#30090
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
#30542
Producing Brochures in the Technical Writing Classroom
Producing brochures for real clients teaches college-level technical writing students about constraints of cost, time, and the availability of materials. Brochure writing also provides opportunities for learning more about editing, collaborative work, document design, and the problems which may occur during the production of real documents. Brochures of good quality can be produced by a class in approximately three weeks, or nine classroom hours. Grading brochures is expedited through the use of a simple heuristic.
Ryan, Charlton. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Document Design>Technical Writing
#19131
Reflections of a GTA on the Teaching of Technical Writing
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.
Anderson, Ginger. Michigan Tech University (1998). Articles>Education>TC>Technical Writing
#13902
A case study of an experienced professor's comments on a design report in a first-year engineering class was conducted over the period of an academic year. When compared with the commenting styles of technical writing teachers, the engineering professor's comments were found to be highly directive, and thus at odds with the preference for facilitative comments that prevails in composition studies. However, differences in genre conventions explain much of the discrepancy.
Miller, Paul, Jaye Bausser and Audeen Fentiman. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Articles>Education>Engineering>Technical Writing
#21806
Rethinking the Evaluation of Writing in Engineering Courses 
The objective of this paper is to bring about a reevaluation of writing assessment practices in engineering classes. The authors begin by drawing rhetoric (the knowledge base of effective technical communication) and engineering together, explaining how engineering work is rhetorical. From this theoretical vantage point, the authors argue for a change in engineering writing assessment practices. Specifically, they argue for an approach that favors formative assessment (focused on writing comments that lead to both better writing and better engineering) over summative assessment (which sees writing ability as separate from engineering design). The authors continue by revealing a scoring guide for the formative assessment of engineering reports, and detailing the process by which such a scoring guide may be created. Each criterion in the scoring guide is explained in terms of the rhetorical and engineering principles that it simultaneously addresses.
Swarts, Jason and Lee Odell. Rice University (2001). Articles>Education>Engineering>Technical Writing
#23375
I am asking my program to incorporate more of the liberal arts into the course's title and course description to better appeal to (and serve) students in a liberal arts college. The course will have one or two new sophomore level iterations: as a technical/research writing course in which students complete a semester long service project, researching and writing a final report while focusing on writing, research, and mathematical skills, and/or as a technical writing/document design class where students focus on the document design and writing skills needed to produce items such as a resume, flyers, brochures, posters, and more.
Sehmel, Heather. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#10704
Role of Technical Writers in Developing eLearning
Many companies are starting to use eLearning to train their workers, managers, customers and suppliers. Some of those companies want to use their internal technical writers or communicators to not only write the content, but also to develop the CBT or WBT.
Kurtus, Ron. School for Champions. Articles>Education>Online>Technical Writing
#29044
Service Learning in the Introductory Technical Writing Class: A Perfect Match? 
Teachers at all levels of college instruction use service learning, a popular pedagogical tool since the mid-eighties, to teach students both social consciousness and pragmatic, real-world writing skills. This article explores the concept of service learning as rhetorical action in the field of technical communication in general, and the question of whether service learning is appropriate in beginning level technical writing courses. Using my experience through two years of service learning instruction in community college classes, I respond to the charge that students in lower-division courses may lack the maturity to successfully enact service learning assignments. I also analyze the appropriateness of the community college as a catalyst for community-based writing projects.
Stone, Elisa. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2000). Articles>Education>Service Learning>Technical Writing
#30369
A Simple Recipe to Help Build a Goal-Oriented Training Program for Your Department
Addressing a department's learning requirements is a tough call because of the different levels of complexities and challenges involved. With learning requirements poorly understood and sometimes even out of sync with department goals, a majority of training programs fail to achieve any major business objectives. What you need is the right approach to develop, monitor and standardize a cost-effective, people and result-oriented training program that works magic for you and your department.
