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Proposed Technical Communications Certificate Program /

Proposed Technical Communication Certificate

by Chris McKitterick

This document proposes a University of Kansas Certificate in Technical Communication. It outlines courses for this program, describes them, and then suggests how we can tie them together to build a strong set of skills while presenting a unified message to the program’s students. It suggests a schedule for offering the courses and how to staff them with trained instructors. Finally, it surveys some existing collegiate Technical Communications programs as a useful comparison.

Revision 1.6, 11-4-2003

Contents

Program Overview

Statement of Intellectual and Educational Purpose

Rationale

Target Students

Student Success Stories

Curriculum

Quick Course List

Program Offerings

Individual Course Descriptions

English 362. Foundations of Technical Writing

English 562. Advanced Technical Writing I

English 563. Advanced Technical Writing II

English 564. Advanced Technical Editing

Documentation Project Management

Internships

Seminars in Technical Writing

Program Detail

Teamwork Across Courses and Across Departments

Proposed Schedule

Table 1 Proposed Schedule

Table 2 Proposed Offering Frequency

Proposed Staffing

Duties of Senior Certificate Program Staff

Program Assessment

Appendixes

Appendix A: “Technical Communication” Defined

Appendix B: Sampling of Technical Communications Programs

Table 3 Offerings at Other Schools

Table 4 Other Writing Programs

Program Overview

Statement of Intellectual and Educational Purpose

This proposed Certificate Program in Technical Communications is designed to provide students with a focused program of applied study in the methods and forms of writing scientific, medical, design, architectural, and business documents. It provides certification of the completion of the program on a University of Kansas transcript. Students may enroll in the Certificate either as a stand-alone program or in combination with a graduate degree program. A Certificate in Technical Communications might be attractive to working professionals who need to increase their skills or who seek alternative employment. This Certificate might also be attractive to students in English as well as in the sciences, engineering, or business disciplines who plan to seek employment as technical writers or merely want to strengthen their writing skills while adding a certification to their transcripts that will help them stand out in a pile of job applications.

Rationale

As our world grows increasingly complex, society is driven to integrate more closely with technology. Research, business, and science require ever-more comprehensive documentation. Technical writers earn lucrative salaries that only get better with training and experience. Because of these things, technical-communications skills are now among the most important skills that University of Kansas graduates can acquire.

Technical-communications courses are valuable preparation for workplace writing and editing, which is different from the forms and modes of writing that students learn during traditional English literature or writing courses. Businesses are constantly in search of applicants who can demonstrate these specialized skills, and a Certificate is one way to help demonstrate that a student has been exposed to the necessary training while not diluting classic English programs.

Most businesses require their employees to continually enhance their value to the company through personal and career development. This includes learning new skills so employees become more versatile. According to the University of Maryland – Baltimore County, “businesses complain that many of their employees, though college graduates, cannot communicate effectively in writing. They are willing to pay for this skill, so if you can write, you’re ahead of the field. People who can write are simply more effective at what they do than those who can’t.” Technical writing is a core business skill in high demand. We owe it to our students to offer this program.

The goals of this program:

  • Provide KU graduates with the technical-writing skills they need to find fulfilling, well-paying jobs. Either that, or to help them pay their bills while they write the Great American Novel.
  • Attract non-traditional and non-degree seeking students (specifically working professionals) to the University of Kansas.
  • Update KU’s offerings to match those of peer schools and compete better with larger schools.
  • Serve scientific, medical, architectural, design, and engineering students within the University of Kansas by offering necessary training.
  • Increase relationships with area and national businesses and research institutions.
  • Extend KU’s influence within the area’s professional community.
  • Potentially open doors for more special programs supported by area and national businesses and research institutions.
  • Increase University of Kansas cross-departmental cooperation between CLAS and the scientific, medical, architectural, design, and engineering departments.
  • Promote the Edwards Campus and, by enhancing its offerings, the University as a whole.

Target Students

In the near term, this proposed program targets the following groups of students:

  • Local working professionals who need to increase their technical-communications skills, increase their value to their companies or organizations, or seek a way to move either vertically or laterally in their workplaces.
  • Edwards Campus students majoring in English, who are often working professionals. The courses offered in this program are attractive to these students because they understand the value of practical coursework.
  • Traditional, full-time students who hope to graduate into jobs in science, research, or business, where they will spend much more of their time writing technical documents than their core coursework might suggest.
  • Traditional, full-time students who hope to begin a lucrative career in technical communications. Based on an exhaustive survey of open positions in technical communications, I have found that applicants are required to have 1)experience in technical writing or editing, 2)familiarity with technical-writing software, and 3)a B.A. degree. This certificate provides students with experience – that catch-22 requirement – by helping them build a portfolio of writing samples (to prove writing ability) and placing them in real-world workplace writing environments via internships. They also become proficient with a variety of software tools through hands-on use.
  • Traditional, full-time students want to study English but do not intend to pursue a career in academia. Writing practice, a writing portfolio, and potential workplace experience (internships) provide them with a marketable skill, which frees them to study literary subjects of interest without concern about how that coursework transfers to the work world. This could help attract and retain English majors who might otherwise end up as Business majors and so forth.
Student Success Stories

