Responding to the call for the contemplative teaching of writing initiated by O'Reilley (1993) and extended by Kirsch (2008; 2009), Kroll (2013), Kroll (2008), Wenger (2015), and Harrison (2012), among others, this article explores the theoretical considerations, practical components, challenges, and adaptability involved in teaching a…

ETC 408/508: Technical Editing is a cross-listed undergraduate and graduate course at Missouri Western State University, an open admissions public university with approximately 6,000 students. 508 is an elective course for students in the Master of Applied Arts in Written Communication degree and highly recommended for those in the Technical…

The present article describes and evaluates collaborative interdisciplinary group projects initiated by content lecturers and an English-as-a-Foreign-Language (EFL) instructor for the purpose of teaching technical writing skills in an aeronautical engineering degree program. The proposed technical writing model is assessed against the results of a…

The 13th iteration of the International Conference on Educational Data Mining (EDM 2020) was originally arranged to take place in Ifrane, Morocco. Due to the SARS-CoV-2 (coronavirus) epidemic, EDM 2020, as well as most other academic conferences in 2020, had to be changed to a purely online format. To facilitate efficient transmission of…

Discusses collaborative design in the context of developing a "Toolbook" hypertext intended to introduce graduate students to the fields of rhetoric and professional communication. Examines the new grammar and rhetoric of hypertext, discusses the importance of document planning within an emergent design, and argues for a functional aesthetic. (SR)

Discusses changes in the nature of an editor's work, resulting from computers, contract work, competition with computers, and forced collaboration. (SR)

Presents a 10-item annotated bibliography of recent reports and conference papers included in the ERIC database concerning the role of collaborative writing in business. (RS)

Argues that technical communicators cannot afford to ignore collaboration. Discusses eight characteristics of a project and its staff that help determine whether the collaborative effort will be successful. Offers examples of a successful and an unsuccessful collaboration. (SR)

Compares several technical reports written by students showing the influences of a writer's identification with a community on features of the resulting document. Finds that features most affected were personal and community references within the document, writer's stance toward the reader, and definition of the rhetorical problem. (RS)

Describes a process for evaluating technical writing students who are working in groups. Discusses task sheets, progress reports, evaluation forms, and the final individual evaluation. (PRA)

Describes how recent research in industry and academia on collaborative writing has redefined authorship, documented writing experiences, developed models, and established guidelines for successful collaboration that include attention to both writing processes and group processes. (SR)

Describes the use of a personality assessment tool, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, to facilitate effective collaborative writing on the job and in the classroom. (PRA)

Studies master's students in professional writing to discern value added by technical communicators. Shows that some expertise is brought to collaborative projects, while other types develop as a function of collaboration. Provides practicing communicators, students, and managers with ideas for documenting, developing, and enhancing this…

Offers practical guidelines for collaborative professional writing that are based upon current theory, research, and experience. Defines collaborative writing, lists criteria for selecting co-authors, presents a model for the collaborative writing process, discusses advantages and disadvantages, and offers precepts that will enable collaborative…

Examines the relationship between the characteristics of second-year MBA student writing groups and the quality of their group-written reports. Finds that the most significant correlation between the groups and their writing was whether or not individuals chose to form teams on the basis of having worked together previously in writing projects.…