~ In her chapter “Engaging Plain Language in the Technical Communication Classroom,” Kira Dreher argues for a framework for teaching technical communication that asks students to use and evaluate plain language and PL strategies. Dreher points out the PL is so important to several industries that we have gone so far as to develop conventions Read More…
Did Anyone else Understand What she Just Said? Plain Language in the Classroom
Students will often glare at me in confusion as I stand before them and attempt to communicate essential rhetorical concepts, and in those moments I am transplanted. I am no longer the teacher of a very tired and very perplexed class, I am the student that sat in ENL 101 and struggled to understand what Read More…
You’ve Got the Power!
Why Plain Language? How important is plain language and how big are its effects? Well, Kira Dreher at the Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar says, ““Plain language may offer an important strategy for advancing social justice, but if used shallowly, it may deflect attention from vulnerable audience groups or other issues of access, and it Read More…
Are you speaking my Plain Language?
Plain language plays a significant role in technical communication as all writing and communication instructors know. However, explaining it to students can be challenging, especially in Business Communication. In Business Communication, student interests range from finance and accounting to marketing and small business entrepreneurship. With so many options, companies, and job ads, finding a Read More…
Always be Advocating: Technical Communicators and the Power of Rhetoric
I’ve Got the Power: Autumn in New England marks a transition of season and life. As the leaves change beautiful colors and wither away, teachers like myself are in a firestorm of late night grading and early morning teaching causing our complexion to change strange colors and wither away. The students are already beginning to Read More…
Social Justice Advocacy in the Classroom
In her chapter for the book Citizenship & Advocacy in Technical Communication, Sarah Warren-Riley argues for the use of social media in the classroom as a way to teach students how to critique the messaging they see and how to advocate for themselves and others. While Warren-Riley is focused on the technical/professional communication classroom, her Read More…
Social Media and TPC: Turning the “Mundane” to “Essential”
Students outside of technical and professional communication do not always fully understand the impacts of communication. They come across so many forms and templates in writing classrooms, that they see it as filling in blanks. This is especially true with business and technical communication classrooms. Writing instructors, on the other hand, know technical and professional Read More…
Who Educates the Educators?
Despite decades of research on Black Language, its survival since enslavement, and its linguistic imprint on the nation and globe, Black people and Black Language scholars keep having to remind y’all that it is a legit language. (Baker-Bell) Have you ever heard an author pop off so loud you hear it through the Read More…
Advocacy in Action
Ethics and Professional Communication As communicators and teachers, it is required of us to create pedagogical practices that are both functional and ethical. And how do we do this? How do we create material that is socio-culturally situated as well as practical? Sarah Warren-Riley describes methodologies that educators can utilize to execute classwork and discourse Read More…
The Accidental Endorsement
The Accidental Endorsement If you’re reading this, then you’re a digital citizen, too. Nice to meet you. Social media is ubiquitous. It’s arguably harder to avoid social media and online communities than it is to grow a following online. Honestly, it goes to show that even when our society occupies the same space– the same Read More…