Technical Communication Twine

I started a Technical Communication twine.  Please join me in adding useful links and information.

What If Technical Writers Can’t Document Their Sources Properly?

Since it’s spring break this week (at Metro) and next (at Red Rocks), I’ve been catching up on my reading.  Yesterday I read the January issue of Intercom, which is published monthly by The Society for Technical Communication. I was happy to learn about Writer River and and meet its creator, Tom Johnson, via e-mail.

Today I read the February issue (Vol. 56, No. 2), and I was disappointed with the article by Tony Self, “What If Readers Can’t Read?” (10-14).  First, all the documentation that he did provide was in the form of URLs in parentheses following the reference to the source.  Aside from being difficult to read–especially in such narrow columns, this method doesn’t provide enough information about the sources he used, like the names of authors or creators, the titles, and the dates of publication.  (The preceding article, “Is There a Write Way to Collaborate?” by Charlotte Robidoux and Beth Hewett (4-9), had a proper APA-style References list, but I couldn’t find any in-text, parenthetical citations.)

Second, on the first page of text (11) in Self’s article, he referred to a “self-survey at Kansas State University” about student reading habits.  He provided no documentation at all for the survey, though at the end of the article, he did mention that it was distributed in a YouTube video.  Here is that video (I think):

“A Vision of Students Today“

Presentation: “Research: Finding Books, Periodical Articles, and Websites”

This is a presentation I used for my technical writing class at Red Rocks:

Spring Classes

During the January term I’ll be teaching two sections of ENG 121 for Westwood Online, as I did every term last year.

I’m also scheduled to teach one section each of ENG 131, HUM 122, and LIT 127 at Red Rocks this spring.  I taught ENG 131, Technical Writing, last spring and this fall.  HUM 122 covers 800 to 1750 CE.  For LIT 127, Study of the Novel, I’ve selected the following books:

• Mansfield Park by Jane Austen 
• Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
• The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather
• My Name is Asher Lev by Chaim Potok
• Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card
• The Elvenbane by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey

I picked novels with the same theme, a child growing up, but from different times and places, including the future and another world.  The class might end up being canceled.  The last time I checked, there were only five students registered for it, and there have to be twelve for it to run.

In addition, I’m going to be teaching a section of ENGL 112 online for Mesa State College.  The catalog description for the course is brief:  “Critical writing about literature; research.”  I’m going to use The Bedford Researcher for the class.  I figure the literary resources I need can be found online.

More on Ning

As I mentioned before, I’m using a Ning social network for my hybrid technical writing class at Red Rocks. Each week the students have to do an online assignment, most of which will be in site, where they can post in forums or on their own blogs.

Their first assignment was to join the site, post an introduction, and respond two at least two other people’s instroductions.

In class yesterday, we talked about tools for technical writing, primarily rhetoric and technology. Here is their second assignment, to be done this week:

On the web, find a free or trial version of a software program or web-based service that may be used for creating documents, communicating, and/or collaborating (as discussed in Chapter 3 of the textbook). Test the program or service. On your “My Page” create a blog entry in which you tell where you found it (be sure to include a working link to the website), explain what it does, and discuss its strengths and weaknesses. Use the name of the program or service as the title of your blog post.

I’ve also joined another Ning social network. This one is called College 2.0, and it’s for people in higher ed who are interested in online education and Web 2.0.

Ning in Education

I’ve been really impressed with Ning social networks since I started using one for Sloan-C SL-NET. The primary advantages over Blackboard or Moodle are its public visibility, the ability of members to start forums and form groups, and the accessibility of RSS feeds. I’m using a Ning site for a hybrid technical writing class I’m teaching this fall. (It’s private for the obvious reasons.) I’ve also joined a social network for educators who are using Ning in education.

Spring Semester at Red Rocks Ending

My classes at Red Rocks end tomorrow and Tuesday. Final grades are due by May 15, but I hope to get mine done sooner than that. I’ll have to grade narrative essays for my ENG 090 classes and formal reports for ENG 131.

It’s a Wiki Wacky World

I recently read Managing Virtual Teams: Getting the Most from Wikis, Blogs, and Other Collaborative Tools by M. Katherine Brown, Brenda Huettner, and Char James-Tanny. I learned about the book when I read an article on “Using Wikis” by Huetter and James-Tanny in the January 2007 issue of intercom. Part II, “Evaluating the Tools,” was particularly useful, but I was disappointed by their companion wiki, It’s a Wiki Wacky World.

I’m currently reading Wikinomics: How Mass Collaboration Changes Everything.

Technical Writing Textbook

I’ve selected the textbook for my hybrid technical writing class this fall at Red Rocks. It’s a new book published by Pearson-Prentice Hall. The title is Technical Communication in the Twenty-First Century, and it was written by Sidney I. Dobrin, Christopher J. Keller, and Christian R. Weisser.

Classes I’ll Be Teaching

During the March term at Westwood’s Denver South campus, I’ll be teaching HUM 400, Creative and Critical Thinking. I’ve taught the course on campus before, but never online or in a hybrid format, as I will be this time. When I’ve taught the class in the past, I’ve selected a controversial topic for the class to examine and then required each student to follow the process on his/her own and write a paper about it. I’m thinking of using global warming as the topic this coming term.

I like to show 12 Angry Men (the original black-and-white movie, not a remake) in classes when we discuss critical thinking.

For Red Rocks, I’m currently scheduled to teach one section each of ENG 030 and 060 (developmental classes) this summer and one each of ENG 030 and 131 this fall. The section of ENG 131, Technical Writing I, will be hybrid, which will be an interesting experience. I developed and taught a technical writing class for Westwood College Online in addition to teaching it “on ground.”

The Red Rocks English Department (along with some others) had a book fair on Friday where faculty could exam publishers’ offerings. Choosing textbooks will be hard because there are so many options.

Just for future reference, I’m going to include the course descriptions for the Red Rocks classes here. I got them from the Colorado Community College Common Courses page.

ENG 030, Basic Writing Skills–Focuses on sentence and basic paragraph structure and development. Enables the student to review and improve grammar, usage, and punctuation skills while employing critical thinking strategies and the writing process to respond to a wide variety of writing situations.

ENG 060, Writing Fundamentals–Focuses on paragraph structure and development and introduces the formal essay. Enables the student to review and improve grammar, usage, and punctuation skills while employing critical thinking strategies and the writing process to respond to a wide variety of writing situations.

ENG 131, Technical Writing I–Develops skills one can apply to a variety of technical documents. Focuses on principles for organizing, writing, and revising clear, readable documents for industry, business, and government.