Fwd: Don Bush's Intercom article

[Traci Kelly]

Kathryn,
I do have to say that I agree with you.  This article promotes the 
idea that what we teach in tech comm departments is far removed from 
the reality of workaday needs.  However, I found almost every point 
that he made to be "off" with the way that we teach tech comm at the 
U of Wisconsin-Madison.  We are housed in the College of Engineering, 
and almost all of the students that we teach will be content 
providers and content presenters.  They are in the industry (either 
with jobs, internships, and co-ops), we have them do an internship 
for the tech comm program, we teach "real" items with "real" clients 
(this semester alone I've got students working with a state-wide 
project for the Dept of Corrections plus an online alternative 
environmental energy project for my User Manuals class), we have an 
industrial advisory board for the progam, etc.  *Everything* we do 
reflects what we know about the industry and the realities of 
technical communication.

In this article, too, there needs to be a pulling-apart of the topics 
in academic journals (which can be more theoretical) vs. what we are 
doing in the classrooms in tech comm programs.  This article, it 
seems to me, mixes up the two arenas.

Given that Bush's article rests on generalities that are not 
supported, I think that we might be able to just push this article 
aside.  Indeed, maybe it would even be a good exercise for our 
students to look at this article and do some thinking about positions 
of voice/power and how they can shape (for better or worse) the 
perception of a whole field.

Maybe some of us need to print a response...or at least send some 
letters in to the editorial board.

Traci Kelly

>I've just read Don Bush's "The Friendly Editor" column of February 
>2007. I'm distressed by the article, even though the proverbial shoe 
>doesn't fit me. With this sort of characterization of my work within 
>publications that are supposedly promoting the profession, we are 
>doing ourselves a disservice to say the least. At best, Bush is 
>misinformed, and at worst, he's being malicious. I'd send this 
>message to Mr. Bush, but he lists only a snail mail address, no email.
>
>I'm interested in hearing how others are reacting or responding to 
>what he's said, and if I'm off base in thinking that a column 
>published in TC reflects the position of STC toward "academicians" 
>(a term I loathe). Certainly there are factions within STC trying to 
>build bridges between university personnel and workplaces, but are 
>we swimming against the tide?

[clip]

>Kathryn Northcut
>Assistant Professor of Technical Communication
>Department of English and Technical Communication
>University of Missouri-Rolla
>northcut at umr.edu



Traci Kelly, Ph.D.
Technical Communication, EPD
1550 Engineering Drive, M1036J
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Madison, WI 53706
Email: kelly at epd.engr.wisc.edu
Phone: 608.265.3946  
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