Florence Nightingale's Visual Rhetoric in the Rose Diagrams  

Florence Nightingale is usually pictured as an angelic nurse tending to British soldiers in military hospitals during the Crimean War. Although Nightingale was indeed a tender of soldiers, she was also an administrator, advocate for the common soldier, and proponent of the use of statistics and information design. This article examines Nightingale's rose diagrams, which she designed following her service as the director of nurses at a field hospital in the Crimean War. When the war ended, Nightingale was asked by the queen to write a report on the poor sanitary conditions and make recommendations for reform. When, after six months, the government did not act on the reforms, Nightingale decided to write an annex to the report, in which she would include her invention, the rose diagrams. Nightingale's ultimate success in persuading the government to institute reforms is an illustration of the power of visual rhetoric, as well as an example of Nightingale's own passionate resolve to right what she saw as a grievous wrong.

Brasseur, Lee. Technical Communication Quarterly (2005). Articles>Scientific Communication>Biomedical>Technical Illustration

The Founding of ATTW and its Journal    

The founding editor of The Technical Writing Teacher and a founding member of ATTW, recalls key moments in the history of ATTW and its journal, and the people who shaped the organization in its early years.

Cunningham, Donald H. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Research>Publishing>History

From Logocentrism to Ethocentrism: Historicizing Critiques of Writing Research      

Since the 1960s, attitudes toward empirical research on writing, including research on technical/professional writing, have shifted from encouragement to resistance. This essay traces these shifts in light of changes in writing research, psychology, and the rhetoric of science. In composition studies, an initial mild uneasiness about 'scientism' intensified with the rise of process models, suggesting a Romanticist defense of the mystique of creativity. More recent post-modernist denunciations of scientific methods as immoral have other Romanticist overtones. In technical communication, a long-standing interest in workplace writing practices allowed a smoother integration of empirical analysis with descriptive studies of writing contexts. However, as in composition, recent critiques in technical communication suggest that empirical methods should not be employed. These critiques too tightly circumscribe the values that may be considered humanist and cut off important avenues of inquiry and critique that historically have advanced both the sciences and humanities.

Charney, Davida. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Articles>Rhetoric>Writing

From Page to Stage: How Theories of Genre and Situated Learning Help Introduce Engineering Students to Discipline-Specific Communication      

This article describes a discipline-specific communication course for engineering students offered by a Canadian university. The pedagogy of this course is based on North American theories of genre and theories of situated learning. In keeping with these theories, the course provides a context in which students acquire rhetorical skills and strategies necessary to integrate into a discipline-specific discourse community. The authors argue that such a pedagogical approach can be used to design communication courses tailored to the needs of any discipline if the following three key conditions are met: assignments are connected to subject matter courses, a dialogic environment is provided, and the nature of assignments allows students to build on their learning experiences in the course.

Artemeva, Natasha, Susan Logie and Jennie St-Martin. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education>Engineering>Writing

Hither, Thither, and Yon: Process in Putting Courses on the Web      

Educational institutions are employing a variety of processes to support Web-based courses.  In our efforts to help faculty mount such courses, we found it helpful to divide course material into knowledge-based versus skill-based elements, and to develop activities that capitalize on the unique environment of the Web.  In this article, we discuss our successes and failures, and cover some legal issues we discovered that affect how we use both preexisting and student-produced materials.

Thrush, Emily A. and Necie Elizabeth Young. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Online

How Much is Enough? The Assessment of Student Work in Technical Communication Courses    

The information that follows is the text of the web-based survey described in 'How Much is Enough? The Assessment of Student Work in Technical Communication Courses,' TCQ Winter 2003.

Cargile Cook, Kelli. Technical Communication Quarterly (2001). Articles>Education>Assessment

Writing4Practice in Engineering Courses: Implementation and Assessment Approaches      

In this article, we analyze a two-semester effort to integrate writing instruction into a multi-disciplinary sophomore engineering design course in Northern Arizona University’s College of Engineering and Technology. Specifically, we describe the programmatic implementation and assessment approach to evaluate whether student writing improved over the course of the semester. After discussing the reasons for taking a writing-intensive approach to engineering, we analyze the results of a pre- and post-test administered over the span of an academic semester. Although the outcome of our assessment did not show significant improvement, we argue that writing instruction is important for increasing students’ overall learning skills. We conclude by pointing out several benefits and disadvantages of trying to assess writing improvement over two one-semester periods.

Gruber, Sibylle, Debra Larson, David Scott and Melvin Neville. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education>Engineering

The Impact of Student Learning Outcomes Assessment on Technical and Professional Communication Programs    

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

The Impact of the Internet and Digital Technologies on Teaching and Research in Technical Communication    

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.

