http://tc.eserver.org/dir/Articles/Education/TC A listing of the most recently indexed works about Articles and Education and TC 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/TC http://tc.eserver.org/35332.html http://tc.eserver.org/35332.html Building on the 1996 retrospective by Pearsall and Warren, the authors examine the decade that followed for the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC). As the world became more closely knitted together through trade agreements and advancements in communication technology, CPTSC took up its mission in response as it helped promote program growth internationally. During this period, the organization added many more members beyond the United States, as it hosted a series of roundtables in Europe and Canada, working to diversify the ethnic make-up of its membership through scholarships. http://tc.eserver.org/34077.html http://tc.eserver.org/34077.html Most technical communication practitioners conduct research throughout their careers. Yet, a survey of the Web sites of 114 undergraduate technical communication programs between September 2006 and April 2007 revealed that 65% (about two thirds) of these programs are providing minimal or no exposure to research instruction and therefore are not sufficiently preparing students to handle the types of research they will encounter in their upcoming careers. Given the disconnect between the centrality of research in the work that technical communicators do and the low presence of research instruction at the undergraduate level, academics need to look for ways to overcome institutional and other constraints in order to give research training greater priority in their undergraduate programs. http://tc.eserver.org/33578.html http://tc.eserver.org/33578.html The practice of technical communication, especially for professionals just entering the workplace, is rapidly changing. Companies have higher expectations for degrees in technical communication, a strong foundation in technology, and the ability to function on cross-disciplinary teams alongside technical experts in the design and development process. As the practice of technical communication shifts its focus, academics have the responsibility to be certain that technical communication degree programs have a strong component of such topics as engineering design, programming, human factors, usability, instructional design, and project management, in addition to traditional communication skills. Academic programs have lagged behind practice, largely due to the location of degree programs, departmental reward systems, faculty deficiencies in technology, little depth in fields beyond rhetoric, and lack of exposure to best industry practices. This paper addresses these issues and makes some practical recommendations for catching academe up to practice. http://tc.eserver.org/33563.html http://tc.eserver.org/33563.html This article presents an argument for and offers illustrations of service learning in technical communication courses and curricula. Alongside traditional internships that prepare students as future employees, service learning provides students with an education in engaged citizenship. This article reviews service-learning literature, discussing specifically the advantages of projects to students, faculty, and the community. The authors also describe three projects in which instructors and students integrated service learning and technical communication in innovative ways. http://tc.eserver.org/33566.html http://tc.eserver.org/33566.html Graduate education in technical communication should provide students with an expansive view of the field. Toward that end, we offer a three-dimensional framework that represents technical communication as a robust, diverse, complex whole. Although the framework aims towards coherence, it embraces contradiction. That is, the framework represents a totality but does not purport to be the only possible representation. Key to the framework is our belief that the gap between theory and practice can actually be productive. Almost all binaries encourage overly simplistic understandings. But we should not allow the goal of remediating the binary to close off the important tensions that can allow the field to advance. This very gap is actually one of the few sites in which new ideas and approaches can be forged. http://tc.eserver.org/32786.html http://tc.eserver.org/32786.html Development and Implementation of a Technical Speaking Course in Mathematics, will give students an opportunity to cultivate technical, discipline-specific, verbal communication skills and experiences needed to be successful in their chosen disciplines. They will develop skills in assessing an audience’s technical sophistication and adapting their own communications to accommodate the audience. Mathematics will become a familiar “vehicle” for development of general and technical communication competencies. http://tc.eserver.org/32261.html http://tc.eserver.org/32261.html Teaching students in academic settings can be very different than teaching technical communication to nonacademic students. Campbell gives tips on how to teach those in trades and technologies effectively. http://tc.eserver.org/32196.html http://tc.eserver.org/32196.html When you think of the best manager you have ever worked for, you probably remember his/her ability to motivate you and your colleagues, his/her professional but personable demeanor, and the way his/her organizational skills matched the right person with the right responsibilities. In your management role, you strive to do all these things. However, to make the greatest impact, you must not only excel as a manager yourself, but also help the next generation of leaders develop their managerial skills. http://tc.eserver.org/32198.html http://tc.eserver.org/32198.html As a retired teacher with many years of experience, I’m new to the world of technical writing. However, from what I’ve observed so far, all the world is not only a stage; all the world is also a classroom. 