Kudesia, Saurabh. STC Management SIG (2007). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#24207
Strategies for Teaching Online Documentation
This workshop outlines the rationale for teaching college courses in online documentation, issues to consider, suggests a strategy for teaching the course (including topic sequence, exercises, and simulation), and demonstrates useful electronic resources.
Sammons, Martha C., Tabatha Dillon and Melinda Hoffbauer. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#24905
A Survey of Technical Writing Practitioners and Professors: Are We on the Same Page?
Do technical writing professors teach what practitioners practice? Do practitioners practice what professors preach? We surveyed writers and teachers nationwide, asking each group to rate the importance of types of writing, writing skills, electronic communications, computer usage, and nonwriting topics, such as oral presentations and graphics. Teachers and writers agree that ethics, revision, and document design are important. However, writers focus on manuals, whereas professors teach reports and resumes. Writers emphasize grammar, punctuation, hypertext, and total quality management, whereas teachers emphasize passive voice and personalization. The two groups differ often and significantly.
Gerson, Sharon J. and Steven M. Gerson. STC Proceedings (1995). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#29246
In light of growing interest in technical communication around the world, cross-cultural teaching opportunities may challenge basic assumptions about teaching and learning for both teachers and students. A faculty-development project in the People's Republic of China illustrates various ways facilities, educational practices, and worldviews from each side of the exchange require significant compromise. A negotiated, student-centered classroom environment may be a significant strategy for instruction in such settings.
Dautermann, Jennie. Technical Communication Quarterly (2005). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>China
#14025
Teaching Critical Thinking in The Technical Writing Class
It is probable that the Technical Writing course provides for upperclassmen the most intensive and extensive experience with written English that they will have during their undergraduate education. Traditionally, the course has bridged the world of work and the world of school. We instructors try to prepare our students for on-the-job professional writing, and it would seem that this objective is met through the special goals of the course: writing to particular audiences, using precise language, mastering formats, and using graphics. Such observable skills are valuable: indeed, Green and Nolan indicate, in their piece in the recent 'Education' issue of Technical Communication, that the fundamental requirements of an entering technical communicator's job are writing, editing, and researching. Yet, what are we to make of the prediction that Paul V. Anderson cites in that very same issue, that the advent of more highly sophisticated computer software will eliminate up to 75 percent of the present jobs in technical communication, rendering entire categories of jobs obsolete? We must teach, then, in addition to these surface writing abilities the deep structure reasoning skills that nourish them, those skills that are highly esteemed by business, industry, and academia.
Meyers, G. Douglas. JAC (1985). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#20580
Teaching Documentation Writing: What Else Students--and Instructors--Should Know
Discusses knowledge, problem-solving strategies, and desktop publishing skills students need to learn about documentation writing. Describes a course that provides these skills. Also applies to in-house training programs.
Boiarsky, Carolyn and Michael Dobberstein. Technical Communication Online (2003). Articles>Education>Documentation>Technical Writing
#29891
The demands of former students, of industry, and of the accreditation board have prompted the engineering education community to investigate the integration of communication proficiencies into the four-year engineering curriculum. While much literature has been devoted to this task in the last several years, the engineering communication programs at most institutions can be described as employing either a peripheral or diffuse model to offer technical communication instruction. Each of these models is problematic. This article describes a novel 'hybrid' engineering communication education model under development at NC State University that is vertically integrated and discipline conscious.
Kmiec, David M., Jr. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>Education
#29118
Teaching Technical Writing Through Student Peer-Evaluation
Individual students in two different sections of an undergraduate civil engineering laboratory were tasked with preparing three professional-quality laboratory reports. The teaching assistant and/or instructor used established criteria to grade the first two reports prepared by students in one section. The first two reports prepared by students in the other section were peer evaluated by assigned fellow students within the same laboratory section using identical grading criteria. The peer evaluated section had a higher class average than the teaching assistant/instructor graded section on the fist two reports. The third report prepared by students from both sections was graded by a professional educator/architect without knowledge of a student's class section. The peer evaluation students also had a higher class average on the third report, suggesting that the peer evaluation process may have positively contributed to those students' writing skills.
