Don Bush's Intercom article & the role of Intercom

Wed Feb 7 20:24:09 MST 2007

Kathy, I can see how you might misconstrue what I said, and I wasn't totally clear.  The renewed conversation I'm alluding to is the one that Hillary Hart, and this list, and the new Academic Community is trying to foster.  You're a part of it.  There's an academic task force at work, headed by Hillary, that's trying to look at the role of academics in the profession and proposing some formal ways of having the conversation: perhaps a summit meeting next year.  

My own view is that we need to counterbalance the model of the profession articulated in the recent "Educational Task Force" report that is being used to justify the changes in the STC conference, many of which appear to exclude academic practitioners. This isn't really the case, but because STC is changing how it does "education" there are fewer opportunities for those from the university and college community. 

However, STC is often seen as the problem--"STC elbows out academics"--when it's really a matter of the profession itself.  And academics are often seen as whiners, which may be true in some cases.  But the larger question may be how the profession sees itself.  You and I both know that in the engineering profession, for example, many of the questions of how basic research relates to workplace practice have been worked out. But that's a much older profession than ours. I think we might want to continue the exploration that the education task force report represents and look at a still newer model of technical communication that encompasses all its important aspects. 

Dr. Thomas Barker
Manager, STC Academic Community
thomas.barker at ttu.edu
http://www.stc-ac.org

The STC Academic Community serves STC members worldwide who work as educators and researchers in colleges and universities.  These responsibilities involve areas of curriculum design, current practices in technical communication, research and research funding, and academic workplace and professional issues.

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-stc-ac-264184 at lists.stc.org [mailto:bounce-stc-ac-264184 at lists.stc.org] On Behalf Of Northcut, Kathryn
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 9:05 PM
To: stc-ac
Subject: RE: [stc-ac] RE: Don Bush's Intercom article & the role of Intercom

Not to put too fine a point on it, but how does name-calling and unsupported overgeneralization from an underinformed instructor in South Dakota constitute "renewed conversation" from industry?  I don't think he's worked in industry for years (unless I've misread his bio - I do my research).  

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

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-stc-ac-319517 at lists.stc.org on behalf of Barker, Thomas
Sent: Wed 2/7/2007 8:54 PM
To: stc-ac
Cc: maurice at stc.org; Hillary Hart
Subject: [stc-ac] RE: Don Bush's Intercom article & the role of Intercom

John, I totally agree.  The conversation about how the academic side of
technical communication fits as part of the profession is precisely what
we need.  My hope is that we can have that conversation, and that the
attitudes expressed in this case can act as a touchstone.  STC is not
the problem, in that it reflects the profession and the opinions of both
academic and industry practitioners.  STC can, however, be part of the
solution by fostering an open dialog about how basic research and
university education affects the profession as a whole. In the past,
about every 10 years or so, there's a renewed conversation about
academic issues, but it's almost always from the academic side.  It's
interesting to hear from the industry side for once, even though we may
not feel comfortable with what we hear. 

Dr. Thomas Barker

Manager, STC Academic Community

thomas.barker at ttu.edu <mailto:thomas.barker at ttu.edu> 

http://www.stc-ac.org <http://www.stc-ac.org/> 

The STC Academic Community serves STC members worldwide who work as
educators and researchers in colleges and universities.  These
responsibilities involve areas of curriculum design, current practices
in technical communication, research and research funding, and academic
workplace and professional issues.

________________________________

From: bounce-stc-ac-264184 at lists.stc.org
[mailto:bounce-stc-ac-264184 at lists.stc.org] On Behalf Of Bryan, John
(bryanjg)
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 6:34 PM
To: stc-ac
Cc: maurice at stc.org
Subject: [stc-ac] Don Bush's Intercom article & the role of Intercom

I don't really mean to be contrarian in this interesting conversation.
I agree that Mr. Bush's column reflected, at best, ignorance and maybe
some longstanding resentments.  But I suspect his views may be more
mainstream than we imagine among our non-academic colleagues.  The
answer, I think, is not the heavy-handed intervention of Intercom's
editors but a vigorous counter-argument from us.  Keep that conversation
under wraps by editing out Mr. Bush's views and those who share them
will persist in their ignorance.

As the ethics columnist for Intercom for almost 15 years, I have been on
the receiving end of significant editorial reaction and guidance from
time to time, especially when a column has the potential to be
controversial.   (What authentic ethics case isn't controversial?)  For
example, a bit more than a year and after 9/11, I submitted a case about
a Palestinian working as a contract employee in a US company doing
classified DOD work ("Alienation").  The Intercom editors and STC
management feared a strong-potentially violent-negative reaction from
the Arab-American community.  First, they suggested that I change the
Palestinian into a generic American.  When I argued that such a change
would miss the point, they backed off, but publication was delayed while
they sought reactions from the Arab community.  Eventually, the piece
went to press with only a disclaimer (see
http://www.stc.org/intercom/pdfs/2003/200304_37_43.pdf
<http://www.stc.org/intercom/pdfs/2003/200304_37_43.pdf> ). 

Before we assume the Intercom editors aren't doing their jobs, let's
remember that published columns are meant to be opinion, not reporting,
and that columns we read everyday in the mainstream press hope to be
provocative.  We should also look to Mr. Bush's foolish opinions as an
opportunity for expanding our overdue conversation with the non-academic
side of our field.

John Bryan

MA Program in Professional Writing

University of Cincinnati

-----Original Message-----
From: bounce-stc-ac-277548 at lists.stc.org
[mailto:bounce-stc-ac-277548 at lists.stc.org] On Behalf Of Ann L. Wiley
Consultants Inc.
Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 3:54 PM
To: stc-ac
Cc: maurice at stc.org
Subject: [stc-ac] RE: Don Bush's Intercom article: plan to create a
topic on the Forum

Maurice will create a topic on the STC Forum for each of the articles in
the 

February issue of Intercom, and I'll link to Tommy's post from the topic
for 

Don Bush's article.

We gave up on creating forum topics for each article because the
response 

was so minimal, but I'll renew my efforts to bring this discussion 

opportunity to the attention of people who might be able to participate.

Thanks, Kathy, for the attempt to post because it gave me feedback from
a 

customer that I could act on, to reactive the forum for Intercom 

discussions.

I did talk with Maurice about what editors do when an article is
received 

that raises some questions. I'm concerned as an STC editor. We can
refuse an 

article, of course, but we can also look to readers to write a response,

which can be published in the letters to the editor (or comments on the 

blogs, http://stc-on.org). In this case, a response to the Intercom
editor 

is very welcome.

Ann

Ann L. Wiley, Ph.D.

Ann L. Wiley Consultants Inc.

ann at annlwiley.com

Fellow, Forum lead

----- Original Message ----- 

From: Northcut, Kathryn

To: stc-ac

Sent: Wednesday, February 07, 2007 1:34 PM

Subject: [stc-ac] RE: Don Bush's Intercom article

Tommy - I was intrigued, so after 15 minutes of logging in, registering,
and

reading the legalese on the disclaimer, then agreeing to it after not

actually reading it, I was disappointed that I cannot start a discussion

forum. I can only respond to your response to some other guy complaining

about not enough responses under the forum titled "Coming Soon -
Discussions

of Intercom Articles." This doesn't fit my mood or my needs right now.
If

you can start a forum, "Responses to Don Bush" would show us where to go
and

feel less like an afterthought.

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