I’m going to use a small, under-theorized assessment project undertaken in the Lower Division Writing Program (which I direct) at San Diego State as an anecdote for thinking about practices of documentation within assessment. Our project-to gather information about how teachers grade student writing-was what the assessment literature calls a “formative evaluation,” undertaken to help us […]
For those who do not know, California has a tripartite system for public higher education. California’s tiered system is composed of community or two-year colleges, state colleges, and universities. In 1959, California State legislature called on the Liaison Committee of The Regents of the University and the State Board of Education to develop recommendations for public higher […]
When covering Sun Tzu’s 2500-year-old text of The Art of War, teachers usually notice that students struggle with the translation, the unusual names, and the discursive organization of its message. Taught in history of ideas classes and the military war colleges, this book of ancient wartime strategy was used quite successfully in winning the Gulf War with […]
Introduction In the last fifteen years technical communication[1] has undergone an explosive phase of growth both as a professional practice and as a field of academic inquiry. In industry, U.S. labor department reports show technical communication to be among the fastest growing professions in the country.[2] Within the university, the increase has also been marked. In 1976 only 19 […]
The computer interface is the software that translates digital information into a symbolic system we can understand. Steven Johnson’s Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate traces the evolution of interface design and explores its broad cultural and social impacts on our lives. We also learn the limitations of the current interface […]
Elizabeth Eisenstein’s, The Printing Revolution in Early Modern Europe, is a comprehensive overview of the second major communications shift: from manuscript culture to printed communication. This edition is abridged from Eisenstein’s two-volume academic work, The Printing Press as an Agent of Change. According to the author, in the early 1960s, she became curious about the “specific historical […]
Ladies and Gentlemen, I bring you exciting news today! This very computer contains not only the perfect conference paper, but also the cure to any ailment and the answer to all of life’s questions. However, before I show you the key to all of your hopes and dreams, I would like to share with you the inspiration […]