Jensen, Wayne and Bruce Fischer. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2005). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>Collaboration
#29893
Teaching Web Design in the Technical Writing Service Course: Steps Toward a Planned Evolution
This study uses an online survey of technical communication educators to examine trends in the technical writing service course with regard to web design. Participants for the study were representatives of programs in technical communication in four-year institutions of higher education throughout the United States. The study contributes to research into the function of the technical writing service course in the current technological climate. Identifying trends is one component in an evaluation that will aid effective evolution of this significant course.
Brewer, Pam Estes. STC Proceedings (2004). Articles>Education>Web Design>Technical Writing
#21412
In the United States, many technical writing courses and degree programs exist for hopeful writers. Technical writers in other countries are not necessarily so fortunate. I don't know why this should be so, but I am happy to say that this situation is improving; more and more universities and colleges are offering technical writing degrees and certificates. Since the number of schools offering technical writing programs changes frequently, providing a list of them here would soon cause this page to become out of date. To find out what technical writing courses are available in your area, contact your local universities and colleges. If there are no classes offered in your area, some universities and colleges provide online degree programs that you can complete from anywhere in the world. Also, many private companies provide technical writing courses. You can find these by typing "technical writing courses" at the search engines. Even if your local university or college does not offer any technical writing courses, you can take other courses that will be beneficial when you apply for a job.
#13695
Technical Writing in a Technological Age: Changes in the Classroom and the Workplace
Over the past decade, new media and computer technologies have permeated both the technical writing classroom and the technical writing workplace. Documents written for, and used in, these two contexts no longer include just verbal text messages and simple line art printed on standard, 20 pound white paper, as they often did in the 1970s and early 1980s. Technical writing documents today appear not just in print but in electronic form, and in electronic form these documents include multiple media such as high-resolution graphics, audio and video clips, animation sequences, and visual effects. Couple this expanded electronic form of technical writing with Internet protocols that allow for the global exchange of information, and it becomes clear that distinct challenges and opportunities exist for the field of technical writing in a technological age. What is the nature of these challenges and opportunities in the classroom and the workplace? And, what is the relationship between new media, computer technologies, and the changes currently evident in these two contexts?
Selber, Stuart A. Addison Wesley Longman (1997). Articles>Education>Online>Technical Writing
#29379
Technical Writing in College, Industry, and Government (The Junior College Program)
Recommends in-service training programs, including summer institutes and monthly workshops, to teach technical writing techniques to literature-trained English teachers who have plunged into unknown waters.
Marcus, Mitchell. CCC (1968). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#25598
Technical Writing Part Five: Education
Education and skills development are vital to a technical writing career. While there are no set-in-stone educational requirements for a technical writer, there are very few writers in the field who do not have a college degree.
Hewitt, John. Writer's Resource Center (2004). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#23328
Technical Writing Textbooks: Current Alternatives In Teaching
The textbook one chooses for a technical writing course will contribute a definition of the subject, whether implicit or explicit, but the definition and scope of what is loosely called technical writing are by no means agreed
Miller, Carolyn R. ADE Bulletin (1983). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#20713
Technical writing is used to report information. This is different from creative and other types of writing styles in many ways. We will discuss these later. Why is this important? As a scientist/engineer, it is important for you to be able to to be able to communicate your work to others in writing.
#30176
A hypothetical 'technical writing machine' was created as an aid in teaching writers how to develop troubleshooting procedures. Students use a schematic diagram of the 'machine' to determine possible faults and their causes. They learn to consider factors such as reliability and support equipment requirements as they determine a fault isolation strategy and presentation format. The 'machine' eliminates the need for students to have specific system technical knowledge and allows them to concentrate on the techniques of writing troubleshooting procedures.
Moran, Thomas E. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#30128
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
