THE MYTH OF OBJECTIVITY In Hidden Arguments: Rhetoric and Persuasion in Diverse Forms of Technical Communication, Jessica McCaughey and Brian Fitzpatrick explore a gap in Technical Communication education. They claim that, unlike popular perceptions (both internal and external) of Tech Comm, persuasion and rhetoric are a part of the ways technical communicators write. They are, Read More…
Tag: Pedagogy
Persuading the BizCom Student about Persuasion
The book Effective Teaching of Technical Communication: Theory, Practice, and Communication discusses the pedagogy of teaching technical communication at the university level; Chapter 16, “Hidden Arguments: Rhetoric and Persuasion in Diverse Forms of Technical Communication” by Jessica McCaughey and Brian Fitzpatrick, examines the persuasive arguments embedded within forms of “objective” technical writing. In this chapter, Read More…
Is There Any Inherent Value in Grading for Participation?
by: Amanda Rioux Why do we grade for participation? Does grading for participation, as a practice, have any inherent value? What is participation, anyway? These are the types of questions that drove Critel’s research. Although she never got the chance to answer those questions in full, many of her colleagues, including Obermark, took up the reins after Read More…
The Importance of the Individual: Understanding Student Participation and Classroom Habits
Classroom participation, both assessing and grading, can be equally as puzzling as it is exhilarating. Understanding how, why, and when students feel most comfortable to participate is vital in a professor’s participation efforts, as without a comprehensive understanding of the student’s needs in-class activities and classroom engagement activities will certainly underperform. Essentially, this process Read More…
Goldilocks and the Three Characteristics of Intellectual Participation
“‘Goldiloxxing’ Intellectual Participation: Getting it ‘Just Right’” Genevieve Critel sought to define the elusive concept of “participation,” and when her colleagues took up her mantle, they continued to investigate different interpretations of this term. One exploration led Kelly Bradbury and Paul Muhlhauser to another topoi, or commonplace of participation: intellectualism. Bradbury and Muhlhauser further Critel’s Read More…
Participation and Feminist Intervention
By Barbara Shaddix Chapter 10 in The Rhetoric of Participation, titled “Participation as Reflective Practice: Digital Composing and Feminist Pedagogy,” begins with the idea that “knowledge making [is] situated and relational,” a central tenet of feminist pedagogy. Jason Palmeri and Abby Dubisar, the authors of this chapter, choose to position their argument in terms of the Read More…
OWI & Multimodal Assignments: A Return to Normal
Throughout my experience with higher education, or just education in general, nothing was more enjoyable than a multimodal project. Having the ability to demonstrate skills, techniques, or other useful knowledge in a fun, interesting modality was always something I looked forward to. In my own experience with dealing with the Coronavirus pandemic, specifically, learning Read More…
Another Approach to Teaching Technical Communication to Students: Through MMoRPGs
Pedagogy, as related to teaching technical communication, can benefit from adapting based on the needs of the user, and one way to understand this is through “massively multiplayer online role-playing games,” or “MMoRPGs,” such as World of Warcraft (WoW). Video games that bring forth so much online culture, like WoW, result in plenty of technical Read More…