Effective Teaching of Technical Communication: Theory, Practice, and Application
Edited by Michael J. Klein
Copy edited by Meg Vezzu. Designed by Mike Palmquist.
This book was awarded the 2022 CCCC Communication Award for Best Original Collection of Essays in Technical or Scientific Communication.
Drawn from quantitative and qualitative work of practitioners in the field, this edited collection provides an update to the Staples and Ornatowski's influential Foundations of Teaching Technical Communication (1997). The collection is organized around the broad themes of expanding pedagogy, shaping curriculum, incorporating technology, and engaging community. In each section, authors illustrate their experiences with teaching in the university technical communication classroom, addressing topics such as rethinking the role of internships, redesigning student learning outcomes for assessment practices, incorporating ethics into the technical communication classroom, using visual communication in community context, and engaging plain language. These sixteen chapters, taken as a whole or individually, provide readers with insights and examples into teaching technical communication in the 21st century.
Table of Contents
Introduction to Effective Teaching of Technical Communication, Michael J. Klein
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.1.3
Part One: Expanding Pedagogy
1. Beyond Situated Learning: Rethinking Internship Theory and Practice in the Distributed Workplace, Jennifer L. Bay
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.01
2. Interstitial Design Processes: How Design Thinking and Social Design Processes Bridge Theory and Practice in TPC Pedagogy, Liz Lane
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.02
3. Engaging Plain Language in the Technical Communication Classroom, Kira Dreher
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.03
4. (Teaching) Ethics and Technical Communication, Derek G. Ross
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.04
Part Two: Shaping Curriculum
5. Confronting Methodological Stasis: Re-Examining Approaches to Technical Communication Pedagogical Frameworks, Halcyon M. Lawrence and Liz Hutter
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.05
6. Trial and Error: Designing an Introductory Course to Technical Communication, Chen Chen
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.06
7. Regenerating a Once Fallow Ground: Theorizing Process and Product in 21st-Century Technical Communication Ecologies, Adrienne Lamberti and David M. Grant
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.07
8. Creating the "Through-Line" by Engaging Industry Certification Standards in SLO Redesign for a Core Curriculum Technical Writing Course, Julianne Newmark and Joseph Bartolotta
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.08
Part Three: Incorporating Technology
9. The Rhetoric, Science, and Technology of 21st Century Collaboration, Ann Hill Duin, Jason Tham, and Isabel Pedersen
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.09
10. Using the Community of Inquiry Theory to Assess Online Programs and Help Students to Analyze Their Learning, Julie Watts
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.10
11. Designing a Team-Based Online Technical Communication Course, Luke Thominet
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.11
12. Preparing Future Professionals in and for a Global Context: A Case for Telecollaborative Educational Initiatives, Elisabet Arnó-Macià and Tatjana Schell
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.12
Part Four: Engaging Communities
13. Visual Communication in Community Contexts, Elise Verzosa Hurley
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.13
14. Competing Mentalities: Situating Scientific Content Literacy Within Technical Communication Pedagogy, Lisa DeTora
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.14
15. Technical Communication Pedagogy and Layered Literacies in Workplace Training Courses, Elizabeth L. Angeli
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.15
16. Hidden Arguments: Rhetoric and Persuasion in Diverse Forms of Technical Communication, Jessica McCaughey and Brian Fitzpatrick
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2021.1121.2.16
About the Editor
Michael J. Klein is Associate Professor of writing, rhetoric and technical communication at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Virginia. At JMU, He directs the Cohen Center for the Humanities, a university center focused on humanistic inquiry across disciplines, and the support of graduate education through scholarships, travel grants and learning opportunities. He is also the founder and coordinator of the interdisciplinary minor in medical humanities, which comprises 12 academic units across three colleges. He teaches courses in technical communication, scientific and medical communication, and writing in the health sciences.
Dr. Klein's recent scholarship has focused on medical narratives and intercultural communication and the creation of graphic embodiment memoirs in an interdisciplinary writing course. Dr. Klein holds a doctorate in science and technology studies from Virginia Tech and master's degrees in rhetoric and composition (University of Arizona) and technical communication (Rensselaer). His dissertation on the human cloning debate analyzed how the media's references to literature and film served as anticloning tropes.
Publication Information: Klein, Michael J. (2021). Effective Teaching of Technical Communication Theory, Practice, and Application. The WAC Clearinghouse; University Press of Colorado. https://doi.org/10.37514/TPC-B.2020.1121
Digital Publication Date: February 1, 2021
Print Publication Date: August 2021
ISBN: 978-1-64215-112-1 (PDF) | 978-1-64215-113-8 (ePub) | 978-1-64642-189-3 (pbk.)
DOI: 10.37514/TPC-B.2020.1121
Contact Information:
Michael J. Klein: kleinmj@jmu.edu
Reviews
View Jacob Butler-Young's 2022 review in Technical Communication Quarterly
View Nikki Agee's 2021 review in Programmatic Perspectives
Madeline Crozier's 2022 review in Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Foundations and Innovations in Technical and Professional Communication
Series Editor: Lisa Melonçon, University of South Florida
This book is available in whole and in part in Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF). It is also available in a low-cost print edition from our publishing partner, the University Press of Colorado.
Copyright © 2021 Michael J. Klein and the authors of individual parts of this book. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 United States License. 334 pages, with notes, illustrations, index, and bibliographies. This book is available in print from University Press of Colorado as well as from any online or brick-and-mortar bookstore. Available in PDF and ePub formats for no charge on this page at the WAC Clearinghouse. You may view this book. You may print personal copies of this book. You may link to this page. You may not reproduce this book on another website.