Integrating discipline-specific communication instruction based on workforce data into technical communication courses

Abstract

Because of Georgia Tech's collaboration between the School of Literature, Communication, and Culture (LCC), College of Computing (CoC), and Industrial and Systems Engineering (ISyE) departments, our curriculum model combines several approaches. The humanities-driven technical communication instruction teaches narrative professional writing skills within a science, technology, and culture context. The computer science department teaches general analytical skills for adapting to ever-changing demands of a dynamic field. The National Science Foundation (NSF)-sponsored approach combines these two and provides discipline-specific writing instruction based on actual workforce reports and real-world email protocol. This interdisciplinary pilot is created for Computer Science students, but aims to provide a model for various disciplines that any individual instructor can incorporate into his or her own curricula. This model of curriculum development is based on Georgia Tech's NSF-sponsored project to bring workplace communication into a Technical Communication course. Personal interviews have been conducted with computer science engineers; supervisors; and senior executives. The results of the interviews have been used to tailor Technical Communication to the computer science discipline. These findings will be described along with the course content and preliminary student assessment data.