Journal of Business and Technical Communication Apr 2012

After the Great War: Utility, Humanities, and Tracings From a Technical Writing Class in the 1920s

Patricia Sullivan Purdue University West Lafayette

Abstract

Using tracings from a 1924 technical writing class, this article follows some normally unmarked processes of teaching and learning in order to highlight the humanities–utility binary from the perspective of the shadows of instructional practice. First, the article situates the humanities–utility debate as it is being addressed in postwar America, and second, it offers evidence of how far-reaching the resolution might have been, evidence taken from the margins of a copy of Watt’s (1917) The Composition of Technical Papers. Both the professional discussions and this textbook’s philosophy are reflected in jottings made by a technical writing student. This article suggests that tracing these issues through this underside of pedagogical history offers a type of evidence that is difficult to recover but worth seeking.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2012-04-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651911430626
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy teacher development argument technical communication
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Baake et al. (2017)
    Writing the Trenches: What Students of Technical Writing and Literature Can Lea…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Sullivan et al. (2013)
    Time Talk: On Small Changes That Enact Infrastructural Mentoring for Undergradu…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

References (26) · 3 in this index

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  3. Aydelotte F. (1917)
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Show all 26 →
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CrossRef global citation count: 3 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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