The Tie That Binds: Technical Communication in the High School Classroom  

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.

Abbott, F. Thomas. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Education>TC

Then is Now, Small is Big: Transforming Trends

This article is not really about the future; it is about the present, because the future is already upon us.

Albing, Bill. KeyContent.org (2004). Articles>TC

Theorizing the Borders of Academic Technical Communication  

As technical communication programs come to accept our field's (emergent) status as a profession, we need to discuss more carefully how to judge the boundaries of technical communication as an academic field. Although many writers have recently called for efforts to span traditional borders between workplace practice and academic study of the field (Carver 1998, Sutcliff 2000, Eaton 2001 and Smith 2002 among others), doing so in practice can be quite difficult. From my experience as a member of the editorial board of the EServer Technical Communication Library (http://tc.eserver.org/), a website of resources in the field (originally founded explicitly to support such interdisciplinarity), I would today suggest that there are numerous practical and theoretical issues still remaining to resolve in how the field delimits and judges the diverse forms of work we perform.

Sauer, Geoffrey. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>TC>Academic

Tips and Tricks of Information Management  

Technical communication, when it comes down to basics, is getting the right information across to the right audience, with results. But how do you wade through all that ocean of information? How do you sort them, separate them, store, and retrieve them at your fingertips? In this presentation you will learn tools such as L files and Mailword, and share other tips and tricks of managing information in an open discussion with other participants.

Dijamco, Renato A. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>TC>Information Design

To Attract or to Inform: What Are Titles For?    

This article critiques some titles in journal articles for being misleading and it argues that titles need to be informative. Examples are given of work on measuring the effectiveness of titles in two areas--sentence structure and reader comprehension--and the article concludes with brief comments on the effectiveness of book titles.

Hartley, James. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2005). Articles>TC>Writing>Metadata

Together Everyone Achieves More!

The highest priority for team members is achieving the team’s goals. There may be team members who have strong personalities, possess highly specialized skills, and commit themselves to a variety of personal objectives—but the most important thing is the success of the group. To function effectively, members of a team must be flexible, trust one another, and wholeheartedly support every member of the group in its progress toward achieving its goals.

Laurent, J. Suzanna. STC Central Iowa (2001). Articles>Collaboration>TC

Total Product Communication: Your Company Is Your Product  

Learn how your work as a technical communicator can impact the marketing communication and corporate communication departments of your company. This article provides ways to demonstrate the value that effective technical communication adds across the business.

Wilson, John. Intercom (2006). Articles>Business Communication>TC

Toward an Expanded Concept of Rhetorical Delivery: The Uses of Reports in Public Policy Debates    

Preparing students for civic engagement requires new knowledge about the uses of documents for advocacy and social change. Substantial social change results from repeated rather than from single rhetorical acts. Reconsideration of the rhetorical canon of delivery suggests expanding the concept beyond its present connection to publication (visual design, medium) to a rhetorical situation comprehensively defined. Delivery may take place over time and embrace a web of activities including field work, updates, and interconnections with other publications.

Rude, Carolyn D. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>TC>Reports>Rhetoric

Toward Sociocultural Sensitivity in Rhetorical Studies of Analogy: Theoretical and Methodological Considerations    

In their macroscopic approach to analogy, rhetorical studies project the latent assumption that sound analogical reasoning is a universal property of human consciousness rather than a socioculturally inherited practice that varies over time and place. After drawing briefly from landmark work in the social sciences to show notable cases of cultural variation in analogical reasoning, I present Lev Vygotsky's concept of internalization and Dedre Gentner's structure mapping theory of analogy as fruitful theoretical and methodological avenues through which to detect sociocultural variation in analogical reasoning practices in science.

Little, Joseph. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2001). Articles>TC>Linguistics>Tropes

Towards a Library of Technical Communication  

Technical communication needs its own library, to preserve our work, and to enable other writers, editors, managers, students, teachers, and researchers to study good and bad examples, analyze what works and what does not, and develop a real history of our churning field, in which many good ideas have surfaced, then been dropped, reinvented, turned around, and forgotten. We propose developing a prototype library, soliciting materials of every kind from technical communicators around the country, and opening an ongoing discussion of paths to take toward a resource we could all use.

Price, Jonathan R., Coulombe Leland and Elena Marshall. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>TC

Towards a Library of Technical Communication

Technical communication needs its own library, to preserve our work, and to enable other writers, editors, managers, students, teachers, and researchers to study good and bad examples, analyze what works and what does not, and develop a real history of our churning field, in which many good ideas have surfaced, then been dropped, reinvented, turned around, and forgotten. We propose developing a prototype library, soliciting materials of every kind from technical communicators around the country, and opening an ongoing discussion of paths to take toward a resource we could all use.

