Building Group Spirit  

Technical communication courses and training programs often benefit from peer review or group critique. To encourage learning, these activities require a constructive climate: Students must listen to one another, be receptive to feedback, and refrain from reproaches, interpretations, and judgments. Such a positive group spirit is not a given, especially if the school or corporate environment encourages competition more than collaboration. Teachers must foster an appropriate environment if they want their collaborative learning activities to be successful.

Doumont, Jean-luc. Intercom (2003). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Collaboration

Café, thé, Ou Lait?: How Shall We Train Technical Communicators to Translate?  

Despite global trade, technical communication training programs have largely ignored translation issues. Some technical translation specialists suggest a full course to remedy this, a fully caffeinated approach we call cafe; others recommend fitting translation preparation into already existing courses, a lighter caffeine approach we call the. (Lait refers to the “caffeine-free ” courses lacking mention of culture, translation, or international audiences.) The second option, the, is probably the most realistic. Brewing our own the, one of us has experimented with addressing translation “pests. ” The other has examined the cultural gaps between U.S.-based technical communicators and their audiences abroad.

Maylath, Bruce A.R. and Emily A. Thrush. STC Proceedings (1997). Articles>Education>Localization

Can Academic Partnerships in Technical Communication Work?: Lessons from Minnesota  

Interuniversity partnerships are widely encouraged as a way for public universities to pool increasingly scarce resources, to minimize duplication of academic programs, and to cooperate rather than compete. Joint programs in technical communication have not been widely studied, but they seem especially logical for several reasons.

Black, Suzanne. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Management>Collaboration

Can This Marriage Be Saved: IS an English Department a Good Home for Technical Communication?    

In partial answer to the many questions that have been raised about the definition and location of technical writing programs, a random sample of full-time teachers of professional writing was conducted. The results indicate that those located in English departments do not receive the respect and support they need. Those located in other departments are significantly more satisfied. Some strategies for improving the situation are suggested.

MacNealy, Mary Sue and Leon B. Heaton. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (1999). Academic>Education>TC>Professionalism

Can You Take Localization In School?  

Localization is an interdisciplinary endeavor and so has been difficult for postsecondary institutions to come to terms with. Recently, however, several institutions have begun offering coursework and programs, although their implementation and delivery are as diverse as the field itself.

Altanero, Tim. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Education>Localization

The Canadian Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (CATTW)

The largest Canadian association for technical writers. CATTW/ACPRTS (Association canadienne des professeurs de rédaction technique et scientifique) has the unique mandate of encouraging research and discussion about technical communication in both of Canada's two official languages. Our association also actively encourages interdisciplinary and community-based research.

CATTW. Organizations>Education>Regional>Canada

The Canisius Project: From Field-Work To Classroom    

In the Canisius Project for Writing Across the Curriculum, we have studied the writing worlds of business, social services, science and technology, and 'public life' (the media, public relations, law, fund raising, and the like). For all these fields, our research has followed the same basic pattern. We begin with an initial interview, using a questionnaire which asks about the range of tasks, the problems, the methods, and the significance of the person's work world writing. Then we collect a portfolio of the person's writings. As an ideal, we request at least one sample of each kind of writing, with several samples of the most frequent and important kinds. After studying the portfolio, we return for a taped interview which focuses on specific features of selected pieces of writing. At the end of each research sequence, we hold a workshop which brings together researchers, faculty from the relevant departments, and as many as possible of our work world writers. Near the end of the workshop, the group defines some of the goals and methods most important for an upper level writing course which is to be aimed at, but not restricted to, business majors, or social science majors, or science majors, or humanities majors. (The groups of majors correspond to our research sequences: business, social services, science and technology, and, for want of a better term, public life.)

Schroeder, Melvin W. and Kenneth M. Sroka. JAC (1981). Articles>Education>Writing Across the Curriculum

The Care of Content: A Red-Pen-Wielder's Perspective

What is the world (wide web) coming to when even us blue-haired English teachers have something to say about the Net? After all, we're supposed to be consumed with the past--a time long before the binary code when writers still used quills, and men, unfortunately, wore tights. (Sorry for the visual.) Well, in defense of red-pen-wielders everywhere, I have to say that just ain't so. Technology, particularly that which furthers education, is our concern. And the Internet (yes, I just started a sentence with the world 'and') is a source of great conflict. On the one hand, it is a storehouse from which vast amounts of knowledge may be retrieved--it provides information that may otherwise be inaccessible. On the other hand, because of its nature as an abyss, it's an illimitable source for the plagiarist. So, ironically, something that should catalyze learning is actually, in a way, simply making it easier for students not to learn.

