ENGL 810: Debate Paper #4: How can pedagogical approaches in technical communication raise the perceived value of the field?

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan. "Relocating the Value of Work: Technical Communication in a Post-Industrial Age." Technical Communication Quarterly 5.3 (1996): 245. Education Research Complete. Web. 1 Oct. 2012.

Sullivan, Dale L. “Political-Ethical Implications of Defining Technical Communication as a Practice.” Central Works in Technical Communication. Eds. Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 2004. 211-219. Print.

            Both Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Dale Sullivan agree that there seems to be something degrading about technical communication. They also agree that the classroom is the best site for reforming technical communication’s image; however, they disagree in the pedagogical approaches that might bring about this reform. For Johnson-Eilola, professors should capitalize on cultural interest in information technology; for Sullivan, professors should integrate political discourse through an apprenticeship model.

             Because of its awkward position, bridging English studies with other disciplines, the field has struggled with identity issues. According to Johnson-Eilola, as a trade, “current models of technical communication embrace an outdated, self-deprecating … approach to subordinating information to concrete technological products,” and overall, it “has traditionally occupied a support position in both academic and corporate spheres” (Johnson-Eilola 245-246). According to Sullivan, not only did it grow out of what has historically been viewed as the least favorable aspect of English studies (rhetoric and composition); it is also employed as a mere service to others. Sullivan argues that “we indoctrinate our students in the forms appropriate to their employers,” a narrow scope that misses some of the farther reaching aspects of humanities scholarship (213). Thus, technical communication is the site of “a continuing battle over the issue of humanism versus vocationalism” (Sullivan 213). In short, both authors lament the subordinate position of the field as a study and a trade.

Johnson-Eilola argues that scholars in technical communication have an opportunity to rebrand their image as symbolic-analytic work in an information-technology driven market. Symbolic-analytic work “involves working within and across information spaces” (Johnson-Eilola 253). Job titles often classified as symbolic-analytic are “investment banker, research scientist, lawyer, … and architect,” and Johnson-Eilola is making a case that technical writers operate on the same highly skilled level (255). He argues that this rebranding is made easier by trends toward information technology, “where information is fast becoming the most valuable product” (Johnson-Eilola 245). If academic instructors make five adjustments, this new image may be possible: “(1) connect education to work, (2) question educational goals, (3) question education processes and infrastructure, (4) build metaknowledge, network knowledge, and self-reflective practices, and (5) rethink interdisciplinarity”  (Johnson-Eilola 263).

Sullivan sees a different answer to the same problems. He argues instead for an apprenticeship model of learning: “if we are introducing [students] to the discourse community of industry and the larger discourse community of public citizenship, then the model offered by apprenticeship is more appropriate than the model offered by the market” (Sullivan 217). He also urges technical communication programs to embrace political discourse as a key part of the study, pushing for Ph.D. programs to “begin [incorporating] classes devoted to policy and to the philosophy of technology. He closes with an example of his own course design, with a focus on advocacy and arbitration (Sullivan 218).

Both scholars agree on the fact that technical communication does not hold a powerful position in the field or in the academy; however, pedagogical approaches, particularly in Ph.D. programs, can help reposition the field. Further discussion may illuminate how that would best be achieved.