Gurak, Laura J. and Ann Hill Duin. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>TC>Multimedia>Online

Integrating Service Learning and Technical Communication: Benefits and Challenges      

Our ethnographic study of a service-learning class revealed some students benefited in developing civic values, improving academic learning, and accepting responsibility for their own education. Other students struggled to see the connection between technical communication and service learning, felt frustrated with nonacademic writing, and experienced team conflict. We must redefine both technical communication and service learning, help students make the transition to the workplace, and educate community organizations about the role of technical communicators.

Matthews, Catherine and Beverly B. Zimmerman. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education>Service Learning

Integrating Technical Editing Students into a Multidisciplinary Engineering Project      

A three-year experiment in integrating technical editing students into a multidisciplinary engineering design project developed several ways of helping students apply classroom learning to practical problems. Each year, the engineering students formed Integrated Product Teams (IPTs) and the technical editing students provided editorial support, first as full members of IPTs, then as separate editorial support teams. Research from cooperative learning and teamwork indicates strategies and techniques for best integrating the technical editing students.

Norman, Rose L. and Robert A. Frederick. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Education>Engineering

Interdisciplinary Communication in a Literature and Medicine Course: Personalizing the Discourse of Medicine      

To provide modest insight into whether or not reading literature helps medical students communicate more effectively in the physician-patient encounter, I conducted an ethnographic study of medical students taking a required three-hour literature and medicine course. This article will demonstrate that although these medical students were embedded in the discourse of medicine, reflective writing enabled them to conceive medicine as an interpretive, personal, and idiosyncratic activity rather than as a stagnant diagnosis-based process.

Welch, Kathleen E. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Education>Biomedical>Scientific Communication

An Interview with Edward R. Tufte    

An interview between Mark Zachry, Charles Paine, and Edward R. Tufte.

Zachry, Mark and Charles Paine. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>TC

Intuitive Ethics: Understanding and Critiquing the Role of Intuition in Ethical Decisions      

This article examines the role intuition plays in forming ethical decisions.  First, the article reviews examples of intuitive ethics in professional communication research.  Second, the article suggests that intuition is the naturalization of dominant cultural values and beliefs.  Third, the article considers naturalized values within institutions and organizations, demonstrating how naturalized values can lead to unquestioned and oppressive institutional practices.  Ethical inquiry, according to this view, investigates and denaturalizes those assumptions that are carried forth by intuition.  Fourth, the article offers a pedagogical example of this theory, demonstrating how a group of business communication students investigated the intuitive practices of a non-profit organization.  The article concludes by suggesting the value that a “critique of intuition” may have for the teaching, study, and practice of professional ethics.

Faber, Brenton D. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>TC>Ethics

Is Professional Writing Relevant? A Model for Action Research    

This article argues that engaged 'action research' can help professional writing researchers both develop new and interesting collaborative models and help our profession develop a greater relevance to those not reading our journals and attending our conferences. I outline one particular, localized approach in the hope that our troubles, struggles, and failures at University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee can help others to develop their own programs and can further our discussion of community engagement.

Clark, Dave. Technical Communication Quarterly (2004). Articles>Research>Writing>Business Communication

The Issue of Quality in Professional Documentation: How Can Academia Make More of a Difference?      

This article recommends strategies academics can use to contribute to an issue of great interest in industry: how best to define, measure, and achieve quality documentation.  These strategies include contextualizing quality definitions, advocating the use of multiple quality measures, conducting research to identify specific heuristics for defining and measuring quality in particular workplace contexts, and partnering with industry to educate upper management about those heuristics and the benefits of promoting technical communicators to the strategic role of organizational “gatekeepers of quality.”

Spilka, Rachel. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Documentation>Collaboration>Technical Writing

Keeping the Rhetoric Orthodox: Forum Control in Science      

Academic disciplines certify knowledge through publication in scholarly journals; therefore, peer review of journal articles is one method of authorizing someone’s speech.  It is possible, however, to see peer review and other strategies as methods by which elites silence or de-authorize voices that pose a threat to their status.  This article discusses four methods of forum control--peer review, denial of forum, public correction, and published ridicule.  Examples are drawn from cases in science.

Sullivan, Dale L. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Scientific Communication>Rhetoric

A Longinian Concept and Methodology for Technical Communication      

The rhetorician Longinus advises writers to 'transport' their readers by aligning the readers' perspective with the writer's.  The methods for transport are five 'fountains': high thought, emotional appeals, figures of speech, notable language, and arrangement.  This essay develops a Longinian concept and methodology for technical communication by comparing his ideas to current  scholarship and then applying them to two technical texts.  It shows how and why technical writers employ stylistic elements to achieve transport.

