The Year In Review

This year was an active one for the field of technical communication. New tools and technologies made their mark on our profession, while new pressures and business goals began to impact the way we see ourselves, our role in the organization, and our place in the communication spectrum. In this end-of-the-year report, Scott Abel, president of TheContentWrangler.com, takes a look at some of the year's most important developments in the field of technical communication and makes a few predictions of importance to documentation managers for 2007.

Abel, Scott. TechCom Manager (2006). Articles>TC>History

A. Stanley Higgins and the History of STC's Journal  

A profile of Stan Higgins, one of the first editors of STC's journal. Based on archival research and an interview with Higgins. Includes a table of journal titles (e.g., TWE Journal, STWE Review) and names of editors.

Malone, Edward A. IEEE PCS (2008). Articles>TC>Publishing>History

Tech Comm Lobotomies

Although we look at the past with embarrassment about some of our practices, we often lack the foresight to see the present with the same degree of scrutiny. Years from now, we’ll look back at what we’re currently doing and not only blush, but feel remorse and wish we could get back what we lost.

Johnson, Tom H. I'd Rather Be Writing (2009). Articles>TC>Technical Writing>History

The Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication at 35 Years: A Sequel and Perspective  

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.

Maylath, Bruce A.R. and Jeffrey Grabill. Programmatic Perspectives (2009). Articles>Education>TC>History

Putting China's Technical Communication into Historical Context    

Examines the Chinese culinary instruction genre. Analyzes culinary texts produced from 500 BC to the present. Argues for a historicized and contextualized understanding of technical communication in China.

Yu, Han. Technical Communication Online (2009). Articles>TC>History>China

Prediscursive Technical Communication in the Early American Iron Industry      

Examing the discourse surrounding the charcoal iron industry between 1760 and 1860 in North America, this article suggests that, prior to the industrialization of work, technical communication took place in a prediscursive setting, an oral and physical world that we can just manage to glimpse even as we watch it recede. The letters of Robert Erskine written in 1770 illustrate the prediscursive methods of technical communication. By the 1860s, a flood of governmental, professional, and commercial publications appeared, each signifying the disappearance of this prediscursive world. This transition from prediscursive to discursive methods may mark one of the largest changes in the history of technical communication.

Johnson, Carol Siri. TCQ (2006). Articles>TC>History

History, Rhetoric, and Humanism: Toward a More Comprehensive Definition of Technical Communication    

Recent research suggests that pragmatic emphasis on writing proficiency alone does not produce a good technical communicator. Attention must also be given to the technical communicator as liberally educated generalist who writes well and feels an affinity for science or technology. To this end, technical communication needs to be studied in the larger context of evolving science and technology, developing trends in technical education, and the oratorical tradition of broad learning applied to the active life. Recent studies of the collaborative culture of the workplace should be supplemented by increased attention to humanistic questions of what a person needs to be and know in order to cooperate effectively as a practicing technical communicator.

Rutter, Russell. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (1991). Articles>TC>History>Rhetoric

Does Clio Have a Place in Technical Writing? Considering Patents in a History of Technical Communication    

Technical writers need a historical perspective in order to distinguish between enduring and transitory writing standards, to understand the variety of past styles in building future styles, and to give the profession a better sense of self-identity. To overcome the problems in developing a historical perspective, such as a dearth of artifacts to examine and the peculiarities in rhetorical time and place which undercut attempts to generalize on historical information, the 200 year-old federal collection of patents is offered as a solution. This collection of patents is also very often the only remaining written work of the ordinary mechanic of the nineteenth century, and this collection truly reflects technical not legal, business, or science writing.

Brockmann, R. John. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (1988). Articles>TC>Patents>History

Problems with TC Service Courses at Research Universities, Part 1

The majority of technical writing service courses are offered by English Departments. Commonly, literature departments simply continued on in the money- and time-saving practice of hiring adjunct lecturers to teach technical writing, thus playing a starring role in some of the most common problems in technical writing service courses today.

England, Pete. Blogspot (2010). Articles>Education>TC>History