Reaching Out: Incorporating the Intercultural in our Programs  

New opportunities for program development are emerging as higher educational institutions are pressed to prepare graduates for the challenges of working in global markets. As communications program designers we must reach out, going beyond disciplinary boundaries in order to acquire new expertise. We need more investment in incorporating the 'intercultural' in our communications programs.

Atkinson, Dianne. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>International

Reflective Instrumentalism as a Possible Guide for Revising a Master's Degree Reading List  

Although we only used Durst's model as an initial starting point to help us articulate one of the main tensions in our revision process and then basically abandoned it, the final reading list we generated--although not perfect--does reveal a degree of 'reflective instrumentalism.' Students who have seen the new list make positive comments about it because the list manages to bring what seem to be opposite poles--reflection and instrumentalism--into a single reading list that represents the current state of our discipline. Although we seemed during the process have lost sight of our model, our list, though not perfect, does seem to represent reflective instrumentalism.

Williams, Sean D. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Graduate

Report of the Technical Writer, 2014: A Possible Future  

My task here is to ponder the next twenty years of technical communication as a way of stimulating discussion about our current values. Since I'm an historical scholar and not a futurologist, I'm going to prevail upon you to join me in a thought experiment. Instead of looking forward in the usual manner of labor department reports and trend-searching popular prophets, let's follow the practice of science fiction writers-I apologize in advance to William Gibson and other masters-and place ourselves ahead in the year 2014, then look back, beginning with our own time in 1994, writing, as it were, the history of the present.

Killingsworth, M. Jimmie. CPTSC Proceedings (1994). Presentations>TC>History

Reviving Technical Writing at a Liberal Arts College: Writing a "Non-Technical" Technical Writing Course Description  

I am asking my program to incorporate more of the liberal arts into the course's title and course description to better appeal to (and serve) students in a liberal arts college. The course will have one or two new sophomore level iterations: as a technical/research writing course in which students complete a semester long service project, researching and writing a final report while focusing on writing, research, and mathematical skills, and/or as a technical writing/document design class where students focus on the document design and writing skills needed to produce items such as a resume, flyers, brochures, posters, and more.

Sehmel, Heather. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Writing>Technical Writing

The Service Course and Its Stretchable/Permeable Borders  

The smaller the program, the more stretchable/permeable the borders of the service course must become.

Patterson, Celia. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Writing

Should Academic Programs in Technical Communication Try to Strengthen the Bond between Academia and Industry?  

Whether the answer to this question is a resounding yes or no, we need to address this question when we consider models for strategic development. My own experience is that technical communication is drawing closer to issues present in both academia and industry, issues such as visualization of data, usability and field testing of products, design of instructional material for the web, and other research issues. But as the two domains need each other to begin to solve problems, the collaboration is fraught with perils, perils such as who states the problem, who manages the project, what resources are available for working on the project, and who owns the results? As we begin to try to strengthen the bond, do we currently have models for successful collaborations? Are there strategies in place that lead to success? Are certain approaches doomed to failure?

Feinberg, Susan G. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Industry and Academy>Collaboration

Should We Concentrate on Developing Specialized Programs to Fill Particular Niches?  

This question, posed as one of many in the annual call for papers, asks further if we should, in developing our technical communications programs, focus on such niches as environmental, safety, or medical writing, writing on the Web, on computer documentation, or on multimedia. As someone who has been asked to coordinate a rethinking of our school’s technical writing curriculum, such a question is paramount. From the perspective of one such as myself, who teaches at a small institution, the answer to this question hinges on three primary considerations: first, how does one balance the need to serve a small university’s duty to serve the general, liberal education requirements of a small body of students with the need to turn out graduates who have specific, marketable skills (a particularly important consideration in technical writing)? Second, how specialized can we make a class in a college like mine before enrollment figures for these classes dry up? And third, are the categories of the niches listed above really mutually exclusive, or can we say that some of them, such as writing for the Web, could be seen as a focus area that could incorporate some of the others?

LaGrandeur, Kevin. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>WPA

Sites of Critical Action for Technical & Professional Writing: Community, Corporation, Curriculum, Computing  

Our presentation will explore four potential sites of critical action for programs in technical and professional writing/communication: community, corporation, curriculum, and computing. Some of these sites have already received attention in the field (e.g., corporation); other sites are relatively un(or under-) examined (e.g., community).

Grabill, Jeffrey T. and James E. Porter. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>TC

Some Ideas About Producing Online Modules: Learning Dynamics Australia    

Online learning results from the interaction of a learner and a Web-based set of content and collaboration with other people. The selection and direction of the content are determined by the learning and business outcomes of any module. The client sets the outcomes and provides the content. The LDA team translates that content into a set of screen components that state the meaning of the content and builds in continuity through a navigation system. In addition, collaboration with a tutor andother learners helps to maintain the personal nature of learning.

Morgan, David. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Online>Australia

Strategies for Expanding Program Borders: Communication Modules in Engineering Technology  

To improve university-level presentations, students need rhetorical, design, and usability strategies and tools to create effective, professional presentations. By developing a series of three to five modules for science and technology students, Professional Writing faculty could polish materials for use as one-day professional development workshops in the workplace.

Johnson, Molly K. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Presentations>Education

A Student Recruitment Model for Undergraduate Technical Communication Programs  

Undergraduate technical communication programs are found across the spectrum of American colleges and universities, from the 2-year community college to the tier-one research university. Technical communication programs find themselves in the enviable position of being in a field where demand exceeds supply. The ratio of jobs to graduates in the workplace is greatly in favor of our students. Why then do many programs have difficulties recruiting students? Why do we not produce the graduate pool needed to meet the needs of industry? One reason for this problem is that most undergraduate technical communication programs do not employ systematic and informed recruitment strategies. In this presentation, I present a recruitment-strategy model based upon JoAnn Hackos’s process maturity model&emdash;a procedure which will give institutions a way to enculturate recruitment and to meet program and student needs. This model is informed by research I conducted in the spring of 2000.

Butler, Brad. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>TC>Marketing

Sustainable Practices in Distance Education    

We are engaged in distance education because our graduate program is committed to responsible instructional practices in the computer age. As humanists, our efforts in this relatively new area are primarily energized by opportunities to revisit basic educational assumptions, test the social claims made about distanceeducation, and prepare future teachers who can operate both effectively and judiciously in online environments. From our perspective, departments that foreground the values of the profession will find distance education tobe a productive site for literacy education, one that can even influence the shape of resident instruction in positive ways.

Selber, Stuart A. CPTSC Proceedings (2001). Articles>Education>Online

Teaching as a Conduit: An Interrogation of the Educative Function of the Untenured, Sole Professional Writing Faculty Member    

As the sole faculty member in professional writing, one must find reasonable means for integrating research, teaching, and service. This integration means understanding the institutional context, balancing the research-teaching-service commitments for tenure, and creating a supportive community for professional writing teaching and scholarship.

Kimme Hea, Amy C. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Careers>Academic

Teaching the Visual: Understanding our Approaches

Despite the significant presence of the visual in the field of technical communication, we have not yet achieved a unified pedagogical approach to the visual. Because of the traditional emphasis on written communication, there is often a conflicting boundary between teaching the visual and textual, which often results in the visual assuming a secondary position to the textual.

Portewig, Tiffany Craft. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Visual Rhetoric

Technical and Scientific Communication: Research on the Internet-Expanding Wealth or Chaos?  

Since writers/communicators now carry legal responsibility for what they write, on paper or online, it would be useful to students in Technical and Scientific Communication Programs to have instruction in communication law and explore its many applications online.

Turpin, Elizabeth R. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Legal

Technical Communication and Corporate Training  

Unless the professional lives of my former students are unaccountably unique, I expect you will confirm that many of your own former students find themselves developing materials that will be used in workplace training situations. You are undoubtedly aware that a number of technical communicators not only develop such materials but serve as trainers, themselves. The other side of the coin is that full-time professional trainers commonly have to develop their own training documents. Indeed, the majority of students in our Advanced Technical Writing course at Illinois State University are Industrial Technology majors, whose professional goals are to work as industry trainers or as teachers of industrial technology in secondary and postsecondary education programs.

Savage, Gerald J. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Articles>Education>Instructional Design

Technical Writers and Trainers as Facilitators of Change  

Effective technical writing/training in my organization involves a model of performance that goes beyond traditional ideas about documentation and passive training methods. It involves a practice which, in a single word, I would call facilitating. Documents are part of it and new or changed behaviors by people in the organization are part of it, but a traditional writer or a traditional trainer, whether alone or working together, will not be able to achieve what we ask of them in our organization. Essentially, the model we have found successful and that we expect our technical writer/trainers to be able to implement involves the following.

Hotz, Glenn. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Collaboration

Technology and the Learning/Teaching Divide  

When we put to one side technological responsibilities, we miss an important opportunity to build communities of workers and scholars.

Selfe, Cynthia L. and Richard Selfe. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Technology

Thank You, Thank You! Or: How External Reviewers Help Out

Conversations about assessment for technical communication programs often focus on evaluating features internally, through means such as course evaluations and portfolio reviews.

Rehling, Louise. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Assessment

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

Theory vs. Practice: the Ongoing Battle  

George Hayhoe calls it the 'gulf between classroom and workplace,' Katherine Staples calls it 'the schism between academic theory and workplace practice,' Bonita Selting calls it the 'schizophrenia of the curriculum' and Carolyn Miller calls it the 'virulent praxis/techne and academic/industry polarities.' The debate immediately struck me when I returned from six years as a technical writer, but is it just a difference of teaching methods, or is it also a question of exclusionary politics, a class issue? In her historical summary, Teresa Kynell notes that technical communication has the ''tag' of vocationalism' and Staples dates it from the early 'conflict between career education and the humanities.' What is the distinction between pure academics and practical learning? Is it that college teachers have a higher social status than workers?

Johnson, Carol Siri. CPTSC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Education>Theory

Thoughts on Designing a Master's Certificate Program  

Despite the success of internship components, however, a common complaint from industry professionals still exists: that students still don't know how to write. Part of this complaint could be explained by specific industry practices for which students still need to be trained. Another part could rest in the need for more research about industry contexts. Still another, and probably the most likely, is the perceived differences in academe and industry expectations for theoretical components of curricula. Academics assume that industry professionals seek practical skills dealing with 'correctness' in language (e.g., grammar, spelling, punctuation) at the expense of theory; while industry professionals assume academics seek more conceptual components (e.g., philosophy) at the expense of practice. I think both parties are asking for the same thing: they seek students/employees who can develop an understanding of the how and the why of their work (Miller, 1979); that is, students who possess productive knowledge about a particular craft. In other words, they exemplify a techne (Atwill). In classical rhetoric, techne is associated with the 'knowledge of arts and crafts associated with the making of things' (Johnson, 1998, p. 51). In Technical Communication, one way to think of techne is through genre knowledge, that is, knowing which form suits a particular situation and why.

Bridgeford, Tracy. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Graduate

Timing is Everything: Integrating Low-Profile "Concentration" Courses into a High-Profile Master's Degree  

This paper discusses the phenomenon of a sense of timing as a sense of timely design and of timing as active response to unfolding demands as the key elements in making any program effective and durable. Indeed, I claim that timing is everything. Auburn's extended experience developing a new, high-profile Master's degree out of beginnings as a low-profile adjunct to a deeply conservative 'Great Books' English department has shown this clearly. Across the chronological stretch of a decade occupied with paying close attention to program elements, not only was effort required for time-keeping, or chronos, to establish and stabilize program elements, but a strong sense of timing, or kairos was also needed to meet and adjust to shifts in academic, political and industrial climates in and around the program. Rather than following a model or sticking to a set design, our decade of experience in transforming a 'concentration' program primarily serving undergraduates to a fully professional Master's degree has been a decade of improving our sense of timing.

Hundleby, Margaret N. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Graduate