Improved Student Writing in Business Communication Classes: Strategies For Teaching And Evaluation    

Students in business communication classes are expected to write various types of documents. Research has illustrated that undergraduate student writing skills have not improved even though most states have begun writing proficiency tests at the elementary, middle, and high school levels. By the time students enroll in college, students are expected to be proficient writers. In some cases, this is true. In far too many cases, students continue to need writing development. In business communication classes, these weaknesses cannot be ignored. This article's purpose is to give guidance to instructors to motivate their students to produce better written products. The difficulty is how to do this most effectively. The authors present some ideas on how to improve student writing through some creative teaching and evaluation strategies.

Stowers, Robert H. and Randolph T. Barker. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2003). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Writing

Incorporating Human-Computer Interface (HCI) Technology Into the Technical Writer’s Role  

At last year’s STC corlference in Seattle, Dr. Donald Norman spoke about the technical writing community becoming an integral part qf the design/development team. The HCI certificate program qfered through Renesselaer Polytechnic Institute @PI,) provides information and teaches skills that enable the technical communicator to become a valuable part of that team. This paper discusses my experience incorporating what I learned in the HCI class on a work project.

Oakley, Joanne. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Human Computer Interaction>Technical Writing

Incorporating Peer Review

Peer review is an exercise in which students review each other's written work. Peer review is often connected to revision, a part of the writing process in which writers refine and make substantive changes to their written work.

University of Minnesota (2004). Articles>Education>Editing>Writing

Incorporating Revision

Revision refers to the process of reviewing one's work and making changes (either local or global) to improve the writing.  Most teachers of writing encourage students to revise their work by creating drafts and going through a process of review -- either by having teacher review drafts or having other students review drafts.

University of Minnesota (2004). Articles>Education>Editing>Writing

The Influence of Perceptions of Task Similarity/Difference on Learning Transfer in Second Language Writing    

This study investigates the influence of students' perceptions of task similarity/ difference on the transfer of writing skills. A total of 42 students from a freshman ESL writing course completed an out-of-class writing task. For half of the students, the subject matter of the writing task was designed to be similar to the writing course; for the other half, it was designed to be different. All students were also interviewed about the writing task. Reports of learning transfer were identified in the interview transcripts, and students' performances on the task and on a recent assignment from the course were assessed. Results indicate that the intended task similarity/difference (i.e., in subject matter) did not have the expected impact on learning transfer; however, students' perceptions of task similarity/difference did influence learning transfer. Implications of these findings for theory, practice, and future research are discussed.

James, Mark Andrew. Written Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Writing>Language

An Instructor Internship In Technical Writing

We cause ourselves problems by not knowing what our counterparts in industry are doing. In my case, I taught the textbook in my first business and technical writing courses at Indiana University East, Richmond.

Driggers, Stephen. ADE Bulletin (1986). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Learning to Write: Learning about Sustainability  

I had been involved with a program at Clemson to integrate laptop computers into the engineering curriculum. In this pilot project, I had taught first-year writing since 1998 to engineering and science majors using their own laptops in classrooms equipped with ethernet connections and a video projector. This proved to be a rich environment for sharing work and collaborating among ourselves. I wanted to see whether we could extend our collaborations to other Clemson classrooms. Mary Haque (a professor in Clemson University’s Horticulture Department) and I decided that my first-year composition classes could collaborate with her horticulture classes.

Longo, Bernadette. Kairos (2001). Articles>Education>Engineering>Writing

Let the User Write the Documentation  

Teaching non-writers how to write can be challenging, especially when they are adults using new software to do their jobs. But who knows best how to write about their jobs than the end users. Through field experiences and case studies, this paper describes methods and approaches for eflectively including the end user in the documentation process, as well as educating experienced writers who are new to the system.

Doyle, Diane J. and Janet M. Samuelson. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Documentation>Education>Writing

The Lone Ranger as Technical Writing Program Administrator    

The popularity of technical writing and communication has caused many colleges and universities to scramble to hire qualified tenure-track faculty members. So-called lone ranger candidates are often lured to workplaces in which they are the sole technical writing faculty members by promises of autonomy and the ability to develop programs in ways, and at a pace, that would not necessarily be possible at other institutions. This article explores challenges faced by several such lone ranger faculty members and outlines survival strategies that may help lone rangers sustain and build their technical writing programs.

Sapp, David Alan. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2006). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Making Connections: Teaching Writing to Engineers and Technical Writers in a Multicultural Environment    

Teaching writing to engineering students representing Indian, Middle Eastern, Asian, and American cultures can be daunting as their cultural perceptions of time, gender, source of authority, individualism and risk taking, affect learning styles. However, despite cultural differences, many International students have no difficulty with much of American instruction and, in some cases, perform better than American students. Their ability to adapt to American instruction appears to depend primarily on the educational goals of their cultures.