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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/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/29028.html http://tc.eserver.org/29028.html Classical rhetorical theory has been used for relatively discrete, practice-oriented purposes in its application to teaching Scientific and Technical Communication. However effective these appropriations are, they isolate these resources from a comprehensive framework and from that framework's role in shaping disciplinary practice. Because these theoretical assets are integral to each student's preparation to be an effective, responsible practitioner, I have developed and taught an upper level rhetorical theory course for STC majors that is grounded in Aristotle s <em>On Rhetoric</em> and in his understanding that effective communication is a systematic <em>tekhne</em>/art. http://tc.eserver.org/29023.html http://tc.eserver.org/29023.html The redefinition of logos as an appeal to logic is a mistaken association found all too often in the technical communication classroom. Logic inheres in all three proofs of persuasion; moreover, Aristotle used <em>logos</em> within the context of classical rhetoric to refer to the argument or speech itself. In this light, the proofs of persuasion represent the set of all logical means whereby the speaker can lead a "right-thinking" audience to infer <em>something</em>. If that <em>something</em> is an emotion, the appeal is to <em>pathos</em>; if it is about the character of the speaker, the appeal is to <em>ethos</em>; and if it is about the argument or speech itself, the appeal is to <em>logos</em>. This interpretation reinstates all three proofs of persuasion as legitimate, logical means to different proximate ends and provides a coherent definition of <em>logos</em>, consonant with Aristotle's <em>Rhetoric</em>, to the next generation of technical communicators. http://tc.eserver.org/29104.html http://tc.eserver.org/29104.html We employ an array of terms to denote the visual; however, we have not yet agreed on a clear framework for understanding the function and relationship between visual concepts. I propose a literacy approach to the visual so that as educators, researchers, students, and practitioners, we acquire more than skills that rely on changing definitions and technologies but an intellectual faculty that provides the knowledge, understanding, and abilities that the visual affords. Through an analysis of arguments for visual instruction, I present the wayS in which scholars justify their claims about the visual. These arguments uncover the breadth and depth of the visual and contribute to a taxonomy of visual terminology. http://tc.eserver.org/29122.html http://tc.eserver.org/29122.html The growth of international online access has given rise to a new production method--international outsourcing--that has important implications for technical communication practices. Successful interactions within international outsourcing require individuals to understand how cultural factors could affect online interactions. Today's technical communication students therefore need to understand how factors of culture and media could affect the success with which they operate in international outsourcing activities. This article provides technical communication instructors with a series of Web-based exercises they can use to familiarize students with different aspects that can affect intercultural online interactions. It also provides a series of online resources students can use to enhance their understanding of cross-cultural communication in cyberspace. http://tc.eserver.org/29148.html http://tc.eserver.org/29148.html The author has taught a distance education version of the undergraduate technical communication service course at Boise State University since 1997 and shares the strategies he has found to decrease the time instructors spend teaching online, thereby enabling them to use the time they do have to enhance their students' online experience. These strategies are distributed among four areas: management of collaboration, presentation of course material, grading, and interaction with students. For each one, the author presents the problems that may occur and approaches to resolving them. The article addresses a number of concerns expressed in the scholarly literature on distance education and is informed by surveys given to five sections of the author's course taught between 2001 and 2003. Interspersed through the article is an overview of some of the current research and commentary on distance education of particular interest to those teaching the technical communication service course via the Internet. http://tc.eserver.org/29092.html http://tc.eserver.org/29092.html The first part of this article shows that research in the history of technical communication has increased in quantity and sophistication over the last 20 years. Scholarship that describes how to teach with that information, however, has not followed, even though teaching the history of the field is a need recognized by several scholars. The article provides and defends four guidelines as a foundation to study ways to incorporate history into classroom lessons: 1) maintain a continued research interest in teaching history; 2) limit to technical rather than scientific discourse; 3) focus on English-language texts; and 4) focus on American texts, authors, and practices. The second part of the essay works within the guidelines to show a lesson that contrasts technical texts by Benjamin Franklin and Herbert Hoover. The lesson can help students see the difference in technical writing before and after the Industrial Revolution, a difference that mirrors their own transition from the university to the workforce. http://tc.eserver.org/25767.html http://tc.eserver.org/25767.html Because we have no definitive information that describes the