#25882
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
#22609
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
#23696
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
#31081
Using Humor in the Technical Writing Classroom 
Humor in the classroom is about engagement and involvement. Learn some new techniques to use and when to tread carefully.
Campbell, Alexa. Intercom (2008). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#29107
What Technical Writing Students Should Know About Typeface Personality
Typeface personality impacts the rhetorical effect of students' documents, yet it receives little attention in textbooks. Technical writing students should stand the definition of "appropriate" in relation to typeface selection, the difference between type's functional and semantic properties, the difference between type family and personality, the effect of a typeface's history, and the contribution of a typeface's anatomy to its personality. Understanding these, students can make informed decisions about typeface appropriateness.
Mackiewicz, Jo M. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Typography>Technical Writing
#23371
Technical writing faculty who work in solo situations are often seen as the 'other' in their home departments, whether we are housed with literature, business, or engineering faculty. We are thus inscribed in a unique border location, and consequently are further inscribed in a peripheral location within the greater technical writing academy.
Nardone, Carroll Ferguson. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#30598
The Writer as Trainer: How to Transfer Your Skills and Empower Others Without Losing Your Job
Technical writing may be seen as a marginal activity without clear economic benefit to an organization. Yet writing and editing can be tied to an organization's bottom line. Writers can use training and other interventions to demonstrate their own effectiveness. Such interventions can raise the efficiency with which their organizations produce documents and improve the quality of the documents themselves. Customer-oriented organizations will be most receptive to these interventions, but even unreceptive organizations can change their practices. Successful interventions require working with others and will mean added responsibilities for the writer.
Moody, Helen. STC Proceedings (1993). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#32618
This research article reports the results of an online survey distributed among technical writing instructors in 2006. The survey aimed to examine how we teach intercultural communication in basic technical writing courses: our current practices and methods. The article discusses three major challenges that instructors may face when teaching about intercultural communication. These challenges concern teacher preparation, time and proposed goals and objectives, and teaching materials and methods. This article provides some suggestions for addressing the challenges and enriching a technical writing curriculum.
Matveeva, Natalia. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#33157
How a Teacher Reminded Me Why I’m a Writer
I enjoy creating content. I like to take words and arrange them to convey ideas, paint pictures, spur thought, and give guidance. I like thinking about what arrangement of the words will bring the best impact. I write not necessarily because the world turns on ideas or because information is a buyable product, but because words have a lasting effect on people.
Gryphon Mountain (2008). Articles>Writing>Education>Technical Writing
#33621
Toward a Post-Technê: Or, Inventing Pedagogies for Professional Writing
This article examines the concept of technê in relation to situatedness. Technê 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 technê, the article moves toward the concept of post-technê, which remakes pedagogical techniques for writing and inventing in institutional contexts.
Hawk, Byron. TCQ (2004). Articles>Education>Business Communication>Technical Writing
#34398
Reinventing the (Professional Writing) Major
I have been dwelling for some time with ideas for rethinking the professional writing major in response to phenomena that aren’t going away, such as the inadequacy of the university for life-long learning and the unsustainable way that public education is funded.
Grabill, Jeffrey T. WIDE Research Center (2009). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>Blogs
#34986
This research article reports the results of an online survey distributed among technical writing instructors in 2006. The survey aimed to examine how we teach intercultural communication in basic technical writing courses: our current practices and methods. The article discusses three major challenges that instructors may face when teaching about intercultural communication. These challenges concern teacher preparation, time and proposed goals and objectives, and teaching materials and methods. This article provides some suggestions for addressing the challenges and enriching a technical writing curriculum.
Matveeva, Natalia. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
#35004
A significant problem for practitioners of technical communication is to gain the skills to compete in a global, multicultural work environment. Instructors of technical communication can provide future practitioners with the tools to compete and excel in this global environment by introducing heuristics of cultural dimensions into the service-level classroom. By practicing how to use these heuristics in "real-world" contexts, instructors can prepare students to function as both information architects and symbolic-analytic operators within this global work environment. In this article, I first examine common cultural heuristics as they pertain to business communication. Next, I articulate how technical communicators can benefit from incorporating these heuristics into the classroom. Finally, I offer a pedagogical approach to introducing heuristics of cultural dimensions into the service-level technical communication classroom.
Schafer, Robert. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2009). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>International
#35121
School Standards That Support Technical Writing
The value of learning effective nonfiction nonnarrative writing ("technical writing") for middle- and high-school students has been cited repeatedly in official and unofficial academic standards starting in the early 1990s.
Girill, T.R. STC East Bay (2008). Articles>Education>Standards>Technical Writing
#35132
The First Weeklong Technical Writers' Institute and Its Impact
Rensselaer’s Technical Writers' Institute, the first program of its kind, had a profound impact on technical communication. It enabled technical communicators without formal education in the field to gain important knowledge, provided a forum for communicators from different industries to meet in order to solve mutual problems, played a key role in defining the field and its needs, encouraged recruitment (including the hiring of more women), promoted professional societies and formal degree programs, and seriously affected industry training programs by enabling them to use institute teaching materials. Knowledge gained through the Technical Writers' Institute enabled Rensselaer to develop many other innovations.
Whitburn, Merrill. Journal of Business and Technical Communication (2009). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing
