A Peircian Approach to Professional Ethics Instruction      

Registered Professional Engineers (PEs) in most states have a continuing professional development requirement that specifies that in addition to taking a certain number of short courses in their area of technical competence each year, PEs must also take a professional ethics refresher course at least once every two years. Because the PEs in these ethics courses are forced to attend and because the subject matter is often perceived as legalistic, repetitive, and unnecessary, these courses tend to elicit less-than-enthusiastic responses from participants. Furthermore, since the duration of these courses (1 or 2 hours) is so short, it is difficult to give a meaningful treatment of the very broad field of ethics and also apply it to real-world ethical situations in the time frame allotted.

Chambers, Terrence L. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication (2001). Articles>Education>Ethics

The Perception of Communication Related Value-Added Educational Activities: A Survey of Graduate Business Students    

The purpose of this article is to evaluate value-add methods and activities applied to organizational communication college-level course work. Graduate organizational communication faculty are aware that their classes serve as direct preparation for students entering business and professional careers. The knowledge learned and the skills acquired in these communication classes are abilities that students take with them to the career marketplace. As such, instructors look for ways to extend the boundaries of the classroom beyond the text and traditional instruction. Faculty believe that each method selected adds value to the educational experiences of students. However, do these methods and activities truly add value to the educational experience as the instructors hope they will? Furthermore, are specific programs more valuable than others?

Barker, Randolph T. and Robert H. Stowers. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Business Communication>Education

Performance, Education, and Experience Factors as Predictors of Writing Ability  

A study of approximately 600 students at the Air Force Institute of Technology compared performance, education, and experience factors--as stated by the students themselves--to scores achieved by students on objective and essay writing tests. Performance factors included undergraduate grade point average (GPA), Graduate Record Examination (GRE), and Graduate Management Admission Test (GMT) scores. Education factors included the student’s undergraduate major, the number of English composition courses completed, and length of time out of school. Experience factors included the amount of writing accomplished in previous job assignments, on-the-job writing instruction, and the individual’s assessment of his or her writing skills.

Vaughan, David K. and Darrin E. Farr. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Writing

The Peter Effect in Early Experimental Education Research    

One of the signatures of scientific writing is its ability to present the claims of science as if they were "untouched by human hands." In the early years of experimental education, researchers achieved this by adopting a citational practice that led to the sedimentation of their cardinal method, the analysis of variance, and their standard for statistical significance, 0.05. This essentially divorces their statistical framework from its historical conditions of production. Researchers suppressed their own agency through the use of passive voice and nominalization. With their own agency out of the way, they imbued the methods, results, and presentational devices themselves with the active agency of the situation through the use of personification. Such a depiction creates the impression that the researchers and audience stand on equal epistemic ground as interested witnesses to the autonomous activity of a third party, the method, which churns out the brute facts of science.

Little, Joseph. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>Research>Statistics>Education

Picture Perfect: Selecting Graphics for Instruction  

Discusses some principles for choosing appropriate graphics for instructional materials.

Lyons, Chopeta C. Intercom (1995). Articles>Education>Presentations>Visual Rhetoric

Picturing Work: Visual Projects in the Writing Classroom  

Composition faces the daunting task of promptly translating its theories into pedagogical strategies and often these teaching experiences lead to new questions for scholarship.

Kuhn, Virginia. Kairos (2005). Articles>Education>Writing

Placing Technical Communication at the Border of Service-Learning, Democratic Citizenship. and Corporate Interest  

What happens when we adapt the paradigm of service learning, which traditionally serves the underprivileged or nonprofits, to for-profit clients?

Williams, Sean D. and Renee Love. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Service Learning

Planning a Community: The Value of Online Learning Communities in Technical Communication  

Businesspeople, faculty, and students can participate in learning communities in a variety of ways. Online learning communities provide benefits to individuals and the group, even if a community uses only low-tech communication tools. Learning communities are important because they create a human connection often missing in our Internet communication and allow people from diverse locations and backgrounds to share information and experiences. Effective learning communities celebrate diversity and create a supportive environment for members working toward a common goal.

Porter, Lynnette R. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Communication>Collaboration

Planning and Running a Computer Lab for Writing: A Survival Manual

Increasingly, English teachers, their departments, and their administrations have been investigating the use of word processing and computer aids in writing. For those who integrate computer use into instruction, the question of access becomes crucial. Although some schools—like Carnegie Mellon and Drexel—solve this question by requiring their students to purchase computers, most colleges and universities are providing access, at least in part, through on-campus computer labs. On some campuses, the English department or writing center plays a significant role in establishing and running a computer lab for writing and may even have primary responsibility for doing so. Many of us, however, have had no training that prepares us for the technical and administrative problems involved in such an undertaking.

Schwartz, Helen J. ADE Bulletin (1987). Articles>Education>Writing

Plural Authorship and the Thesis: What Graduate Students Tell Us About Collaborative Writing  

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.

Rice, Rodney P. and John T. Huguley, Jr. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Writing>Collaboration

Portrait of a Maturing Department    

The University of Arkansas at Little Rock's Department of Rhetoric and Writing has been an independent department since 1993. When we left the English Department, the writing programs -- composition, the shared B.A. program in Professional and Technical Writing, and the M.A. program in Technical and Expository Writing -- naturally came with us. What we didn't have was a developmental vision of a program.

