Time Schedule:
Mark R Zachry
T C 501
Seattle Campus
Theories and research drawn from a variety of fields that inform such topics as the historical and social context of technical communication, the aims of technical discourse, readability, invention and audience, audience analysis, technical style, and graphics. Prerequisite: admission to an engineering master's program or permission of instructor. Offered: A.
Class description
This course will introduce you to major contemporary theories of written discourse influencing the field of technical communication. By reading and writing about this material, you will have an opportunity to explore the complexities of communication: how communication has been differently defined and circumscribed and why these differences matter to people who study and produce technical communication.
Student learning goals
-Define and map differences among some of the major theories that are currently most influential within the community of scholars studying technical communication.
-Explain and illustrate the implications of some of these theories on our perceptions of what texts are and how they function in organizational life: for example, to transfer information, construct reality, regulate conduct, and create identity.
-Explain and illustrate the implications of some of these theories for people conducting research: for example, what questions researchers decide to ask, what aspects of communication researchers decide to look at, how researchers interact with subjects, and what researchers perceive as their role.
-Explain and illustrate the implications of some of these theories for technical communication specialists. For example, how practitioners understand their roles, carry out their communication tasks, and are implicated within wider systems both inside and outside organizations.
General method of instruction
Recommended preparation
Class assignments and grading
The assignments for this class are: Participation (online and in the classroom) Short paper and discussion Mid-term exam Book review and presentation Final paper