Blum, Daphne. Digital Web Magazine (2000). Articles>Education>Information Design

A Career Theory for Technical Communicators: How Career Theory Informs Training and Education  

Career theory should inform any individual or corporate needs analysis for professional development. A useful career theory for technical communicators is one developed just for them. For this reason we designed the multi-phase study. This discussion focuses on the definition of career theory and how existing career theory can inform technical communication training theory. The research design used to create our survey has evolved from the relevant literature on career planning and career management. The literature on career planning and management contains no career theory specific to technical communicators. Traditionally, training personnel have assumed that professional development, training, and to some degree, post-graduate education are determined by the employer’s needs. This is true particularly in cases of tuition assistance for expensive technical or graduate training.

Marie, Ann Ryan. STC Proceedings (1993). Presentations>Education

The Case for Writing Studies as a Major Discipline   

Literate activity, directly and indirectly, occupies much of the day of people in modern society. Literacy in its basic and more elaborated, specialized forms is the cornerstone in the education of the young. Literacy and symbolic artifacts underlay the information age and its information economy. Literacy along with its enabling technologies and consequent forms of social, political, and economic organization, has supported ways of life that distinguish us from humans of 5000 years ago. Literate engagement is also associated with forms of belief, commitment, and consciousness that shape modern personality. Yet the study of writing--its production, its circulation, its uses, its role in the development of individuals and societies, and its learning by individuals, social collectives, and historically emergent cultures--remains a dispersed enterprise. Inquiry into skills, practices, objects, and consequences of reading and writing is the concern of only a few people, fragmented across university disciplines, with no serious home of its own.

Bazerman, Charles. UCSB (2002). Articles>Education>Writing

CAST

CAST is a not-for-profit education research and development organization that uses technology to make education more flexible and accessible for all students, especially those with disabilities.

CAST. Organizations>Accessibility>Education

Certification in Technical Communication    

The debate over certification of technical and professional communicators has occurred with periods of relative intensity and quiescence for more than twenty years. This article surveys the historical developments of the debate; describes the arguments for and against certification; surveys technical communication curricula and theoretical arguments for literacies, standards, and competencies; and examines various efforts to study certification, including a description of published documents regarding certification.

Turner, Roy K. and Charles Paine. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Careers>Certification>TC>Education

The Challenge of Plagiarism Control in Universities and Colleges  

The Challenge of Plagiarism Control in Universities and Colleges discusses the complex issues involved with plagiarism such as defining the term and responding to the act of plagiarism. The paper also includes data detailing who is plagiarizing and why. Finally, the paper addresses university protocol and potential for uniformity in the tracking and response of universities and colleges. The perils of not finding a way to limit or eradicate plagiarism further endanger the authenticity of a college degree.

Smydra, Rachel V. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Ethics>Plagiarism

Challenges and Solutions for Program Administrators

A discussion of challenges and solutions for hiring professional and technical communication specialists at teaching-focused universities.

Adkins, Kaye, Molly Johnson and Bruce Maylath. CPTSC (2005). Presentations>Education>Recruiting>Interviewing

Change Agents or Followers: Analyzing Genres in the Business Writing Classroom  

Asking business students to perform a rhetorical analysis of generic conventions may help students gain the confidence to modify those conventions. Research shows that while generic conventions impose constraints, experienced writers also learn they have the agency to modify those conventions to meet the exigency of the rhetorical situation. The article reviews both traditional conceptions of the nature of genre as well as recent research, and describes an assignment which uses genre analysis as a means of teaching students the social nature of generic structures.

Amidon, Stevens R. Association for Business Communication (2004). Articles>Education>Genre>Business Communication

Change by Stealth: Influencing Design Education

Ensuring that designers have the appropriate skills for addressing twenty-first century challenges and encouraging a greater understanding of how design can be used to shape society, should undoubtedly be the priorities of a contemporary design education agenda.

