Tips for Writers Who Have to Teach a Writing Class   

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!

Moore, Susan B. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

To Logo or Not to Logo?

As the new disability legislation becomes law in the UK, Academic websites will be coming under close scrutiny from Disability Rights Organisations. Long established tools that have been used to test websites could, if used in the wrong way, be more of a liability than a benefit. The use of websites as medium for academia is now well established, with a plethora of materials being distributed over Intranets and Extranets. Furthermore, the pervasive Virtual Learning Environment is lending itself to opportunities for interactivity hitherto only possible in face-to-face teaching. But, as more and more material is distributed in this way there is a need for guidelines to ensure access for all.

Phipps, Lawrie, Neil Witt and Anne McDermott. TechDis (2002). Articles>Accessibility>Education>Online

To Slideware Or Not To Slideware: Students' Experiences With PowerPoint vs. Lecture    

This study analyzes the performance and attitudes of technical writing students in PowerPoint-enhanced and in non-PowerPoint lectures. Four classes of upper-level undergraduates (n = 84) at a mid-sized, Southern university taking a one-semester technical writing course were surveyed at the beginning and end of the course about their perceptions of PowerPoint. Of the four sections, two classes were instructed using traditional lecture materials (teacher at podium, chalkboard, handouts); the other two sections were instructed with PowerPoint presentations. All four classes were given the same pre- and post-test to measure performance over the course of the semester. Traditional lecture or PowerPoint presentations consisted of at least 50% of the course, with the remaining time spent on exercises and small group work. Results reveal that while most students say they preferred PowerPoint, performance scores were higher in the sections with the traditional lecture format.

Amare, Nicole. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2006). Articles>Education>Presentations>Microsoft PowerPoint

Tools Training for the Technical Communicator

When we started our training room at Ace Communications, the goal was to offer hands-on training in the tools of the trade for technical communicators. Even though there is continuity in the core tools used in the profession, there is enough evolution in the design and application of these tools to warrant ongoing training, even for experienced users. The experience of running both a training business and a consulting/staffing business points out that the most successful technical communicators combine extremely strong inter-personal skills with ongoing tools training.

Ace, Mark. STC Williamette Valley (2002). Articles>Education>Technology>Software

Topic-Raising in Tutoring Sessions Involving Writing Tutors and Engineering Students  

The paper examines whether writing tutors control the subject matter discussed in tutoring sessions with engineering students, topic-raising in six tutoring sessions was analyzed. Over 81% of the topics were raised by tutors, suggesting tutors control subject matter. To examine the subject matter that tutors and students focused upon, topics were categorized by type. Over 55% of the topics raised were related to sentence clarity, conciseness, and mechanics. Tutors and students also raised topics related to content, rhetorical situation, and textual organization and formatting. Writing tutors and engineering students focus on sentence-level issues even though students might benefit from more attention to discourse-level issues.

Mackiewicz, Jo M. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Writing>Engineering

Toward a Post-Techne-Or, Inventing Pedagogies for Professional Writing    

This article examines the concept of techne in relation to situatedness. Techne is conceived as techniques for situating bodies in contexts. Although many theorists and practitioners in technical communication are working from ecological and posthuman perspectives with regard to interface designs, this article argues for extending those perspectives to workplace and classroom situations. Starting from a Heideggerian reading of techne, the article moves toward the concept of post-techne, which remakes pedagogical techniques for writing and inventing in institutional contexts.

Hawk, Byron. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Theory

Toward a Post-Techne-Or, Inventing Pedagogies for Professional Writing    

This article examines the concept of techne in relation to situatedness. Techne is conceived as techniques for situating bodies in contexts. Although many theorists and practitioners in technical communication are working from ecological and posthuman perspectives with regard to interface designs, this article argues for extending those perspectives to workplace and classroom situations. Starting from a Heideggerian reading of techne, the article moves toward the concept of post-techne, which remakes pedagogical techniques for writing and inventing in institutional contexts.

Hawk, Byron. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Toward an Ethics of Teaching Writing in a Hazardous Context—: The American University  

The following essay is a collaborative effort by a writing teacher and a writing student to make sense out of a situation we experienced together when Sandy Moore, the writer, responded to an assignment given by Michael Kleine, the teacher. In an advanced persuasive writing course, Michael asked students to experiment with the major Aristotelian categories of persuasion: ceremonial, forensic, and deliberative discourse. For the ceremonial assignment, Sandy chose to write an essay of blame about patrons of her workplace, a restaurant/bar. Though ceremonial discourse aims to praise or blame its subject before a public audience, Sandy did not intend to publish the essay outside the context of the classroom. Aware of the charged nature of her essay, Sandy wanted to use the university classroom not as a place from which to launch a public attack on a private workplace; instead, she hoped that the classroom would provide a safe place in which to practice persuasive discourse and to develop her rhetorical skills.

