Building a Multiliteracy Center  

David Sheridan shares what he has learned during his 2000-2003 efforts to build a Multiliteracy Center within the University of Michigan's Sweetland Writing Center.

Homicz, Krista and David Sheridan. Kairos (2004). Articles>Education>Cyberculture

Building a Swan's Nest for Instruction in Rhetoric    

When a composition teacher incorporated community-based writing assignments into her course, she found that the curriculum did not support students’ transitions to nonacademic settings. Her success in transforming the curriculum suggests that the writing classroom can function not only as a site for “general writing skills in-struction” but also for analysis of rhetorical variation.

Bacon, Nora. CCC (2000). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Rhetoric

Building a Technical Communication Program

I address myself briefly to two questions that will likely confront anyone who considers increasing the number of technical writing programs. First, what is the market for technical communicators? Second, how does one go about setting up a program?

Pearsall, Thomas E. ADE Bulletin (1982). Articles>Education>Management

Building a Virtual Community: A Case Study of Professional and Technical Communication  

The Diploma of Professional and Technical Communication is an Internet-based course, developed and taught by Christchurch Polytechnic in conjunction with University of Western Sydney, Nepean. Developing a student community is essential in an effective learning environment. The diploma is designed to encourage online student participation with the aim of promoting a virtual community. Elements of effective online course design include clear learning outcomes, tutors who motivate, activities to encourage participation, and prompt feedback. The analysis of student online interpersonal communication showed a successful virtual community was in fact created.

Draper, Richard, Kathy Knight and Alison Sanders. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>Education>Community Building>Social Networking

Building an Online Learning Community

We decided to explore alternative methods for incorporating discussion into a distance-learning course in an attempt to facilitate the sense of community found in more traditional classrooms. Our goal through this study was to uncover factors that enable and hinder discussion between students in online learning environments and to determine whether the level of class discussion leads to an increased sense of community.

McDowell, Mindi, Stephanie Trunzo and Kristin Vincent. Orange Journal, The (2003). Articles>Education>Community Building>Social Networking

Building and Maintaining Student Chapters  

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.

Fink, Bonnie L. and William O. Coggin. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Collaboration>Education>STC

Building Context: Using Activity Theory to Teach About Genre in Multi-Major Professional Communication Courses    

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.

Kain, Donna and Elizabeth Wardle. Technical Communication Quarterly (2005). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Genre

Building Group Spirit  

Technical communication courses and training programs often benefit from peer review or group critique. To encourage learning, these activities require a constructive climate: Students must listen to one another, be receptive to feedback, and refrain from reproaches, interpretations, and judgments. Such a positive group spirit is not a given, especially if the school or corporate environment encourages competition more than collaboration. Teachers must foster an appropriate environment if they want their collaborative learning activities to be successful.

Doumont, Jean-luc. Intercom (2003). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Collaboration

Café, thé, Ou Lait?: How Shall We Train Technical Communicators to Translate?  

Despite global trade, technical communication training programs have largely ignored translation issues. Some technical translation specialists suggest a full course to remedy this, a fully caffeinated approach we call cafe; others recommend fitting translation preparation into already existing courses, a lighter caffeine approach we call the. (Lait refers to the “caffeine-free ” courses lacking mention of culture, translation, or international audiences.) The second option, the, is probably the most realistic. Brewing our own the, one of us has experimented with addressing translation “pests. ” The other has examined the cultural gaps between U.S.-based technical communicators and their audiences abroad.

Maylath, Bruce A.R. and Emily A. Thrush. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Localization

Can Academic Partnerships in Technical Communication Work?: Lessons from Minnesota  

Interuniversity partnerships are widely encouraged as a way for public universities to pool increasingly scarce resources, to minimize duplication of academic programs, and to cooperate rather than compete. Joint programs in technical communication have not been widely studied, but they seem especially logical for several reasons.

Black, Suzanne. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Management>Collaboration

Can You Take Localization In School?  

Localization is an interdisciplinary endeavor and so has been difficult for postsecondary institutions to come to terms with. Recently, however, several institutions have begun offering coursework and programs, although their implementation and delivery are as diverse as the field itself.

