Using genre theory to teach students engineering lab reportwriting: a collaborative approach

Beginning Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) students often have difficulty learning the genre of lab report writing. This difficulty can be alleviated through genre theory strategies and research, which writing center consultants, for example, can use to focus on the specific form and content of engineering writing, which then can be taught to students in a writing center environment. Genre theory provides a means (1) for humanities writing center consultants to learn specific characteristics about engineering writing, (2) for interdisciplinary collaboration between writing professionals and engineers to take place, and (3) for students to have increased opportunities to learn the discourse of their field. All of these benefits are enhanced by discipline-specific writing programs that support and facilitate them. In addition, the collaboration provides a stimulating, fluid, creative environment in which to discuss engineering writing, an environment which reflects the changing needs of engineering education as a result of technological advancements. As technology continues to influence engineering education, prompting evolutions in both technical and communication skills and knowledge, genre theory and interdisciplinary collaboration will continue to gain importance as strategies for initiating students into the communication demands of their field. The discussion focuses on the integration of genre theory with writing instruction in the ECE Department at the University of South Carolina. This integration stimulated interaction among ECE faculty, composition and rhetoric faculty and students, and ECE students     

The technical article assignment: a work-world method for teachingaudience analysis

The journal article is a uniquely effective case assignment for teaching technical communication students a central, work-world, writing demand faced by all professional writers: accurately defining and effectively writing to multiple, hierarchical audiences. The author examines how two technical communication students successfully construct journal articles based on research from analytical reports completed earlier in the term. The students analyze their target audience(s) and revise their reports into technical articles by assessing their purposes in writing the article; by selecting the most appropriate journal and audience for the article; and by adjusting the article's topical slant, organization, content, and style to fit both the target journal's editorial needs and the interests of its audience(s)     

Devising Collective Knowledges for the Technical Writing Classroom: A Course-Based Approach to Using Web 2.0 Writing Technologies in Collaborative Work

Technical and professional writing pedagogies have traditionally understood collaborative writing as an aggregate, cooperative venture between writers and subject matter experts. In contrast, this tutorial argues that Web 2.0 technologies offer technical and professional communication pedagogies more advantageous conceptions and practices of collaborative writing. The tutorial analyzes how new media technologies create a different collaborative writing environment and then discusses how these environments help collaborative writing methods create an alternative writing situation. The study concludes by examining the outcomes of student Web 2.0 research projects and by offering technical and professional writing instructors new pedagogical strategies for teaching collaborative writing.      

Professional communication and Poe's “The PurloinedLetter”

At first glance, there seems to be very little in common between professional communication and a nineteenth-century detective story. However, there is a strong link between Poe's “The Purloined Letter” (E.A. Poe, 1975) and the successful practices of today's professional communicators, particularly technical writers and editors. In the story, Poe's writing methodology and his main character's investigative advice both offer useful guidelines for successful professional communication. “The Purloined Letter” is a formulaic detective story about Dupin, a witty detective who solves the case of a stolen letter, a case previously unsolved by the French police. Dupin uses intimate knowledge of human logic and reasoning to find the stolen letter. His method is contrasted with that of the French police who had spent months unsuccessfully searching for it. Dupin's means of finding the letter is a series of significant courses of action that can be applied to effective professional communication strategies. The article summarizes Dupin's advice and how it can be applied to effective technical communication today     

从科学传播理论的角度谈台湾的科普困境

本文所谈的科学传播是指将科学信息(自然科学和工程技术的知识、观念等资讯)传播得正确、广泛、深入、快速且有效,实现科学普及、民智发达的境界。论述前提限于大众传媒的科普范畴,至于正规学校教育中的自然科学教育则不在讨论之列。本文从科学与媒介、科学作者、科学写作、科学消息之传播,以及科学家等5个理论研究的面向来分析台湾的科普困境,以为台湾的科普是相当值得探究的课题。     

PDAs in medical settings: the importance of organization in PDA text design

This article reports on the utility of personal digital assistants (PDAs) for processing information needed in coordinated, team-based medical work. The author first presents results from a survey of medical professionals, which reveal that medical professionals read PDA-based texts nonlinearly, in short bursts, and without need of a narrative-based organization. The respondents also reported using PDAs to support a range of team-based activities. The author then presents results of a case study of veterinary students using PDAs on clinical rotations. He discusses how the PDA affords uses of text-based information that are suited to medical work that is carried out with the cooperative assistance of people and technologies. After discussing how veterinary students used PDAs to organize information into ad hoc texts, he concludes with challenges and information design guidelines for professional writers in the medical field.     

Clearing the air: some thoughts on gender-neutral writing

Two reasons why the attempt to achieve gender-neutral writing has produced awkward writing and ill will are explored. The first is that it distracts the writer's attention from the main subject. The second is that a shift is taking place in the way we understand problems, so that the word `he' actually means different things to different people. Ways for writers and editors to avoid the problems of gender-neutral writing are suggested     

Training new technical writers

Many organizations hire new technical writers regularly as their business expands, or hire temporary technical writers to cope with a heavy workload period. Although it is assumed that such people are hired for their writing skills, they still must be trained quickly in four areas: how business is done in the organization, the process used to produce information, the style of writing preferred, and the technical tools available and how they are to be used. The author shows one way of structuring such a training program. It is based on an actual course developed over a period of three years. It is concluded that a good training program requires considerable forethought and subsequent modification to keep up with change, an organized coordinator, a dedicated set of teachers and a process that can be readily learned and modified again by others as turnover occurs     

Popular Communication After Globalization

The study of popular communication is carried out in many disciplines and many sites. It is often haunted by anxieties over high culture versus low culture and authenticity versus commercialization. Rejecting those binaries in favor of the dominance of the latter term in each, this article initially defines popular communication as objects widely circulated by mass media, texts to which people are widely exposed. Such texts are themselves commodities, and the meanings the texts facilitate are key. Scholars of popular communication usually espouse a leftist political agenda. They focus on signs that reveal processes in social or psychological experience, although some studies focus more on forms of discourse. The article proposes that studies in popular communication may be distinguished by whether they focus on rhetor, text, or audience. It concludes by urging a stance of critical populism, more popular involvement by scholars, and a greater understanding of erotics, or desire, in our work.     