Moore, Sandy and Michael Kleine. JAC (1992). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Rhetoric

Towards an Emancipatory Pedagogy in Service Courses and User Departments      

Critical thinking has led teachers of service courses and their user departments into common pedagogies. Motivated by calls from industry for students with problem-solving abilities, both service courses and their user departments have incorporated higher-level thinking modes into their assignments. Applying the interpretive mode of rationality posited by Habermas, innovative teachers are changing their pedagogical methods from the simple transference of information from teacher to student to assignments requiring team projects where students grapple with parametric problem solving that demands interpreting complex data. Applying the emancipatory mode of rationality, some assignments involve outside clients and working with community-based social and political issues.

David, Carol and Donna Kienzler. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

Towards Modular Access to Electronic Handbooks    

The paper reports an ongoing project aimed at providing an exemplary architecture for an electronic dissemination environment for scientific handbooks. It focuses on a way of facilitating navigation through and access to electronic handbooks by using a WordNet-like concept hierarchy consisting of synsets (sets of synonyms) that are connected to each other and to external sources by semantic relations for navigational purposes.

Caracciolo, Caterina. Journal of Digital Information (2003). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>eBooks

TPC Program Snapshots: Developing Curricula and Addressing Challenges    

This article reports results from a survey of US technical and professional communication undergraduate programs concerning core concepts emphasized and most commonly taught procedures, skills, and tools. Snapshot views of current programs are derived from the results, and the developmental processes and directions of four new programs are described in more detail. The article concludes with challenges for programs to maintain humanistic concerns while also providing effective professional and technical preparation.

Allen, Nancy J. and Steven T. Benninghoff. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Education>Management>Case Studies

Training 101: Learn How to Train  

Practical techniques for organizing, delivering, and surviving your first-ever face-to-face training course. While the focus is on computer software training, the information can be readily adapted for other training situations. BEFORE THE BIG DAY It is useful to know what goes into a training session even if you're not responsible for all the preparations. If

Bracey, Rhonda. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Workplace

Training 101: Logistics for Delivering Face-to-Face Instruction  

Practical techniques for organizing, delivering, and surviving your first-ever face-to-face training course. While the focus is on computer software training, the information can be readily adapted for other training situations. The first section deals with physical preparations such as setting up the room and checking equipment. The second offers practical tips for delivering the training, such as dealing with troublesome people, using various delivery methods, and getting feedback. Intended audience: For those who know their subject matter/product very well, but have no teaching or training experience – as the 'resident expert' they have been asked to train others.

Bracey, Rhonda. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

Training for E-Business: Turning Your Education Offerings On!  

These days, the buzzwords of our industry revolve around E-commerce and E-business. At the same time, we have also seen major shifts in the required focus of our training offerings – from Tool/Task-Based to Business Process/Role-Based. Finally, we can no longer demand that the students come to us for what they need. They are demanding that we take it to them. But how do you turn your training organization on a dime to respond to the changing needs? This paper discusses how you can transition from standup/ manual-based instruction to a WBT/online documentation method of training.

McLean, Donna. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Online

Training for Wannabe Technical Writers

'More technical writers. Better technical writers.' This is the mantra I have in mind while I write this column.

Kamath, Gurudutt R. IT People (2003). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>India

Training Options and Team-Oriented Techniques  

After instituting training programs requiring 10 to 20 percent of every person's work week, Motorola reported that plants reinforcing the training received a $33 dollar return on investment for every dollar spent. The demand for training in new computer applications is growing. Selecting computer training options requires (1) an analysis of cost to benefits and (2) teamwork for preparing the materials and delivering the training. Some training techniques that work include knowledge mapping, pilot testing, and team training.

Feinberg, Susan G. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Collaboration

Training Teachers and Serving Students: Applying Usability Testing in Writing Programs    

Teachers often test course materials by using them in class. Usability testing provides an alternative: teachers receive student feedback and revise materials before teaching a class. Case studies based on interviews and observations with two teaching assistants who usability tested materials before teaching introductory technical writing demonstrate how usability testing can make novice teachers more confident about and help them predict student experiences with their assignments. By helping to train teachers, usability testing can also help better serve students.

