Transcript TECHNICAL WRITING - Luzerne County Community College

TECHNICAL WRITING
As a CURRICULUM
2
HISTORY
A. ANCIENT CULTURES:

(no curricula, but…)
Technological Artifacts & Documents
• Operational Information
• Aztecs, Chinese, Egyptians
• Babylonians, Greeks, Romans
• Procedures & Statutes
• religious works, such as the Torah, Talmud
• Scientific Information
• Renaissance documents
3
HISTORY
B. 19th CENTURY:

PRE-Civil War:
• “Classical” education
• Latin & Greek
• 7 Liberal Arts:
• Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric
• Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy
4
HISTORY
B. 19th CENTURY:

POST-Civil War:
• “Land-Grant Schools”
• Morrill Acts (1862-1890)
• 30,000 acres per congressman
• To educate the “industrial classes”
5
HISTORY
B. 19th CENTURY:

POST-Civil War:
(cont’d)
• “Land-Grant Schools”
• Agriculture and Mechanical schools
• agriculture, military skills,
• engineering/mechanical arts
• (technologies)
6
HISTORY
B. 19th CENTURY:

POST-Civil War:
• specialization
(cont’d)
• what are now “liberal arts”:
• technical schools
• w/o “liberal arts” classes —
• “vocationalism”
math, literatures
7
HISTORY
C. 20th CENTURY:

PRE-World War II:
• technical writing/communication
• burgeoning field
• teaching engineers to write
8
HISTORY
C. 20th CENTURY:

PRE-World War II:
(cont’d)
• mostly taught at engineering institutions
• mixed in “liberal arts”
• lessened vocationalism
• rarely taught at traditional colleges
• teach literature vs. teach writing
• teaching writing = “inferior”
9
HISTORY
D. 20th CENTURY: 1940s

World War II:
• Introduction of sophisticated equipment
during the war  the need for clear, easyto-understand user & repair manuals
“Thus, with the defense industry, rose the
beginnings of technical communication”
(Carliner).
10
HISTORY
E. 20th CENTURY: 1940s & 1950s

POST-World War II:
• training writers to write for engineers
• opposed to the prior practice of training
engineers to write
11
HISTORY
E. 20th CENTURY: 1950s

POST-World War II:
(cont’d)
• post-war defense industry boom
• Cold War
• 1958 = 1st degree program at Carnegie
Institute of Technology (CMU)
12
HISTORY
F. 20th CENTURY: 1960s & 1970s

Computer Age:
• Growth in computer industry
• Growth in “plain language” laws
• Jimmy Carter
• Document Design Center at American Institutes
for Research
13
HISTORY
D. 20th CENTURY: 1980s

Computer Age:
• accepted by academe:
• classes and degrees offered at traditional schools
• growing professional and academic organizations
• more places at conventions
• improved research into the field
• changes in technology, especially computers
14
HISTORY
F. 20th CENTURY: 1980s and Beyond

Computer Age:
• Demand for “user-friendly” manuals
• Demand for services = demand for training
TRAINING = EDUCATION
15
HISTORY
F. 20th CENTURY: 1980s and Beyond

Computer Age:
(cont’d)
• Computers change how we publish
• typesetters, press operators, production personnel,
layout artists, copy editors
• Computers change what we publish
• formats, forms