Audience Work in Technical Communication
Academic Year:
2014 - 2015 (June 1, 2014 through May 31, 2015)
Funding Requested:
$500.00
Project Dates:
-
Applicant(s):
Overview of the Project:
This project involved pedagogy in technical communication. Along with a researcher from another institution, we presented research-based pedagogical strategies and insights for teaching audience in a junior-level technical communication class at the March 2015 Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCCs) in Tampa, Florida. Audience is a particularly important subject in the technical communication discipline, and it is important for technical communication instructors to convey the significance of this concept so students are equipped to write effective technical documents, both at the university level and in their future careers. Therefore, it is important for instructors to think about how they will teach about audience. The conference panel at the CCCCs conference was based on our colleagues' research on audience, from which they authored a new pedagogical theory. We applied this pedagogical theory on audience in our classrooms. During the 2014 - 2015 school year, each of us used the new pedagogical theory on audience as a foundation in our classrooms to create a more student-centered experience. We greatly modified our existing curriculum, giving students an assignment in which they worked with an actual stakeholder, the Canton Public Library. We shared our teaching strategies at CCCCs 2015 in order to add to the existing conversation on audience in technical communication.