Price, Jonathan R., Coulombe Leland and Elena Marshall. Communication Circle, The (1998). Articles>TC

Towards a Sense of Ethics for Technical Communication

Many articles from recent decades begin with the assumption that technical communicators do not have much power to make ethical decisions about their work. We need to start with a basic understanding of the relationships that technical communicators build with that audience in their work and identify ways in which those relationships might have ethical implications.

McBride, Alicia. Orange Journal, The (2002). Articles>TC>Ethics

Tracing W.E.B. Dubois' "Color Line" in Government Regulations    

In this article, I present findings from a discourse analysis of an often-overlooked genre of technical communication, regulatory writing. The study focuses on post-bellum regulations that disproportionately affected African Americans and the historical contexts in which the regulations were written. Historically, African Americans of all socioeconomic backgrounds have maintained an implicit mistrust of government regulations and the government officials who write them. The justification for this mistrust is deeply rooted in the fact that for decades regulations were not written to protect the rights of African Americans nor was their input considered in regulatory writing. In Communicating Across Cultures, Stella Ting-Toomey argues, "if conflict parties do not trust each other, they tend to move away (cognitively, affectively and physically) from each other rather than struggle side by side in negotiation" [1, p. 222]. This study reveals rhetorical strategies used in historical regulatory writing that may still impact the ethos of regulatory writers.

Williams, Miriam F. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2006). Articles>TC>Government>Ethnicity

Transferable and Local Writing Skills  

One indication of the state of our profession is the discriminations that we are just getting around to making: useful, even essential, 'sortings out' that, when then, are made, seem embarrassingly obvious. One such 'sorting out' or discrimination is essential for an understanding of what any composition class can do, whether advanced composition, technical writing, feature writing, or whatever. In the writer’s repertoire, there are local and transferable skills. Local skills have to do with a given genre and involve such matters as special forms (e. g., the scientific report), footnoting, vocabularies, special styles, and even the 'tones' that particular fields demand. Transferable skills are the 'basics' of writing: syntactic fluency, control of diction, sense of audience, organizational ability, 'mechanics' such as punctuation and spelling.

Winterowd, W. Ross. JAC (1980). Articles>TC>Writing>Rhetoric

The Transformation Process Explained

Describes the transformation methodology the STC Transformation Team has developed and its guiding principles.

STC Transformation (2004). Articles>TC>Planning>STC

Transformation: Whys and Wherefores

Why does STC need to transform, because we want to add more member value!

STC Transformation (2003). Articles>TC>Planning>STC

Trends for 2000: Moving Beyond the Cottage  

This article is one of two cover stories detailing trends in technical communication 2000. JoAnn Hackos predicts that technical communication will move from a 'cottage' industry--one that is dominated by independent craftspeople with a personal vision of their product--to a corporate industry. To survive in this team-oriented, cost-effective environment, Hackos suggests that technical communicators take note of some of the trends guiding the profession from a cottage to a corporate industry:

Hackos, JoAnn T. Intercom (2000). Articles>TC>History

Trends for 2000: Thriving in the Boom Years  

This article is one of two cover stories detailing trends in technical communication for 2000. Saul Carliner outlines trends in business, technology, writing and design, and the profession of technical communication, and examines their impact on technical communication jobs and organizations in general.

Carliner, Saul. Intercom (2000). Articles>TC>History

Trends Forum  

The 1998 trends panel will be a continuation of the successful 1995, 96, and 97 programs. Leaders from the communications industry--a mixture of STC strategic thinkers and some new faces from outside of STC--will present their thoughts on the state of the our industry and what will be necessary to keep our members in the forefront of change, as well as what avenues we should explore with our special expertise and how we should prepare for the next millennium.

Hackos, JoAnn T. STC Proceedings (1998). Articles>TC

Trends In Future Technical Communication  

This panel discussion speculates on the changes that may affect future research and theory, as products evolve and new kinds of products enter the market. The technical communication field must prepare itself for products that will communicate with the user in a different way than today. Emerging products will also be armed with more and more features and they must yet become easier to use than the ones we have today.

Lammintaus, Arto. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>TC

Trends in Research and Faculty Preparation  

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.

Rash-Konneh, Doris J. STC Proceedings (2001). Articles>TC>Education

Trends in Undergraduate Curriculum in Scientific and Technical Communication Programs    

Because we have no definitive information that describes the curriculum for a typical technical communication program, programs have developed and evolved into unique offerings.

Harner, Sandi and Anne Rich. Technical Communication Online (2005). Articles>Education>TC

Trends Panel  

How do we prepare for the future? How will trends affect our careers as technical communicators? Do we have the right set of skills to survive? Will it be most important to learn the latest technologies of information delivery? Will it be most important How do we prepare for the future? How will trends affect our careers as technical communicators: Do we have the right set of skills to survive? Will it be most important to learn the latest technologies of information delivery? Will it be most important to become effective consultants and members of product- and informationdesign teams, experts on the communication and use of information that supports human performance? Just what will the next five or ten years bring? How will the technical communication professional survive and prosper?

Hackos, JoAnn T. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>TC