L'Eplattenier, Barbara, Betty Freeland, Cindy Nahrwold, Karen Kuralt and Susann Barr. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Technical Writing

Postgraduate Program in Technical Communication at the Danube University Krems

Multilingual aspects play a major role in Technical Communication. This involves translating and editing texts, developing multilingual terminology and generally coping with the challenges posed by intercultural communication.

Risku, Hanna. TC-FORUM (2000). Articles>Education>Localization

PowerPoint-Based Lectures in Business Education: an Empirical Investigation of Student-Perceived Novelty and Effectiveness    

The use of PowerPoint (PPT)-based lectures in business classes is prevalent, yet it remains empirically understudied in business education research. The authors investigate whether students in the contemporary business classroom view PPT as a novel stimulus and whether these perceptions of novelty are related to students' self-assessment of learning. Results indicate that the degree of novelty that undergraduate business students associate with PPT-based teaching significantly relates to their perceptions of PPT's impact on cognitive learning and classroom interaction. Students' views of PPT as a novel stimulus are also associated with their perception of specific constructive and dysfunctional classroom behaviors and attitudes. The authors discuss their findings and offer implications for instructors and researchers in business education.

Burke, Lisa A. and Karen E. James. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Education>Presentations>Microsoft PowerPoint

Practicing Professional Communication Principles by Creating Public Service Announcements    

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.

Frederick, Terri. Business Communication Quarterly (2008). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Multimedia

Practitioners as Students: What We Can Learn About Teaching Usability  

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.

Levine, Barbara J. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>Usability>Workplace

Pre-Professional Practices in the Technical Writing Classroom: Promoting Multiple Literacies through Research      

For small and mid-sized universities, the 200-level technical writing service course often represents the primary writing experience for students after their freshman year. Our “service” should help students develop the tools for analyzing language and understanding writing in complex ways. Assignment sequences should engage students in active research to develop four primary literacies: rhetorical, visual, information, and computer. This article focuses on disciplinarity and underlying pedagogical goals in technical writing classrooms by describing a search engine assignment sequence which promotes literate practices in three short reports: 1) A preview/instructions report, 2) An analysis/evaluation report, and 3) A narrative review of a research activity. This article concludes with implications for these types of classroom practices.

Nagelhout, Ed. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education

Predicting Intended Unethical Behavior of Business Students  

What is the likelihood that our students will perform unethical behavior in the work environment? This study measures students’ intended behavior for four hypothetical unethical situations by investigating the following determinants: attitude toward the behavior (belief), subjective norm (pressure), perceived behavioral control, perceived personal outcome (benefit), and perceived social acceptance by others. Using the Fishbein model of planned behavior, belief was consistently the most powerful predictor of intent in all four situations. Perceived behavioral control, perceived personal outcome, and perceived social acceptance by others were moderately good predictors of intent. Subjective norm was the weakest predictor of intent.

Wilson, Barbara A. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Ethics>Business Communication

Review: Preparing Learners for e-Learning  

Finally, give this book to the CEO who blithely assumes that the corporation can simply replace classroom learning with e-learning without missing a beat. This book goes a long way toward dampening the hype surrounding online education by acknowledging that e-learning requires a shift in organizational priorities, teacher and learner attitudes, and ways of operating.

Kitalong, Karla Saari. Technical Communication Online (2004). Articles>Reviews>Education>Online

Preparing Students to Work with Technical Staff  

Technical communication programs should help students prepare to work with technical staff as well as develop writing, analysis, and communication skills. This presentation identifies assignments faculty can use to help students prepare to work effectively with technical staff: learning about what the writing technical staff do; learning about working in technical settings; interviewing faculty and staff; writing about science and technology for different audiences; editing a research article manuscript; learning about data networking; shadowing a technical professional; publishing a newsletter incorporating graduates’ observations and suggestions; having technical staff as well as technical communicators as guest speakers; and participating in STC.

Samson, Donald C. Jr. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>TC>Collaboration

Preparing to Teach Technical Writing   

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.

Samson, Donald C., Jr. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Problem-Based Learning in an Intercultural Business Communication Course    

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.

Saatci, Elizabeth. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Business Communication

Problems with Training (And What to do About It)

Through years of suffering through the American education system, I was implicitly taught that learning, and therefore training, required large numbers of people sitting in neat little rows, listening to dispassionate people ramble away on mediocre and predictably boring lessons.

Berkun, Scott. ScottBerkun.com (2006). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

Producing Brochures in the Technical Writing Classroom  

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.

Ryan, Charlton. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Document Design>Technical Writing

Professional Development Stem Overview  

The Professional Development stem provides opportunities to enhance your growth — as an individual in the technical communication profession, as a member of work teams, and as an active participant in STC. Through a variety of presentations, you’ll gain information that will assist in the evolution of your career plans, contribute to your personal enrichment, and improve your contributions as an STC leader within your chapter and the Society.

Ecker, Pamela S. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>TC>Education