Hewer, Susan. Design for All (2006). Design>User Centered Design>Education

Changes In the Training of Writing Teachers  

English departments are once again confronted with charges in the popular media that the illiteracy of the American people generally, and of recent high school graduates in particular, constitutes a disturbing or perhaps even a dangerous state which we should regard as having reached 'crisis' proportions. In the past, this public concern has been directed primarily at reading ability, but in its present form, it focuses on writing skill. Not surprisingly, much of the commentary has been directed at elementary and secondary school teachers. Time emblazoned the news that 'Teachers Can't Teach' across the cover of its June 16, 1980, issue, then devoted several pages to a critical analysis of the shortcomings in modern American education. The authors of that article estimated that up to twenty percent of certified teachers have not mastered the 'basic skills' that they are supposed to teach.1 If this estimate is accurate—and most Americans believe, intuitively at least that it is—then we must recognize that not only are teachers unskilled in areas outside their expertise, but also, more frightening, they are incompetent within areas in which they ostensibly are trained. And since, as Charles Moran and J. T. Skerrett recently pointed out two of the three traditional Rs of basic education are within the province of the English teachers, we must be particularly sensitive to the criticism presently being leveled at teacher inability.

Ward, Jay A. JAC (1981). Articles>Education>Writing

The Changing and Emerging Role of the Instructional Developer  

Today's instructional developer is required to know much more than the Instructional Systems Design methodology. He/she must know a multitude of authoring tools, and must also know the storyboarding and development process for designing technology-based learning programs. Technology-based learning presents four unique challenges for instructional developers. These are: accommodating different learning styles; addressing differing technologies in learners’ computers; developing training packages for mass quantities of learners; and acquiring new skill sets. Technology-based learning also presents many new opportunities for instructional developers, including the chance to develop exciting tools such as wizards, coaches, and computer-based training programs.

Levin, Marissa. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

Changing How the World Communicates: Secondary Curricula in Technical Communication  

To prepare today's students for the world of work, language arts curricula should include reading and writing about technical subjects as well as about works of literature. Many students have difficulty comprehending computer documentation, safety instructions, and product manuals. They are also ill prepared to do the kinds of writing and speaking required on the job. This panel will address the following topics, as well as others raised by the audience.

Hayhoe, George F., E. Thomas Abbott, Ronald S. Blicq, Lisa A. Moretto and Trish Pollick. STC Proceedings (1996). Articles>Education>TC

Changing the Center of Gravity: Collaborative Writing Program Administration in Large Universities    

Technical communication practices have been changed dramatically by the increasingly ubiquitous nature of digital technologies. Yet, while those who work in the profession have been living through this dramatic change, our academic discipline has been moving at a slower pace, at times appearing quite unsure about how to proceed. This article focuses on the following three areas of opportunity for change in our discipline in relation to digital technologies: access and expectations, scholarship and community building, and accountability and partnering.

Johnson-Sheehan, Richard D. and Charles Paine. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Education>Writing>Collaboration

The Chicago Chapter STC Institute for Professional Development: A Model for Developing Partnerships Between STC and Universities/Colleges  

The Chicago Chapter STC Institute for Professional Development (IPD) is a good example of how STC chapters can help bridge the gap between theory and practice by partnering with colleges and universities to offer credit courses for those with little or no experience or prior course work in technical communication. Such partnerships help the local STC chapters by enhancing awareness of our profession in their geographic areas (and building STC membership and involvement), by serving the educational needs of its newer members, and by providing teaching and mentoring opportunities for its more experienced members. Above all, by bringing together teachers, researchers, and practitioners of technical communication to design, plan, and implement courses, the Chicago IPD models the very type of teamwork that has become essential for success in today’s world.

Abbott, Christine. STC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Education>Professionalism

Clashing Technologies: The Legacy of 19th Century Writing Instruction Meets the 21st Century Writing Classroom

In most writing classrooms, the primary activity is not writing per se, but rather the discussion of writing. You know the drill: as teachers, we create a writing assignment, introduce it during class, ask students if they have any questions, and send them off to work on the assignment. When students return to class with a draft of the assignment, we might discuss it as a class or perhaps put the students through a peer review session. But only rarely do we ask our students to actually write during class.

Palmquist, Mike. Lore (2001). Articles>Education>Writing>Rhetoric

Classical Rhetoric and Technical Writing    

English departments, eager to boost enrollment, may press teachers into duty teaching technical writing courses on short notice and with little preparation.

Lunsford, Andrea A. CCC (1976). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing