Preface for Instructors

Preface for Instructors

Sample documents are at the heart of the technical communication course, embodying the many ways that writers respond to complex writing situations. Document-Based Cases for Technical Communication aims to provide students with an even richer understanding of rhetorical situations by presenting clusters of related documents, along with realistic tasks, in the context of workplace ­scenarios. This book provides seven cases that ask students to analyze and produce common workplace documents, such as business graphics, definitions, memos, e-mails, proposals, technical reports, instructions, and presentation graphics.

The documents in this book are not meant to serve as models of the “perfect” memo, proposal, or e-mail. Instead, these documents represent the kinds of raw materials that students are likely to encounter and be asked to work with in real writing situations: examples and templates from a particular workplace, documents that need to be revised, directions from supervisors, and informal questions and advice from colleagues. With significant background information and guidance about how to address the challenges, each case offers students multiple opportunities to make decisions about audience and purpose, to see how their decisions affect the documents they develop, and ultimately to imagine how they might apply course principles and concepts to their chosen career.

New to This Edition

We’ve reimagined the second edition for the digital age, integrating online communication, social media, and multimodal writing at every opportunity. Four of the seven cases are new, giving students the chance to immerse themselves in rhetorical situations that best mirror the kinds of workplaces they will enter in the twenty-first century. And in both new and updated cases, 20 new tasks give students the opportunity to create and improve documents in a variety of new genres, including blogs and microblogs, online training modules, and press releases. We’ve placed greater emphasis on document design in the second edition as well, offering fresh opportunities for students to develop their own documents, many of which must be designed specifically for the Web. A new, more Web-oriented text design reflects and reinforces these updates in content. For instructors, new scoring guides are available on the book’s companion Web site to help you evaluate students’ performance on each case.

Key Features

Each of the seven cases includes the following features:

Advice for Using This Book

Because each case provides multiple sample documents and several opportunities for students to interact with the materials, you can adapt the cases to meet your course’s objectives and your students’ needs. You might wish to consider the following strategies for using this casebook in your course:

Overall, this casebook provides you with flexible ways to easily supplement your regular text with in-depth discussions of realistic workplace situations and documents.

Acknowledgments

I’d like to thank those instructors who took the time to review the first edition of this text and suggest a multitude of changes and improvements for the second: Michael Dittman, Butler County Community College; Kristin Johnson, Metropolitan State University; Mark Ristroph, Augusta Technical College; Sherry Robertson, Arizona State University; Patricia Scharf, Metropolitan State University; Bruce Wehler, Pennsylvania College of Technology; and Stephanie Zerkel-Humbert, Maple Woods Community College.

Many thanks also to the reviewers who thoughtfully responded to early drafts and contributed good ideas to the first edition of this book: Bruce Brandt, South Dakota State University; William FitzGerald, University of Maryland, College Park; William Garcia, University of Maryland, College Park; David Gaskill, Saginaw Valley State University; Anne Lehman, Milwaukee Area Technical College; and Lisa DuPree McNair, Georgia Institute of Technology.

Thanks to Joan Feinberg, Denise Wydra, and Karen Henry for their encouragement and support. Thanks to Leasa Burton for asking me to take on this project and for working with me to develop the ideas and content for the first edition. Thanks to Regina Tavani for her editorial support and advice. I am grateful to Janis Owen for a remarkable text design that brings the content of the project to life in black and white. Thanks also to Anna Palchik for her design direction and to Gregory Erb for his meticulous attention during production.

I am also grateful to my wife, Lisa, who supported and encouraged me throughout the project. Lisa provided specific details, documents, and technical advice for the Definitions and Descriptions and Instructions cases. She also made valuable suggestions for improving the other cases.

Roger Munger