Todd, Jeff. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Articles>Rhetoric>TC

Making Disability Visible: How Disability Studies Might Transform the Medical and Science Writing Classroom      

This article describes how disability studies can be used in a medical and science writing class to critically examine the assumptions of scientific discourse.  An emerging, interdisciplinary field, disability studies draws on feminist, postmodern, and post-colonial theory and extends their critiques to the medicalization of disability.  Deconstructing the medical model of disability helps students understand how science is socially constructed.  After conceptualizing disability studies, this essay discusses sample disability-related classroom activities, readings, and writing assignments.

Wilson, James C. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Articles>Education>Scientific Communication>Biomedical

Making the Connection: Desktop Publishing, Professional Writing, and Pro Bono Publico      

Designing desktop publishing courses around a model of service familiar in the U.S.--the pro bono publico tradition of professional gratis service--would broaden students’ professional horizons in addition to meeting growing demands for service learning. Such courses would mate volunteerism with the democratic spirit of desktop publishing, a technological platform that provides a means for unrepresented voices to be heard and read. One community project is outlined.

Hafer, Gary R. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education>Service Learning>Volunteering

Masters, Slaves, and Infant Mortality: Language Challenges for Technical Editing      

In this article we explore how some contemporary language usage presents challenges for technical editing. Drawing on scholarship in the rhetoric of science and in critical linguistics, we argue that language does affect our perception of reality. Consequently, the language used in some technical documents needs to be reconsidered or even challenged by technical editors. Present textbooks on technical editing do not directly confront this issue, though some scholars have begun to challenge the use of terms such as 'studgun.' We conclude by demonstrating how a critical analysis of metaphors in everyday technical documents would help students question these language choices and draw attention to the consequences of using them.

Graves, Heather Brodie and Roger Graves. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Articles>Editing>Biomedical

‘May I Have Your Attention?’: Exordial Techniques in Informative Oral Presentations      

An introduction, even a short one, makes audiences more willing to listen to a speech, think more highly of the speaker, and understand a speech better than when no introduction is given. Two experiments at Delft University of Technology support this conclusion. Subjects viewed videotapes of professional presentations on the topic of Sick Building Syndrome. In one experiment, subjects rated the effectiveness of three introductory or 'exordial' techniques in gaining audience attention: an anecdote, an ethical appeal, and a 'your problem' approach. Results indicate that audiences do respond to exordial techniques, and in a predictable manner. In the second experiment, two speeches with anecdotal openers were tested against one without any introduction. The anecdotes led to significantly higher ratings of the presentation's comprehensibility and interest, as well as the speaker's credibility. The presence of an anecdote also resulted in higher retention scores. Oddly enough, the relevance of the anecdote did not seem to make a difference in the ratings.

Andeweg, Bas A., Jaap C. de Jong and Hans Hoeken. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Presentations>Advice>Rhetoric

Moving Instruction to the Web: Writing as Multi-Tasking      

This study evaluates the effectiveness of presenting Web-based assignments within the technical communication service course. Current research on using the World Wide Web (Web) and Internet as a teaching resource investigates online writing courses, Distance Education (DE), and hypertext authoring. The literature indicates good reasons for moving instruction to the Web, but there is little description of why this migration is needed in terms of the kinds of learning achieved through Web-based writing, nor is there much specific discussion of what type of useful instructional space can be built with the Web. This study is intended to provide support for centering more instruction within the environment of the Web. This article describes a study using a Web site designed for technical communication instruction. It defines the types of learning students experienced when using the site and presents samples of student work representing a wide range of skill development, both traditional and digital, that support moving instruction to the Web in immediately useful ways.

Kramer, Robert and Stephen A. Bernhardt. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education>Instructional Design>Online

Points of Reference in Technical Communication Scholarship      

Identified in this article are 163 texts selected from a database of over 25,000 citations collected from five technical communication journals between 1988 and 1997. The texts—points of reference—represent the research, theory, and practice of technical communication.

Smith, Elizabeth Overman 'Betsy'. Technical Communication Quarterly (2000). Resources>Bibliographies>TC

Pre-Professional Practices in the Technical Writing Classroom: Promoting Multiple Literacies through Research      

For small and mid-sized universities, the 200-level technical writing service course often represents the primary writing experience for students after their freshman year. Our “service” should help students develop the tools for analyzing language and understanding writing in complex ways. Assignment sequences should engage students in active research to develop four primary literacies: rhetorical, visual, information, and computer. This article focuses on disciplinarity and underlying pedagogical goals in technical writing classrooms by describing a search engine assignment sequence which promotes literate practices in three short reports: 1) A preview/instructions report, 2) An analysis/evaluation report, and 3) A narrative review of a research activity. This article concludes with implications for these types of classroom practices.

Nagelhout, Ed. Technical Communication Quarterly (1999). Articles>Education