Boiarsky, Carolyn. IEEE PCS (2008). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>Engineering

Models in Algebra and Rhetoric: A New Approach to Integrating Writing and Mathematics in a WAC Learning Community      

This paper documents an ongoing experiment designed to integrate the teaching of college algebra and college rhetoric and writing at Montgomery College in Conroe, Texas. These are the first two college-level math and English courses that students take within the college's core curriculum. Our approach focuses on the concept of models and model building and might be easily adapted to a variety of math and writing classes. We believe we have maintained the necessary rigor of both disciplines while providing a foundation which links them.

Heckelman, Ronald J. and Will-Matthis Dunn III. LLAD (2006). Articles>Writing>Education

More on Education for Technical Communicators

For most readers of TC-Forum, technical communication is an activity undertaken by dedicated technical communicators, for whom writing, editing, illustrating, or page-making is their chosen vocation. Yet there is also a much larger community for whom technical communication is only a secondary activity, although it remains an essential part of their work.

Blicq, Ronald S. TC-FORUM (1998). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Mutual Support: CAC Programs and Institutional Improvement in Undergraduate Education      

Writing- and communication-across-the-curriculum programs often develop as independent initiatives focused on improving students' writing and/or speaking by incorporating these activities into coursework and helping teachers to use them more effectively in their instruction. However, there is now much anecdotal evidence of the conditions that work against the cultivation of cross-curricular programs: faculty complacency; the weakening of a program's original spirit; reduction or elimination of funding; and the continued avoidance of involvement by some programs, administrators, or faculty (see White).

Anson, Chris, Michael Carter, Deanna P. Dannels and Jon Rust. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

NCTE Beliefs about the Teaching of Writing

Just as the nature of and expectation for literacy has changed in the past century and a half, so has the nature of writing. Much of that change has been due to technological developments, from pen and paper, to typewriter, to word processor, to networked computer, to design software capable of composing words, images, and sounds. These developments not only expanded the types of texts that writers produce, they also expanded immediate access to a wider variety of readers. With full recognition that writing is an increasingly multifaceted activity, we offer several principles that should guide effective teaching practice.

NCTE (2004). Articles>Education>Writing

The New Frontier: Conquering the World Wild Web by Mule  

This article offers a close examination of the effects that teaching hypertext markup language (HTML) has on students’ perceptions of class goals in a networked composition classroom. A networked classroom that requires students to send documents using a file transfer protocol (FTP) by command line and view the World Wide Web with a textual browser shifts the emphasis of the class from writing to coding. Helping students to identify a balance between computer technology and writing goals becomes essential to a successful classroom.

Gresham, Morgan. Computers and Composition (2000). Articles>Education>Computers and Writing

"Oh that wonderful stuff": Selected Poetry by College and Middle School Students    

When students use poetry to imagine and explore academic subjects, they examine the topic in new, creative ways, resulting in interesting and lively writings that stimulate thought and class discussions. The following poems are examples of student poetry written in a variety of classes throughout the curriculum. I am pleased to showcase student writing in this section, and I hope reading these poems will suggest possibilities and adaptations for teachers and students elsewhere.

Apostel, Shawn. LLAD (2002). Articles>Writing>Education

On Teaching Technical/Business Writing

Whether one teaches business communication or technical writing (or some amalgam of the two), the first statements an instructor makes in class should be to apprise students that the course upon which they are embarking is but a specialty within a larger field of writing, that their courses in English composition, philosophy and survey of literature (and the papers written for those courses) will all apply to the specialized communication field they now must address.

Wyld, Lionel D. Boston Broadside (1992). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

Panel Summaries Plenary Panel Processes for Thinking about WAC's Future      

Faculty often tell their students that conversations contribute to the collaborative writing process. The first plenary session was planned as a generative activity: conversations, first, among the panelists, and then involving the whole audience, to begin collaboratively writing the future on a grand scale. The result of these conversations should impact policymakers, leaders in many institutions, and legislators who control state funding.

Driskill, Linda. LLAD (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

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

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

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

Picturing Work: Visual Projects in the Writing Classroom  

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

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

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

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

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

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

Most graduate students at the Air Force Institute of Technology's School of Logistics and Acquisition Management write their theses as a team project. However, the Institute has gathered no systematic information about how students manage their collaborative thesis-writing processes. This research gathers descriptive quantitative and qualitative data from 1992 graduates concerning how they composed the teem-authored thesis. In addition, this research extends the collective vocabulary concerning collaborative writing, particularly when applied in academic settings.

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

Portrait of a Maturing Department    

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

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

Preparing to Teach Technical Writing   

To teach technical writing effectively, technical writing teachers should know enough about their students' fields to understand what their students write and help them learn how to write appropriately for non-academic audiences. This paper discusses the need for additional preparation to teach technical writing. It presents the results of an informal survey of science and business faculty, identifying resources teachers can use to learn basic concepts in science and business. Also, the paper considers the value of such a survey in developing writing assignments and rapport with faculty whose majors take technical writing courses.

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