curriculum for a typical technical communication program, programs have developed and evolved into unique offerings. http://tc.eserver.org/24869.html http://tc.eserver.org/24869.html Currently there is no clear typology of academic programs in technical communication. Lacking this typology. discussions of quality in academic programs necessarily run the risk of overgeneralization. Thirteen authors are working to produce a book which fills this gap. This program, in a modified progression format, previews results of the authorsâï¿ï¿ work, including profiles (with examples) of eight of the ten types ofprograms that have been identified: PhD programs, MS programs, MA programs, BS programs, BA programs, minors, non-degree programs, and new and different program types. http://tc.eserver.org/24796.html http://tc.eserver.org/24796.html Survey data indicate that current academic programs in technical communication exhibit more differences than similarities in requirements, student support, faculty, schedule, and student support. Moreover, current programs are vigorous, continue to increase, and exhibit three primary needs: increased budgets, more new faculty, and increased involvement with industry. http://tc.eserver.org/24557.html http://tc.eserver.org/24557.html This article proposes a postmodern reconceptualization of technical communication pedagogy to make student and professional agency a major concern, especially because technical communicators must compete in a global economy that rewards flexibility and penalizes inflexibility. Postmodern mapping metaphors and Robert Reich's methodology for training 'symbolic-analytic' workers are used to suggest ways in which a postmodern approach to technical communication could be taught. http://tc.eserver.org/24507.html http://tc.eserver.org/24507.html This survey of 73 top-ranked U.S. and Canadian engineering schools examines initiatives that engineering schools are taking to improve communication instruction for their students. The survey reveals that 50% of the U.S. schools and 80% of the Canadian schools require a course in technical communication. About 33% of the schools utilize some form of integrated communication instruction, and another 33% offer elective courses in communication. Just 10 schools have created engineering communication centers to provide additional individualized coaching and feedback for their students. The most comprehensive preparation that engineering schools provide is a communication-across-the-curriculum approach that combines these instructional methods to offer concentrated instruction, continual practice, situated learning, and individualized feedback. http://tc.eserver.org/24380.html http://tc.eserver.org/24380.html How does an STC chapter address such a wide scope of skills and interests? The answer for us is an educational program called STC-U. http://tc.eserver.org/24271.html http://tc.eserver.org/24271.html Most technical communication programs are housed within departments that may not respect our field's separate identity nor share interdisciplinary concerns. An alternative is program independence. Although currently not the norm, and entailing potential practical and political drawbacks for some programs, such independence may be most appropriate for programs aiming to prepare students for technical communication careers. The benefits of independence can include: focusing the curriculum more adaptively; improving faculty status and teaching by balancing traditional academic norms with workplace standards and methods; and creating more powerful and effective identities for both our programs and our profession. http://tc.eserver.org/23715.html http://tc.eserver.org/23715.html Engineering 100/University Course 163 at the University of Michigan is structured as if the students were staff engineers for a company, and we have integrated technical communication by having the students write a laboratory report for the company managerial staff. Acunique component of this assignment is that the lab manager is equally able to evaluate the technical material as well as the communication in the reports. The students responded positively to the experience, but the results show a continued need to emphasize the informational needs of the audience regarding lab protocol and recommendations for future research. http://tc.eserver.org/23446.html http://tc.eserver.org/23446.html When I started as a technical writer more than ten years ago, I wrote my first drafts with a pencil. Soon after, desktop publishing became part of my work, as did writing story boards for computer based training and managing online information projects. For several reasons the work of a technical communicator will change at an even higher rate in the future. http://tc.eserver.org/23441.html http://tc.eserver.org/23441.html Schools sending a representative to the annual CPTSC meeting have increased over the years from 9 in 1974 to 39 in 1993. Approximately 10 to 12% of the Society for Technical Communication membership identifies itself as being associated with academic programs-- although not all these programs offer certificates or degrees in technical communication. http://tc.eserver.org/23381.html http://tc.eserver.org/23381.html The border between institution types has long been a site of conflict and interest in the field of technical communication. One related border is becoming increasingly important: the border(s) between a diversifying range of institutions interested in technical communication and the PhD-granting institutions supplying them with teachers/scholars. http://tc.eserver.org/22577.html http://tc.eserver.org/22577.html Offers practical suggestions for teaching students of technical communication how to provide effective feedback on documents. http://tc.eserver.org/22451.html http://tc.eserver.org/22451.html The field of Technical Communication has long recognized the value of bringing the world of business and research into the TC