PDF version Abstract GitHub provides a project hosting platform and Git-based version control system for individuals and teams looking to develop and manage software and documentation online. Technical writers have long played an important role in this process, contributing the documentation infrastructure that organizes and sustains project development. As GitHub continues to grow in popularity,… Continue reading Writing Infrastructures: GitHub in the Technical and Professional Communications Classroom

PDF version Abstract In this collaboratively composed article, we both theorize and dramatize the act of paying attention to scalar dynamics. In particular, we draw on the concept of transacting scales in order to complicate how “ethics” materialize in technical and professional communication (TPC). Because ethics materialize in relation to particular contexts and events, in… Continue reading Scalar Transactions and Ethical Actions in TPC

Over the last several years, service-learning has become a burgeoning area in technical and professional communication studies. In addition to offering pedagogical strategies and theoretical approaches, the scholarship in this area to date points to several concerns for the continuing growth of high-quality service-learning in our field: 1) building reciprocal, sustained community partnerships, 2) developing… Continue reading Taking Root: Seminal Essays in Service- Learning and Professional Communication by J. Blake Scott

This article describes a service-learning-based capstone course for MA students in Professional Writing and Editing at the University of Cincinnati and illuminates the potential advantages of service-learning on an advanced level. Of particular benefit are the rhetorical and ethical challenges that partnerships with nonprofits can raise, requiring students to draw not only on their writing… Continue reading Selling Peace in a Time of War: The Rhetorical and Ethical Challenges of a Graduate-Level Service-Learning Course by Kathryn Rentz and Ashley Mattingly

Insights from activity theory—specifically, David Russell’s synthesis of activity theory with genre theory—suggest ways to understand and ease problems of clashing expectations encountered in professional writing classes that use a client-based assignment model for service-learning. Link to PDF

In response to recent calls for internationalization and greater social relevance in professional communication teaching and research, this article links service-learning pedagogy with participatory action research (PAR) methods. A multi-year collaborative project in Kenya illustrates both the challenges and the positive outcomes of international partnerships, which include increased intercultural communication skills, significant contributions to the… Continue reading Technical Communication, Participatory Action Research, and Global Civic Engagement: A Teaching, Research, and Social Action Collaboration in Kenya by Robbin D. Crabtree and David Alan Sapp

In a recent study of Harvard University students, Richard Light documents that for the over 400 students he interviewed the “most important and memorable academic learning [occurs] . . . outside of classes.” His findings are not surprising. Evidence is mounting that courses and activities that link service and learning in some kind of reciprocal… Continue reading Introduction: Service-Learning and Professional Communication by Jim Dubinsky and Melody Bowdon

In spite of the growing embeddedness of service-learning programs in American higher education and the increasing publication of scholarship and professional resources on the subject, there remains a dearth of textbooks for students enrolled in service-learning courses and experiences. This lack of published instructional material owes historically to the localized and curriculum-specific nature of service… Continue reading Review of Service-Learning in Technical and Professional Communication by Melody Bowdon and J. Blare Scott, reviewed by Chris Anson