Deep smarts

Deep smarts are not philosophical-they are not "wisdom" in that sense-but they are as close to wisdom as business gets. Throughout your organization, there are people with deep smarts. Their judgment and knowledge-both explicit and tacit-are stored in their heads and hands. Their knowledge is essential. The organization cannot progress without it. You will be a more effective manager if you understand what deep smarts are, how they are cultivated, and how they can be transferred from one person to another. Very few organizations manage this asset well, perhaps because it's difficult to pin down and measure. Such neglect is risky.     

Knowledge transfer across disciplines: tracking rhetorical strategies from a technical communication classroom to an engineering classroom

This article presents findings from an empirical study investigating the transfer of rhetorical knowledge, defined as audience awareness, sense of purpose, organization, use of visuals, professional appearance, and style, between the technical communication and the engineering disciplines. Various data collection methods were used to examine the skills and rhetorical knowledge students learned in a technical communication course and determine whether or not students relied on that knowledge as they completed writing assignments in an engineering course. Also examined was the effect of workplace experiences on shaping students' rhetorical knowledge. This study indicated that students did appear to transfer rhetorical strategies between different contexts, and those strategies were learned in the workplace as well as the classroom.     

Going beyond the native speaker in technical communication

Vivian Cook, University of Essex, advises his fellow EFL (English as a Foreign Language) teachers to view their students as multicompetent language users rather than as deficient native speakers. The same advice can readily be given to technical writers and editors who may occasionally struggle to adapt the writing of nonnative speaking (NNS) engineers, researchers, and programmers to style book norms. This approach certainly applies to those of us who work with or manage NNS colleagues. Although addressed to language teachers, the author considers how Cook's observations have validity for many workplace interactions in the growing international community     

The need to provide writing support for academic engineers

Academic engineers must write frequently on the job. But unlike others in academe, academic engineers have some writing problems that justify their receiving various kinds of writing support. The writing problems unique to academic engineers are that they often have little knowledge and experience in writing; they must produce a variety of documents, some of which affect not only their professional standing but also the academic standings of their engineering colleges; and some lack fluency and confidence in their writing because English is not their native language. The best solution for addressing the writing problems of academic engineers is to provide adequate writing training for engineering students. But given the already compacted curricula of engineering colleges, this solution is not realistic. The author presents some second-best solutions that can ease the writing problems of academic engineers     

The Evolving Face of Ethics in Technical and Professional Communication: Challenger to Columbia

Our view of ethics in professional and technical communication has evolved, paralleling developments throughout society. Earlier views on ethics and values have grown into a broad perspective of complex gradations with people at many levels affecting eventual practical outcomes. This newer perspective includes not only persons but social forces and organizations. The organizational culture of NASA, for example, was specifically identified by the Columbia Accident Investigation Board (CAIB) as one of the causes of faulty communication leading to a terribly tragic event. The Challenger investigations of 20 years earlier, on the other hand, focused primarily on physical events, secondarily on professional judgments, and only little on the social and cultural context of the disaster. We learn by failures but also by self-examination. As we see how ethics and values impact technical events, we understand that technological progress is ultimately a human endeavor in which reflection and judgment is as important as measurement and observation.     

Genre analysis in technical communication

An increasing body of research relies on genre to analyze academic and professional communication and to describe how members of a community use language. The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of genre-based research in technical communication and to describe the different approaches to genre and to genre teaching. While some research focuses on the textual analysis of genres, other studies focus on the analysis of the social context and the ideology and structure of the discourse community that owns the genre, and on the role of genres as social rhetorical actions of the community. These two perspectives are also reflected in the teaching of genre in technical communication.     

浅谈航海类专业英语教师的全面发展

教育体系运行的情况与教师直接相关, 而教师的能力对学生的学业水平也有直接影响。要发挥好高校教师 应有的作用, 就需要创造条件使其全面发展。航海类高职院校英语教学有着鲜明的职业特色, 航海技术从 业人员服务于高度国际化的航运业, 对异国文化也有着迫切的了解需求。航海专业及其英语教学特点要求 航海类高职院校英语教师要从通识技能、语言文化、专业知识三方面全面发展。     

关于少儿气象科普创作的理念探索和建议

气象科普从少儿抓起具有非常重要的时代意义,本文对少儿气象科普创作的理念进行了新的探索,指出少儿气象科普作品的表达方式可以开放思维、更加大胆,创作者应该具备怀疑精神,在进行少儿气象科普创作的时候注重引导启发,而不是硬性灌输,以做到更加符合儿童心理、符合科学精神。文中简要分析了当前国内少儿气象科普作品的现状和普遍存在的问题,并结合现有问题和少儿特殊的心理特点提出了少儿气象科普创作要增加想象力和故事性、尽量运用儿童的思维和语言、多采取玩学互动的方式等建议,供广大同仁批评讨论。     

Professional writers have a classroom role

Professional technical writers have a role to play as instructors in technical writing programs, as they are experts in the tools, procedures, and policies of a professional documentation department. When a writer enters the classroom, the writer, the writer's employer, the students, and the academic institution all benefit. Preparing to teach a course is not difficult, as the article explains