classroom. Indeed, most TC programs not only require students to analyze case studies of real-world business enterprises, they also require students to participate in intensive internship programs. Certainly, TC students who engage in exercises either modeled after effective business and research practices or directly situated within these environments are better able to contribute to their employer's success once they graduate. http://tc.eserver.org/22212.html http://tc.eserver.org/22212.html The particular concern facing my institution of affiliation (U Houston-Downtown) is how to maintain prudent Technical Communication (TC) program expansion in the face of rapid growth, high demand, and scarce resources. http://tc.eserver.org/22189.html http://tc.eserver.org/22189.html What does the profession look like today? We see writers who specialize in running usability tests; writers who work with XML and database tools to manage single content sources for multiple delivery vehicles; writers who develop content and then design the layout of that content for every kind of print and electronic media, writers who grab the latest hot authoring tool and produce Web-based customer support. And the list could go on and on. The common denominator is writing skills. http://tc.eserver.org/22191.html http://tc.eserver.org/22191.html We probably need to think much more than we have in the past in terms of assessment, external evaluation, and accountability. We are hearing ever more frequently the concerns of administrators, regents, legislators, and departments of education for greater accountability by universities-concerns that will be passed down the administrative levels to program directors and teachers. This may be a blessing in disguise, an opportunity to tell the public who we are and why we are important. http://tc.eserver.org/22178.html http://tc.eserver.org/22178.html Vital academic programs have a component in practice and an obvious connection of research and theory to the undergraduate classroom. This position (not a truth) could explain, in part, the growth of technical communication as an academic discipline over the past two decades while the study of literature, often in the same department, has declined. http://tc.eserver.org/21821.html http://tc.eserver.org/21821.html Technical communication faces the same identity crisis in 2001 that it did in 1991, 1981, 1971,and 1901. It seems that no matter how much energy technical communicators invest in the development and promotion of their expertise in their social and economic marketplaces, there are always morepeople who do not know what they do or why than there are people who understand what technical communication is. Certainly, this forces program administrators to recycle old arguments while relivingold battles and working to maintain their own institutional and professional integrity. Here, years after the emergence of technical communication as a viable academic pursuit and career choice, people stillwonder if technical communication is a profession or not. There are two sources of identity crisis here: 1) mismatched standards for judging technical communication as a profession, and 2) ill-suited language for framing the qualities of technical communication professionals. http://tc.eserver.org/21668.html http://tc.eserver.org/21668.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/21223.html http://tc.eserver.org/21223.html Establishing an Education Outreach Project on the local chapter level benefits not only teachers and students in area schools but also the chapter and individual members who participate. Such a project can be as large or as small as your chapter would like; it can range from one-time presentations to an on-going program with a school that can include job-shadowing for teachers or students. http://tc.eserver.org/20569.html http://tc.eserver.org/20569.html Adresses engineering students' complaints that technical communication courses are not relevant to their major area of study. Describes a joint course in metallurgical engineering and English taught in the same classroom, with credit given in both subjects. http://tc.eserver.org/20085.html http://tc.eserver.org/20085.html Technical communicators and academics share an interest in higher education program assessment because the quality offiture employees is at stake. If universities fail to adequately educate, on-the-job training must pick up the slack. This paper describes Michigan Tech's efforts to learn what skills their recent graduates use, and where they learned these skills. http://tc.eserver.org/20086.html http://tc.eserver.org/20086.html Students and faculty alike need to develop critical and practical technological literacies. Steps can be taken by programs and institutions to encourage faculty to develop critical technological literacies that are comparable to the literacies they demand of their students. Computing is everyone’s job. Com$uting will-in fact, already has-changed technical communication research, pedagogy, and practice. Likewise, technical communication can and will change the contexts andpractices of computing. Therefore, the responsibility for computing needs to be shared throughout our institutions. http://tc.eserver.org/19947.html http://tc.eserver.org/19947.html 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. http://tc.eserver.org/19913.html http://tc.eserver.org/19913.html In the expanding global economy, the focus on international communication has largely been devoted to machine translation of technical documents, and in a world of online information it only makes sense to take advantage of the computer’s speed and relative accuracy in translating documents. However, with the emphasis on machine translation as the standard, we still need well-trained people to conduct international business intelligently and effectively. The prototype curriculum presented below outlines some of the objectives and components for a program which focuses on both