Feedback from many former students of English362 validates targeting the groups of students listed above. Note that working students’ companies often pay for the class because it is directly related to required work skills. Some examples:

  • Full-time English student. This fiction and poetry writer, approaching graduation, recognized the need for a practical skill that would support her while she pursued her art. She says, “What I learned in your class will help me throughout my life. Thanks!”
  • Full-time software programmer, English as a second language. For years, he has worked as a “code monkey” for a local corporation and dreamed of being able to perform other tasks than typing code. He used the projects he wrote for class to show his manager that he is capable of writing solid, useful technical documents, and now has the opportunity to spend some of his time doing tasks that hold more interest for him. His dream is to publish a technical manual with his name on the cover.
  • Full-time technical writer. This student was hired to write documents as well as build and maintain organization websites, but no one at the nonprofit organization knew what that entailed. She was able to immediately use the projects she wrote for class in her workplace, so the class served as on-the-job training. After the class, she was able to work with confidence that she finally knew what she was doing.
  • Full-time technical-support staff and network administrator. When he was hired for his expertise, this highly technical person (and his manager) hadn’t realized that he would be spending as much as on-third of his time writing technical documentation. He has been “bluffing it” for years, and finally decided to take a class to learn how to do it right.
  • Full-time Computer Science student. This student took full advantage of this class to apply all the major assignments to projects he has long wanted to create, using the specification, proposals, and website he created for the class to help launch a small software business. He says, “I learned more practical and useful material in 362 than in any of my other classes… I hadn't known much about the material beforehand, and I'm already using it outside of class for real, practical applications. Nice!”
  • Graduating senior in CLAS. This sports-oriented student, who had been anything but serious academically, took this class very seriously because he realized he was graduating without measurable skills needed in the workplace. He worked hard on all his projects and took the opportunity to document projects he enjoyed; in fact, this class showed him that he was already a businessperson – he just needed to build the website and write the ad copy and product guides. He is now earning a living doing what he loves.

Curriculum

This section lists and describes the coursework I recommend for the Certificate in Technical Communications. English 362: Foundations of Technical Writing is currently offered every semester at both the Lawrence and Edwards campuses, and English 590: Advanced Technical Writing is offered in Fall 2004.

Quick Course List

English 362 (3 credits): Foundations of Technical Writing

English 562 (3 credits): Advanced Technical Writing I

English 563 (3 credits): Advanced Technical Writing II

English 564 (3 credits): Advanced Technical Editing

English ??? (3 credits): Documentation Project Management

English 596 (1-3 credits): Internship (repeatable)

English ??? (1-3 credits): Seminar in Technical Writing (subject-matter varies;

examples: “Writing the Science Article,” “Writing the Grant Proposal,” “Writing the Lab Report,” “Writing for Engineers,” “Writing the Case Study,” and so on) (repeatable)

Program Offerings

Because our target clientele includes non-degree-seeking, working professionals as well as traditional, degree-seeking KU students, I suggest we offer the Technical Communications Program in three forms:

  • A 9-credit Technical Communications Certificate for working professionals, so they can complete the program in one year. This abbreviated program eliminates the Internship requirement. Requires students to take Foundations of Technical Writing, Advanced Technical Writing I, and three credits from the following: Advanced Technical Writing II, Advanced Technical Editing, Documentation Project Management(not yet approved), or Seminars in Technical Writing(not yet approved). Marketed to area businesses and working professionals.
  • A 12-credit Technical Communications Certificate for traditional KU students or students already holding Bachelor’s degrees. If student hasn’t taken the prerequisite, it can be taken for credit (resulting in a 15-credit Certificate). Requires students to take Foundations of Technical Writing, Advanced Technical Writing I, and Advanced Technical Writing II or Advanced Technical Editing, and the remaining credits from Documentation Project Management(not yet approved), Internships, and Seminars in Technical Writing(not yet approved). Marketed to non-traditional students.
  • A 15-credit undergraduate Technical Communications minor or emphasis for traditional KU students (not yet approved). Requires students to take Foundations of Technical Writing, Advanced Technical Writing I, Advanced Technical Writing II or Advanced Technical Editing (or both), and the remaining credits from Documentation Project Management(not yet approved), Internships, and Seminars in Technical Writing(not yet approved).

