Re: Texts to Simulate "Keeping Up w/ Design" etc. Request.

["Dan S. Azlin" <dazlin -at- SHORE -dot- NET>]

On Tue, 24 Jan 1995 MKEENE -at- UTKVX -dot- UTCC -dot- UTK -dot- EDU wrote:

> > If I were teaching a Technical Writing course for serious students, I
> > would give them the assignment to go find an engineering student
> > developing a project for his/her class and document it as though it was
> > the real world and the company was betting the farm on the results. Of,
> > course this means that the two students would be forced to work
> > together...

> Actually, I teach a course like that: the "writers" are graduate
> students from all over campus working on theses or dissertations or
> articles, and the "coaches" are English majors in our technical
> communication option.  I've been doing the course for 10 years or so, and
> everyone likes it--the writers get their projects finished, often very
> well, and the coaches learn in a hands-on way many of the "soft" skills
> that go with being a successful technical communicator.  The bad news is
> there's no text, just a 70-page course packet I wrote and have copied
> locally.  I used to use Edmond Weiss's excellent *The Writing System for
> Engineers and Scientists*, but over time I developed my own materials
> that seemed more to the point of this course and lots cheaper.  But yes,
> the pairing works, to everyone's advantage.

> Mike Keene
> mkeene -at- utkvx -dot- utk -dot- edu

Well, Mike, with 10 years experience teaching such a course, and the lack
of a good text, it sounds like an opportunity knocking. Even a slim (i.e.
short) volume (didn't such things used to be called monographs?) directed
to the specific topic would be useful, even marketable. You could
probably even solicit specific information here to flesh out the
materials you already have. Go for it!

Dan Azlin ** Word Engineers, Technical Writing & Publishing **
dazlin -at- shore -dot- net