Conferences With the Engineers: The Innovative Pedagogy and Career of Sada Harbarger, 1884–1942

Mike Duncan University of Houston - Downtown

Abstract

While Sada Harbarger is primarily known as the author of the first genre-based technical communication textbook, 1923's English For Engineers, I argue through extensive archival materials that her innovative conferencing with engineering students and interdisciplinary writing efforts, rather, drove her interwar success at Ohio State. Her rural agricultural background and acquaintance with the engineering faculty, combined with her literature training, led to OSU's engineering faculty demanding successfully that English promote her without reference to her textbook. Harbarger is also a notable early example of navigating being a female professor teaching engineering writing in a male-dominated English literature department.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2024-01-01
DOI
10.1177/00472816221148476
Open Access
Closed
Topics

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Cites in this index (9)

  1. College English
  2. College English
  3. Written Communication
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
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  1. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. College English
  3. College English
  4. College English
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  2. 10.2307/2917917
  3. 10.2307/j.ctt5hjr6q
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