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.
Barnum, Carol M., Saul Carliner, David Dayton, Lynn Harris, George F. Hayhoe, Bill Horton, Kathryn Northcut, Makarand Pandit, Janice C. 'Ginny' Redish and Alison Reynolds. STC (2006). Articles>Education>Reports>STC
The 1984–85 survey of the English sample represents the second phase of the survey series the MLA launched in 1983–84. Using a stratified random Sample of institutions, these surveys attempt to provide the profession with statistical information useful for assessing trends and planning for change. 1 The 1984–85 survey sought information about three topics: faculty salaries, institutional general education requirements in English, and the English major. The findings on salaries were published in the Fall 1987 ADE Bulletin (Huber, “English Salaries”). The results of the inquiries into general education requirements and the English major are presented here.
Huber, Bettina J. and David Laurence. ADE Bulletin (1989). Articles>Education>Writing
Research And Technology Stem Overview 
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.
Dean, Morris. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Usability>Research>Education
Research Methods Course Work for Students Specializing in Business and Technical Communication

Research activity is an integral component in the formation of professions. Evidence shows that business and technical communication specialists conduct research in both academic and practitioner career fields. In other disciplines, course work has been recognized as the primary means for preparing students to conduct and consume research. Yet, no publications document the status of research methods course work for U.S. students specializing in business and technical communication. This study provides a descriptive basis for assessing three areas in those courses: research methods topics, required readings, and teaching or assessment methods. An analysis of the results leads to a proposed agenda for preparing students specializing in business and technical communication for their future work roles in both academe and industry.
Campbell, Kim Sydow. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2000). Articles>Education>Research
Research on Dictionary Use by Trainee Translators
It seems self-evident that dictionary consultation constitutes an important stage in the process of translation. Dictionaries provide translators with valuable information. However, if we want our students to be efficient users of this reference material, we need to understand how they use these sources of vocabulary in their work. Taking these two statements as starting points, our paper reports on some of our research findings, in which we discuss the results of an empirical research project, conducted with translation students at University Jaume I (Castellon, Spain), in order to establish how they use different types of dictionaries. We comment on the main objectives of our research and findings regarding the types of dictionary used the frequency of use, the main reasons for consultation, etc. The conclusion is that our students do not take advantage of the different dictionaries available. In addition, the results suggest that they are not familiar with electronic dictionaries—, CD-ROM dictionaries and online dictionaries.
del Mar Sánchez Ramos, María. Translation Journal (2005). Articles>Education>Translation
Research on Writing-Intensive Instruction
These books provide helpful instruction on a number of communication topics such as memos, letters, proposals, reports, resume and cover letters, rhetorical principles, and research in writing.
Resistance to Theory in Advanced Technical Communication Classes for Majors 
My focus will be on Resistance to theory as expressed by advanced tech writing students. My experience has been that the majority of these students do not enjoy reading nor discussing an assigned theoretical article, such as Carolyn Miller’s 'What’s Practical about Technical Writing?'
Jobst, Jack W. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Education>TC>Theory
Resources for Teaching and Working with the Visual Aspects of Texts
An online guide that explains color theory and shows how to use it in design through examples and exercises.
Poynter Institute, The (2001). Articles>Education>Visual Rhetoric>Color
Resources on E-Learning for Training and Performance Support
A comprehensive collection of links to e-learning resources online for workplace training.
Carliner, Saul. Saul Carliner Studio (2003). Articles>Workplace>Education>Online
A case study of an experienced professor's comments on a design report in a first-year engineering class was conducted over the period of an academic year. When compared with the commenting styles of technical writing teachers, the engineering professor's comments were found to be highly directive, and thus at odds with the preference for facilitative comments that prevails in composition studies. However, differences in genre conventions explain much of the discrepancy.
Miller, Paul, Jaye Bausser and Audeen Fentiman. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Articles>Education>Engineering>Technical Writing
Rethinking Genre in School and Society: An Activity Theory Analysis 
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."
Russell, David R. Written Communication (1997). Articles>Education>Genre>Activity Theory
Rethinking Plagiarism for Technical Communication

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.
Reyman, Jessica. Technical Communication Online (2008). Articles>Education>TC>Plagiarism
Rethinking the Evaluation of Writing in Engineering Courses

The objective of this paper is to bring about a reevaluation of writing assessment practices in engineering classes. The authors begin by drawing rhetoric (the knowledge base of effective technical communication) and engineering together, explaining how engineering work is rhetorical. From this theoretical vantage point, the authors argue for a change in engineering writing assessment practices. Specifically, they argue for an approach that favors formative assessment (focused on writing comments that lead to both better writing and better engineering) over summative assessment (which sees writing ability as separate from engineering design). The authors continue by revealing a scoring guide for the formative assessment of engineering reports, and detailing the process by which such a scoring guide may be created. Each criterion in the scoring guide is explained in terms of the rhetorical and engineering principles that it simultaneously addresses.
Swarts, Jason and Lee Odell. Rice University (2001). Articles>Education>Engineering>Technical Writing
A Review of Digital Video Production in Post-Secondary English Classrooms at Three Universities 
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.
Meeks, Melissa and Alex Ilyasova. Kairos (2003). Articles>Education>Multimedia>Video
Review of Technical Communication Programs Outside the United States