Individual Course Descriptions

This section describes the courses mentioned above.

English 362. Foundations of Technical Writing

Introduces students to the principles of technical communication. Students learn to organize, develop, write, and revise technical documentation for science and business. Students review and practice the essential tech-writing elements. We also survey document forms common to scientific and technical disciplines. Students gain valuable experience through research, real-life technical-writing exercises, peer review, and presentations. Types of writing assignments include proposals, specification documents, technical reports, websites, oral presentations, and manuals. Includes an introduction to technical-writing software tools. Currently offered as English 362.

Prerequisites: English Composition (English 101 and 102), and basic computer and word-processing literacy (for example, how to create email and computer files).

English 562. Advanced Technical Writing I

Builds on what students learned in the Foundations of Technical Writing class, and stresses research methods in technical communication. To write good technical documentation, students need to understand how source information is created. This course strongly emphasizes developing research skills; students research topics, personally interview sources, analyze their audience using proven methods, and learn to use the scientific method in creating and revising technical documentation. This course simulates on-the-job training, and students begin to develop a technical-writing portfolio. Students are expected to master the basic software tools of the trade during this course. Offered in Spring 2004 as English 590.

Prerequisite: Foundations of Technical Writing (English 362).

English 563. Advanced Technical Writing II

Students in this advanced practical course apply the principles of communicating scientific and technical information to a variety of readers, ranging from the non-technical manager to the expert engineer. Students concentrate on the varying writing styles required for proposals, reports, specifications, journal articles, online forms, and larger documents, based on their audience. Students also learn to deliver effective oral presentations. This course also simulates an internship or on-the-job training. It helps students who cannot pursue an internship to develop a valuable technical-writing portfolio by this point in the certificate program.

Prerequisite: Advanced Technical Writing I (English 590).

English 564. Advanced Technical Editing

Students in this hands-on course work with writers in Advanced Technical Writing I and II, learning to work productively with other people’s writing. Editing technical material requires specialized skills, so this course focuses on editing a variety of technical documents for clarity, consistency, cohesiveness, conciseness, comprehensiveness, correctness, and all the other measures of good technical documentation learned in previous classes. Students practice how to identify and correctly use specialized vocabulary and how to employ editing tools such as proofreader's marks, style guides, and standard editorial reference material. Students apply this knowledge to print and electronic documents. Students practice how to identify and correct common problems such as ambiguity and passive voice, and study grammatical structures and stylistic strategies appropriate for different types of documentation. This course simulates on-the-job training, and students develop a valuable technical-editing portfolio while continuing to improve their own writing skills by improving the work of others.

Prerequisite: Advanced Technical Writing I.

Documentation Project Management

(This course is not yet approved.) This course combines skills learned in the previous coursework and expands the scope from single documents to a full-scale, long-term documentation project. Students learn project design, resource management, coordination, and delivery, including planning, scheduling, organizing, staffing, and directing documentation teams. This course also simulates on-the-job training and provides practice developing and managing publication projects for scientific and technical organizations, either as project editor, lead (or lone) writer, or documentation manager. Includes an introduction to final documentation production and indexing methods. Students learn valuable cross-team coordination skills while preparing to handle end-to-end technical-document production, from document specification, through all the phases of writing and editing, to final delivery to customers. Students who successfully complete this course should be able to confidently handle any documentation projects thrown their way in any type of organization.

Prerequisite: Advanced Technical Editing or Advanced Technical Writing I.

Internships

To further students’ experience, enrich the Certificate Program with actual on-the-job training, service local and national organizations’ technical-communications needs, and increase the University’s visibility in the professional world, we need to connect students in this program with internships. Businesses and research institutions are always short of technical writers and editors, but often resist hiring full-time employees to document products they only release on occasion. This is when they hire short-term workers or interns. Demand is always high for such workers.

Internships cost the participating company time, but that investment is balanced by the interns' productivity and the public goodwill generated; also, the company might be helping train a future employee. Interns are usually highly motivated to perform well. They see this as an opportunity to establish an "in" with a company while learning what it really takes to make it in the technical-writing world.

Interns gain valuable experience working in actual business environments where they fulfill real writing and editing needs. These experiences help student interns build writing portfolios and learn professional work attitudes, plus they build relationships with potential future employers or at least establish contacts to use as references. Note that internships are based on qualifications, interviews, and availability, so not all students will be able to take an internship during their program of study.

Most major universities with technical-communications programs offer internships, usually for credit and usually during the Summer. For a 3-credit course equivalency, most programs require 90-120 hours of documented on-site work in one semester. Students sometimes take 1-credit internships, and their required work is proportionally decreased.