the technological and cultural elements of international technical communication. http://tc.eserver.org/19689.html http://tc.eserver.org/19689.html The number of multidisciplinary skills that technical communicators must possess increases with the rapid advance of technology. Today, a dusty college degree and vintage skills signal stagnation to employers and recruiters. Continuing education is essential to keeping your skill set competitive in today’s job market. http://tc.eserver.org/19499.html http://tc.eserver.org/19499.html The field of technical communication continues to emerge both as a profession and an academic discipline as we enter the 21st century. In response to the accelerating demand for well-educated technical communication practitioners, programs and courses are proliferating at institutions throughout the world. Yet, there appears to be limited research conducted in the area of technical communication, particularly on the subject of preparation of technical communication faculty. This paper presents an overview of the major types of research methodologies commonly taught in academic programs and discusses the design of a proposed empirical research study that will assess the preparation of technical communication faculty in higher education institutions across the United States. http://tc.eserver.org/19131.html http://tc.eserver.org/19131.html Though I have a degree in technical communication and have worked as a technical writer for four years, I still had no idea what should be taught in a technical writing classroom, or how one should go about teaching it. Before I ventured into the arena as an instructor, I wanted to find out what goes on in a technical writing classroom. Two types of practical research that I thought would provide some insight into technical writing instruction were: an observation of different technical communication classrooms; and a survey of various textbooks available for technical communication courses. http://tc.eserver.org/19094.html http://tc.eserver.org/19094.html Technical Communication pedagogies that are informed by theories of Participatory Design offer new challenges and opportunities for both the assessment of student work and group projects, and in the evaluation of programmatic goals. http://tc.eserver.org/19086.html http://tc.eserver.org/19086.html 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?' http://tc.eserver.org/19107.html http://tc.eserver.org/19107.html I have been teaching HU2600, Introduction to Technical and Scientific Communication, a course in which students are introduced to the major and the profession for the last three years. Students have resisted this course during, and previous teachers report that the resistance preceded my taking over the course. I believe that students' resistance is tied, first, to the nature of technical communication education. Using C. S. Lewis's definitions, I point out that teaching the technical communication curriculum is not technically the same thing as educating the student; nor is it equivalent to offering students the chance to pursue 'learning' for its own sake. Rather, it is training aimed at producing a specialist. As such, the technical communication curriculum is what Lewis calls a composite curriculum chosen for the student by those who understand the profession better than they do. Add to this definition Jacques Ellul's claim that education in the technological society attempts to make people happy doing things they would normally not choose to do (348), and we arrive at an accurate, though unflattering, description of the project of 'educating' majors in technical communication. http://tc.eserver.org/18829.html http://tc.eserver.org/18829.html Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC) involves the application of compute r- based tools to transfer information among people over computer networks. CMC is becoming more prevalent with the rapid growth of the global network of networks known as the Internet. Because of this growth, the ability to communicate using CMC on the Internet is an important part of technical communication education. Communicating effectively using CMC involves appreciating the technical, social, and psychological factors of network use; gaining competence in using tools for Network Information Retrieval (NIR); and understanding how to communicate in CMC forums by analyzing audience, distribution medium, access methods, information-sharing practices, and social context. The rapid growth of computer and information technologies worldwide and their potential for advancing the functions of scientific and technical communication dramatizes the need for technical communicators who are competent in Computer-Mediated Communication (CMC). In this paper, I first describe CMC as a means of communicant ion on the Internet. Then, I review reasons for teaching CMC as a part of technical communication education. Finally, I outline a skill set for CMC. http://tc.eserver.org/15021.html http://tc.eserver.org/15021.html In the early 1900s, technical communication was a burgeoning professional field, represented in academe by service courses taught primarily at engineering institutions. By the 1980's, however, it had become a significant professional and academic discipline in its own right. James Souther (1990) offers the following as evidence to support this assertion: the expansion of professional organizations, in particular, the Society for Technical Communication; the growth of academic organizations like the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing and the Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication; the quality of research, for business through the Document Design Center, and from academe, particularly at Carnegie Mellon; representation on the programs of conventions of major academic groups like the Modern Language Association and the National Council of Teachers of English; an increase in the number of offerings, both