This review examines technical communication programs outside the United States and comments on such features as their location in the university structure, links with public relations, the inclusion of internships or practicums, the balance of theory and practice, and typical courses offerings. It also provides a listing (including Web addresses) of a dozen major programs in seven countries. The review concludes that programs abroad share many features and goals with programs in the United States and suggests how international programs can illustrate the value of technical communication in the global marketplace.
Alred, Gerald J. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2001). Articles>Education>International
This article offers suggestions about how Technical Communication might reconsider the task of building theory. Beginning with a discussion of the design of a new course called Technical Communication: Theory and Research for the M.S. in Technical Communication Program at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, the author focuses on the intersections between the relatively recent movement known as user-centered design and the foundations of technical communication. Highlighting familiar tensions in the emergence of user-centered design, the essay encourages technical communicators to see theory building as an ongoing effort to refine the practices of technical communication in relation to the predominant mode of technological innovation.
Hart-Davidson, William. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Research>Assessment
Reviewing the Graduate Curriculum: Opportunities and Obligations
Increasingly, graduate programs are reflecting new critical approaches and making provision for their students to acquire skills in areas outside of literature. A number of departments offer alternate tracks, especially at the Master's level, for students interested in high school and community college teaching, in English as a second language, in creative writing, and so on. There are currently about 150 Ph.D. programs in English in this country; and, while it would be a gross exaggeration to say that each is unique, the differences among them are remarkable.
Worth, George J. ADE Bulletin (1978). Articles>Education>Graduate>Writing
I am asking my program to incorporate more of the liberal arts into the course's title and course description to better appeal to (and serve) students in a liberal arts college. The course will have one or two new sophomore level iterations: as a technical/research writing course in which students complete a semester long service project, researching and writing a final report while focusing on writing, research, and mathematical skills, and/or as a technical writing/document design class where students focus on the document design and writing skills needed to produce items such as a resume, flyers, brochures, posters, and more.
Sehmel, Heather. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
Rhetorical Community: The Cultural Basis of Genre

Our understanding of genre as social action afflicts the typical first-year college writing program in the United States. It turns what should be a practical art of achieving social ends into a productive art of making texts that fit certain formal requirements.
Miller, Carolyn R. North Carolina State University (1994). Articles>Education>Writing>Rhetoric
Narrative is a valuable genre to use in composition classes to help students understand their own identity, develop writing skills, including understanding how to structure and use personal experience with a rhetorical purpose in an essay or argument. Once they get to upper division writing courses, however, students are exposed to writing that places less emphasis on that personalized, subjective genre and moves toward the impersonal. Such writing limits the use of narrative, which is generally perceived as highly personal and subjective because it generally conveys only the narrator’s perspective. Narrative includes precise details of an event that occurred in the past which are reported in the same order in which they occurred, as well as an observation or evaluation of the information by the narrator.
Remley, Dirk. Association for Business Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Writing>Rhetoric
Rhetorical vs. Instrumental Approaches to Teaching Technical Communication

Survey and anecdotal evidence indicates that universities do not prepare students well for writing in the workplace. One important reason for this failure is that rhetorical theory dominates the teaching of technical communication in the academy. Though extremely influential in the academy, rhetorical theory is inappropriate for teaching some kinds of important workplace communication (instructions, online documentation, computer-human interfaces, indexes), and it does not address important skills that practicing technical communicators need. Instrumental discourse differs from rhetoric in its purpose, in its absence of reasons and argumentation, in its task-oriented approach, in its emphasis on accessibility, and in its emphasis on economics. As a result, instrumental discourse is much more appropriate for the genres and skills that practicing technical communicators use, and it offers significant advantages to students, and in the long run, to the academy itself.
Moore, Patrick. Technical Communication Online (1997). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Rhetoric
Rob Houser on Creating Nontraditional E-Learning
Rob explains how you can use Captivate to create nontraditional e-learning materials, such as on-the-job training, sales and marketing training, or even bird-watching training. You aren't just limited to technical how-to information in screen demos.
Houser, Rob. Tech Writer Voices (2007). Articles>Interviews>Education>Online
Role of Technical Writers in Developing eLearning
Many companies are starting to use eLearning to train their workers, managers, customers and suppliers. Some of those companies want to use their internal technical writers or communicators to not only write the content, but also to develop the CBT or WBT.
Kurtus, Ron. School for Champions. Articles>Education>Online>Technical Writing
Feedback is central to learning. Practice makes perfect, as the saying goes, but practice without feedback does not allow students or training participants to improve.
Doumont, Jean-luc. Intercom (2003). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Collaboration
Russian Teaching Contracts: An Examination of Cultural Influence and Genre

Teaching business communication in Russia involves operating in a high-context oral culture where few documents are created. However, this article analyzes two Russian teaching contracts, rhetorically comparing purpose and audience, culture, gender, and the role of the individual versus the state. For historical, political, and economic reasons, less documentation is used in business transactions in Russia than is used in the United States. Subsequently, communication scholars have been afforded little opportunity to analyze Russian business documents. This study uses anecdotal episodes as a framework for examining Russian culture and analyzing university teaching contracts, concluding that the contracts are not only brief and factual but also reflect a more oral, less litigious environment than Western countries like the United States.
Stevens, Betsy. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (1999). Articles>Education>Regional>Russia
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