Technical Communication Quarterly Jun 1999

Setting the discourse community: Tasks and assessment for the new technical communication service course

Nancy W. Coppola

Abstract

This article argues for a social perspective of the new technical communication service course, a conclusion supported by several premises: the technical communication profession wants and needs accountability, accountability is demonstrated by evaluation, assessment requires that we define literacy, evaluating technical communication literacy requires portfolio evaluation, portfolio assessment supports the social perspective of learning, and the social construction concepts imply teaching strategies. The argument proceeds from a case study that demonstrates reliability, stability, and validity in its technical communication service course assessment, tasks, and instructor community. This article demonstrates that portfolios can help us both conceptualize and evaluate the new technical communication service course.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
1999-06-01
DOI
10.1080/10572259909364666
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Topics
discourse analysis teacher development assessment portfolios technical communication qualitative research literacy studies
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Citation Context

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