McGovern, Heather. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2007). Articles>Education>Usability>Testing

Training Technical Communication Teachers in English Graduate Courses  

In the mid 1970's, the bleak employment outlook for English Ph.D.'s and the increasing demand for writing teachers, particularly technical writing teachers, lead our department to develop a rhetoric and composition component within our traditional English graduate program. One of the courses developed for the graduate rhetoric program was Analysis of Technical Writing. When it was designed, the course had three goals: (1) to provide study in the rapidly growing area of applied rhetoric; 2) to provide training necessary for English doctoral students to begin teaching a basic course in business and technical writing on the junior or senior college level; and (3) to enhance the employability of these graduate students by preparing them to teach sections of our basic technical writing course while they were completing their graduate work. The department believed that providing interested students an opportunity to gain experience in teaching technical writing would give our graduate students a definite advantage in applying for college teaching positions.

Tebeaux, Elizabeth. JAC (1988). Articles>Education>Graduate

Training Technical Communicators at the "Top of the World"  

Technical Communication is not a profession per se in Nepal, at least not until Pilgrim Asia was founded in 1997. Because of that, finding trained individuals to produce topnotched documentation for Pilgrim Asia can be as adventurous as scaling the country’s and world’s highest peak – Mt. Everest. (Ah ha! Nepal!). It takes perseverance and mountains of pages of writing and editing for increments of excellence. But once skills are learned, the expectation level exponentially rises so new levels of excellence are achieved. And with each product release we prove that technical communication can be a viable profession in Nepal.

Perry, Lynn A. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Regional>Asia

Training the Brain: Building an Online Course  

This case study is based on the process that one team of technical communicators used to create an online science course—for a company that had not previously offered online courses. The team developed, created, and implemented the course, Language and the Brain, in just two and a half months.

Win, Thet Shein, Laura Arendal, Wen Chao. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Online

Training the Trainers Amongst Us  

The Education and Research Professional Interest Committee is sponsoring this day-long Train-the-Trainers post-conference workshop in response to the increasing emphasis that business and government are placing on lifelong learning and continuing education. The workshop explores the natural affinities that exist between the disciplines of adult education and technical communication, and offers technical communicators a unique professional development opportunity. The workshop demonstrates, through a mix of lecture, questionanswer sessions, and small group activities, that technical communicators can derive specific, tangible benefits from a grounding in the theory and practice of adult education.

Conklin, John James, Judith L. Glick-Smith and Brenda E. Sartoris. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

Training Your Intranet's End-Users and Content-Providers  

A technical writer on an intranet team can also play the role of trainer. This paper provides a 'how to' of training end-users and content-providers associated with a web- and PDF-based company intranet. These ideas will be expanded in the session and on the CD-ROM of the Proceedings.

Funkhouser, LaVonna F. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Intranets>Web Design

Transition: Technical Writer to Technical Writing Teacher

The transition from being a technical writer to becoming a Visiting Professor of Technical Communication has meant, so far, that 1) I work a whole lot more, and 2) I finally have a chance to see the effect of the things that we create on the user. My students have helped me to do this.

Johnson, Carol Siri. MetroVoice (2002). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Traveling in Space and Time: A Study of Learning Trajectories in Student Acquisition of Engineering Communication Strategies

My preliminary studies have shown that students do indeed acquire basic communication strategies appropriate for their chosen field that help them to become acculturated in workplace contexts. In other words, they begin to genre their 'way through social interactions, choosing the correct form in response to each communicative situation [they] encounter,' which they do 'with varying degree of mastery'. The subject of my CCCC 2003 presentation is a series of events that occurred in the life of one of my longitudinal study participants. In the presentation, I related these events to the audience and then analyzed them using Rhetorical Genre Studies as a theoretical tool.

Artemeva, Natasha. Newsletter of the CASLL (2003). Articles>Education>Engineering>Writing

Treating Professional Writing as Social Praxis  

To explore how professional communications are shaped by the worlds of work, scholars have drawn on several different ways of thinking about the relationship between texts and contexts--literary theories, sociolinguistics, organizational theory, ethnography, and theories of composition. I would like to draw on classical rhetoric to develop a philosophical justification for stressing the social and ethical dimensions of business and technical writing. I am not specifically interested here in how we can apply the techniques of classical rhetoric to professional writing, but in how we can revitalize classical rhetoric's general emphasis on ethical and political values. While classical rhetoric assumed ethical and political values that need to be questioned, it does provide a context in which to ask questions about values, questions that are too often ignored in professional writing classes. Classical rhetoric is particularly useful in talking about technical and business writing because Aristotle's three-part conceptualization of theoria, proxis, and techne undercuts the dichotomy of theory and practice that often limits instruction in 'practical' writing to the mere techniques of the craft. Classical rhetoric can also help us develop a broader social perspective on practical writing, a perspective that includes not just the social context of the company or profession but the larger public context as well.

Miller, Thomas P. JAC (1991). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Rhetoric