in terms of classes and degree programs, at colleges and universities. Often colleges and universities that are just beginning to include technical communication in their curricula do so using faculty trained in traditional English doctoral programs. This ERIC Digest examines several areas of concern for such institutions and discusses 1) characteristics of technical communication; 2) issues in teaching technical communication; and 3) resources in teaching technical communication. http://tc.eserver.org/14290.html http://tc.eserver.org/14290.html Students think better with “props,” i.e., concrete physical examples to discuss and manipulate. This observation, however, leads to a much broader theoretical insight. Thought, by its nature, equally requires the developing organization of physical objects and the mediating traffic of neuronal impulses in our brains. http://tc.eserver.org/14215.html http://tc.eserver.org/14215.html One of the looming challenges educators face today is understanding how student diversity and uniqueness impacts the complex process of learning. Affective and conative factors are increasingly examined as we seek to understand how to teach and support the whole learner. The goal is to build theory that informs practice so that we may, as Martinez argues, move beyond “fuzzy, one-size-fi tsall [instructional] solutions” to instruction that is designed to match individual learning needs. Factors such as motivation, self-effi cacy, learning styles, and emotional intelligence have become increasingly common terms in educational research as we seek to defi ne affective and conative variables that impact the learning process as well as design of instruction. However, as with much of educational research, there are a vast number of complex, interrelated variables to consider and no one easy solution. http://tc.eserver.org/14218.html http://tc.eserver.org/14218.html Rapidly emerging technologies are bringing radical changes and challenges to today’s workplace, not just for our own profession but for many others as well. As society’s information needs change, so do the roles of technical communicators. Even the questions technical communicators face are constantly evolving: Which medium to use—and when, and how? Paper or online? Verbal or visual? Such questions were unheard of when many of us entered the profession, but they are commonplace for many practicing technical communicators today (as they certainly will be for many of today’s university students in their careers—and it’s impossible to guess what other questions will be just as routine for them, questions we cannot predict because quite likely the concepts and gadgets and words involved do not yet exist). http://tc.eserver.org/14216.html http://tc.eserver.org/14216.html The backdrop facilitating Margaret Martinez’s study and the increased interest in studies of learners and of alternative learning environments is a complicated one. Most certainly, technological advances during the last decade have invigorated educational institutions and corporate interest in providing alternative educational opportunities for under-represented audiences. Additionally, numerous educational researchers have noted the increased pressure to provide improved educational experiences that are driven by both internal and external pressures on traditional educational institutions. http://tc.eserver.org/14073.html http://tc.eserver.org/14073.html A lot of faculty feel threatened by distance learning because they think that it’s going to displace them. If a University’s view of courses is 'canned courses', then the instructor is no longer needed. In theory, the University can capture a professor’s intellectual property once and offer the course as often as the University wants to without any further compensation to the professor. To me, canned courses are not graduate education anyway. I guess watching a tape lecture is better than nothing at all. Of course, you can read books and get the ideas if that’s all you want, but to me graduate education is more than just reading books. The major experience is the exchange of ideas between instructor and students. I don’t think videotaping or HTML-izing lectures gives you that. http://tc.eserver.org/14030.html http://tc.eserver.org/14030.html Since numerous engineering colleges are currently creating or expanding programs in technical communication, many universities are debating whether the program should be placed in the English department or in the college of engineering itself. In arguing for the latter option, a number of technical writing teachers have published the opinion that our courses are markedly different from general courses on expository prose which are taught in English departments. This is true; there are essential points of departure. However, one difference that is frequently cited is the requiring of a good deal of reading during a writing course. This approach is generally associated with English departments, having no relevance to the way technical writing is properly taught. In this paper, I shall present two reasons for including numerous reading assignments when teaching technical writing to engineering students, and I shall suggest methods by which to do so. http://tc.eserver.org/14028.html http://tc.eserver.org/14028.html Where are the departments that are truly strong at the extremes of literature and technical writing, yet have a Rogerian discussion of the differences going on? The sort of department I mean would offer work in technical and professional writing comparable to that at Rensselaer or Carnegie Mellon and literary theory comparable to that at Duke or Berkeley. Am I wrong in assuming that technical writers can and do move all the way from one extreme to the other, while literature professors do not see themselves either at an extreme or as part of any sort of continuum that would, if followed far enough, reach to the writing of software documentation for a process control?