have been changed dramatically by the increasingly ubiquitous nature of digital technologies. Yet, while those who work in the profession have been living through this dramatic change, our academic discipline has been moving at a slower pace, at times appearing quite unsure about how to proceed. This article focuses on the following three areas of opportunity for change in our discipline in relation to digital technologies: access and expectations, scholarship and community building, and accountability and partnering.