Altanero, Tim. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Education>Localization

The Canisius Project: From Field-Work To Classroom    

In the Canisius Project for Writing Across the Curriculum, we have studied the writing worlds of business, social services, science and technology, and 'public life' (the media, public relations, law, fund raising, and the like). For all these fields, our research has followed the same basic pattern. We begin with an initial interview, using a questionnaire which asks about the range of tasks, the problems, the methods, and the significance of the person's work world writing. Then we collect a portfolio of the person's writings. As an ideal, we request at least one sample of each kind of writing, with several samples of the most frequent and important kinds. After studying the portfolio, we return for a taped interview which focuses on specific features of selected pieces of writing. At the end of each research sequence, we hold a workshop which brings together researchers, faculty from the relevant departments, and as many as possible of our work world writers. Near the end of the workshop, the group defines some of the goals and methods most important for an upper level writing course which is to be aimed at, but not restricted to, business majors, or social science majors, or science majors, or humanities majors. (The groups of majors correspond to our research sequences: business, social services, science and technology, and, for want of a better term, public life.)

Schroeder, Melvin W. and Kenneth M. Sroka. JAC (1981). Articles>Education>Writing Across the Curriculum

The Care of Content: A Red-Pen-Wielder's Perspective

What is the world (wide web) coming to when even us blue-haired English teachers have something to say about the Net? After all, we're supposed to be consumed with the past--a time long before the binary code when writers still used quills, and men, unfortunately, wore tights. (Sorry for the visual.) Well, in defense of red-pen-wielders everywhere, I have to say that just ain't so. Technology, particularly that which furthers education, is our concern. And the Internet (yes, I just started a sentence with the world 'and') is a source of great conflict. On the one hand, it is a storehouse from which vast amounts of knowledge may be retrieved--it provides information that may otherwise be inaccessible. On the other hand, because of its nature as an abyss, it's an illimitable source for the plagiarist. So, ironically, something that should catalyze learning is actually, in a way, simply making it easier for students not to learn.

Blum, Daphne. Digital Web Magazine (2000). Articles>Education>Information Design

The Case for Writing Studies as a Major Discipline   

Literate activity, directly and indirectly, occupies much of the day of people in modern society. Literacy in its basic and more elaborated, specialized forms is the cornerstone in the education of the young. Literacy and symbolic artifacts underlay the information age and its information economy. Literacy along with its enabling technologies and consequent forms of social, political, and economic organization, has supported ways of life that distinguish us from humans of 5000 years ago. Literate engagement is also associated with forms of belief, commitment, and consciousness that shape modern personality. Yet the study of writing--its production, its circulation, its uses, its role in the development of individuals and societies, and its learning by individuals, social collectives, and historically emergent cultures--remains a dispersed enterprise. Inquiry into skills, practices, objects, and consequences of reading and writing is the concern of only a few people, fragmented across university disciplines, with no serious home of its own.

Bazerman, Charles. UCSB (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

The Challenge of Plagiarism Control in Universities and Colleges  

The Challenge of Plagiarism Control in Universities and Colleges discusses the complex issues involved with plagiarism such as defining the term and responding to the act of plagiarism. The paper also includes data detailing who is plagiarizing and why. Finally, the paper addresses university protocol and potential for uniformity in the tracking and response of universities and colleges. The perils of not finding a way to limit or eradicate plagiarism further endanger the authenticity of a college degree.

Smydra, Rachel V. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Ethics>Plagiarism

Change Agents or Followers: Analyzing Genres in the Business Writing Classroom  

Asking business students to perform a rhetorical analysis of generic conventions may help students gain the confidence to modify those conventions. Research shows that while generic conventions impose constraints, experienced writers also learn they have the agency to modify those conventions to meet the exigency of the rhetorical situation. The article reviews both traditional conceptions of the nature of genre as well as recent research, and describes an assignment which uses genre analysis as a means of teaching students the social nature of generic structures.

