Teaching the History of Technical Communication: A Lesson with Franklin and Hoover

Todd, Jeff. Journal of Technical Writing & Communication, 2003, Vol. 33 Issue 1, p65-81

Annotation by Harrison Ownbey

Todd argues that while research into the history of tech comm has become more abundant and sophisticated, tech comm history teaching techniques have stayed relatively static. He proposes four guidelines (below) for integrating the study of history into tech comm classrooms. Then he juxtaposes examples of Benjamin Franklin’s writing with Herbert Hoover’s writing to show parallels between the changes that university students undergo when entering into the professional field, and the changes technical writing underwent when the Industrial Age arrived.

Todd’s suggested guidelines and his defense for them (briefly)

1. “Maintain a continued research interest for teaching history.” The field needs to define canonical works and instruct students based on those works.

2.“Limit to technical rather than scientific discourse.” Technology is for a wide audience and science is for a narrow one, so focus on things that are most deliverable for the largest audience.

3.“Focus on English language texts.” Scholarship and research have focused on English, so pedagogy should also focus on English.

4.“Focus on American texts, authors, and practices.” When teaching American students going into an American workforce, it’s pragmatic to focus on American texts.

I disagree strongly with Todd’s last point. With everything becoming globalized, I think it would impair tech comm students to only focus on American text.