Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jan 2021

Drafting Pandemic Policy: Writing and Sudden Institutional Change

Erin Workman DePaul University ; Peter Vandenberg DePaul University ; Madeline Crozier DePaul University

Abstract

This article reports findings from an institutional ethnography of university stakeholders’ writing in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, illustrating the affordances of this methodology for professional and technical communication. Drawing on interview transcripts with faculty and administrators from across the university, the authors contextualize the role of writing in the iterative, collaborative, distributed writing processes by which the university transitioned from a traditional A–F grading scheme to a pass or fail option in just a few business days. They analyze these stakeholders’ experiences, discussing some effects of this accelerated timeline on policy development, writing processes, and uses of writing technologies within this new context of remote teaching and learning.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2021-01-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651920959194
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Topics
teacher development collaborative writing technical communication qualitative research
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References (7) · 4 in this index

  1. BLYLER (1996)
    Narrative and Research in Professional Communication
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. CROSS (1994)
    Ethnographic Research in Business and Technical Writing: Between Extremes and Margins
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  3. 10.1177/105065198800200202
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  4. Jones (2016)
    Found Things: Genre, Narrative, and Identification in a Networked Activist Orga…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. 10.7330/9781607328674
     ↗
Show all 7 →
  1. LaFrance et al. (2012)
    Institutional Ethnography as Materialist Framework for Writing Program Research…
    College Composition and Communication
  2. Perkins J. M. (1999)
    Narrative and professional communication
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