#31787
To teach students how to write for the workplace and other professional contexts, technical writing teachers often assign writing tasks that reflect real-life communication contexts, a teaching approach that is grounded in the field's contextualized understanding of genre. This article argues to fully embrace contextualized literacy and better teach workplace writing, technical writing teachers also need to contextualize how they assess student writing. To this end, this article examines some of workplaces' best assessment practices and critically integrates them into an introductory technical writing classroom through a method called student-centered assessment instruments. This method engages students, as workplaces engage employees, in the assessment process to identify local requirements for writing tasks. Aligned with theory and practice, this method is not only an effective classroom assessment method, but becomes an integrated part of students' genre-learning process within and beyond the classroom.
Yu, Han. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>Education>Technical Writing>Assessment
#21267
How In-Process Measures Can Help You Manage Quality 
Some technical communicators see productivity and quality measurements as threatening when these measurements are used as an evaluation of the person, not the process or the product. Communicators can also be frustrated by the time and effort it takes to collect quality measurements with no visible result or improvement of their own work. This paper discusses how managers of technical communicators can develop and implement a system of in-process measurements to help technical communicators manage the process and improve their own final documentation before it is shipped to the customer, without being threatened by the measurement system.
Fisher, Lori H. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Writing>Assessment>Technical Writing
#29204
Because of accreditation, budget, and accountability pressures at the institutional and program levels, technical and professional communication faculty are more than ever involved in assessment-based activities. Using assessment to identify a program's strengths and weaknesses allows faculty to work toward continuous improvement based on their articulation of learning and behavioral goals and outcomes for their graduates. This article describes the processes of program assessment based on pedagogical goals, pointing out options and opportunities that will lead to a meaningful and manageable experience for technical communication faculty, and concludes with a view of how the larger academic body of technical communication programs can benefit from such work. As ATTW members take a careful look at the state of the profession from the academic perspective, we can use assessment to further direct our programs to meet professional expectations and, far more importantly, to help us meet the needs of the well-educated technical communicator.
Allen, Jo. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Education>Assessment>Technical Writing
#21522
In the age of the national information infrastructure, we are inundated with information from various sources. Each day, we come into contact with much more information than we can ever assimilate, and the amount of information that we have access to constantly increases. We generate more and more information daily, and with modern technology, such as Internet, we have immediate access to libraries and databases worldwide.
Jeansonne, Jerold. STC Proceedings (1994). Articles>Writing>Assessment>Technical Writing
#27274
You Can't Fix What You Can't Measure: Toward Better Content Metrics
Fenstermacher writes that while there are substantial benefits to globalized content, it is difficult to develop metrics to analyze this content. He discusses key terms and processes that can be used when considering cost-reduction strategies to get you on your way to developing your own content metrics.
Fenstermacher, Hans E. Intercom (2006). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Assessment