Amidon, Stevens R. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Genre>Business Communication

Changes In the Training of Writing Teachers  

English departments are once again confronted with charges in the popular media that the illiteracy of the American people generally, and of recent high school graduates in particular, constitutes a disturbing or perhaps even a dangerous state which we should regard as having reached 'crisis' proportions. In the past, this public concern has been directed primarily at reading ability, but in its present form, it focuses on writing skill. Not surprisingly, much of the commentary has been directed at elementary and secondary school teachers. Time emblazoned the news that 'Teachers Can't Teach' across the cover of its June 16, 1980, issue, then devoted several pages to a critical analysis of the shortcomings in modern American education. The authors of that article estimated that up to twenty percent of certified teachers have not mastered the 'basic skills' that they are supposed to teach.1 If this estimate is accurate—and most Americans believe, intuitively at least that it is—then we must recognize that not only are teachers unskilled in areas outside their expertise, but also, more frightening, they are incompetent within areas in which they ostensibly are trained. And since, as Charles Moran and J. T. Skerrett recently pointed out two of the three traditional Rs of basic education are within the province of the English teachers, we must be particularly sensitive to the criticism presently being leveled at teacher inability.

Ward, Jay A. JAC (1981). Articles>Education>Writing

The Changing and Emerging Role of the Instructional Developer  

Today's instructional developer is required to know much more than the Instructional Systems Design methodology. He/she must know a multitude of authoring tools, and must also know the storyboarding and development process for designing technology-based learning programs. Technology-based learning presents four unique challenges for instructional developers. These are: accommodating different learning styles; addressing differing technologies in learners’ computers; developing training packages for mass quantities of learners; and acquiring new skill sets. Technology-based learning also presents many new opportunities for instructional developers, including the chance to develop exciting tools such as wizards, coaches, and computer-based training programs.

Levin, Marissa. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

Changing How the World Communicates: Secondary Curricula in Technical Communication  

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.

Hayhoe, George F., E. Thomas Abbott, Ronald S. Blicq, Lisa A. Moretto and Trish Pollick. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Education>TC

Changing the Center of Gravity: Collaborative Writing Program Administration in Large Universities    

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.

Johnson-Sheehan, Richard D. and Charles Paine. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Education>Writing>Collaboration

The Chicago Chapter STC Institute for Professional Development: A Model for Developing Partnerships Between STC and Universities/Colleges  

The Chicago Chapter STC Institute for Professional Development (IPD) is a good example of how STC chapters can help bridge the gap between theory and practice by partnering with colleges and universities to offer credit courses for those with little or no experience or prior course work in technical communication. Such partnerships help the local STC chapters by enhancing awareness of our profession in their geographic areas (and building STC membership and involvement), by serving the educational needs of its newer members, and by providing teaching and mentoring opportunities for its more experienced members. Above all, by bringing together teachers, researchers, and practitioners of technical communication to design, plan, and implement courses, the Chicago IPD models the very type of teamwork that has become essential for success in today’s world.

Abbott, Christine. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Education>Professionalism

Clashing Technologies: The Legacy of 19th Century Writing Instruction Meets the 21st Century Writing Classroom

In most writing classrooms, the primary activity is not writing per se, but rather the discussion of writing. You know the drill: as teachers, we create a writing assignment, introduce it during class, ask students if they have any questions, and send them off to work on the assignment. When students return to class with a draft of the assignment, we might discuss it as a class or perhaps put the students through a peer review session. But only rarely do we ask our students to actually write during class.

Palmquist, Mike. Lore (2001). Articles>Education>Writing>Rhetoric

Classical Rhetoric and Technical Writing    

English departments, eager to boost enrollment, may press teachers into duty teaching technical writing courses on short notice and with little preparation.

Lunsford, Andrea A. CCC (1976). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Classroom Talk: Part II  

Want tips for organizing your first class, handling small groups, and facilitating large group discussion? Campbell's column provides useful tips.

Campbell, Alexa. Intercom (2006). Articles>Education

"Coffee Stains": How to Remove the Blots Quickly and Easily  

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.

Houser, Barbara J. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Writing