Categories: Communication Design, Research Methods, Technology, Theory & Rhetoric
Summary with citations:
Kynell's article explored the foundational, historical issues that brought about the field of technical communication. She traced the discipline of engineering beginning with its time as an apprentice-based vocation. Then she discussed the the shift when land grant colleges offered middle class students the opportunity to learn a professional trade. After that time period, the shift to a profession began with the formation of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education (SPEE). This aimed to alter the problem of many engineers being nearly illiterate at graduation. They did not succeed until they tied reading to the student's interests.
"Samuel C. Earle, a professor of English at Tufts, offered one foundational model of change in his 1911 paper 'English in the Engineering School at Tufts College'. ... Early proposed four separate 'abilities' that he believed would believe would make English more relevant to engineers: (1) the ability to put into words an abstract thought; (2) the ability to describe, in writing, an object not present; (3) the ability to write for different audiences; (4) the ability to give a concept full treatment by demonstrating understanding in writing" (Kynell, 1999, p. 146).
In the 1920s, English and engineering departments attempts create a productive, effective technical writing course met continual resistence from all parties involved. Textbooks by T. A. Rickard, Sada Harbarger, and Sam Trelease & Emma Yule helped resolve this concern, but did not solve the difficult of unqualified instructors for the field. This problem would not be sufficiently addressed until Derby suggested teacher training for technical writing or technical exposition.
The second world war brought about greater need for engineering and communication between engineers. The war machine required competent individuals to provide technical writing about the products and weapons produced. For the first time, technical communication was a profession.
Following the war, questions arose about the curriculum's lack of theory and sole focus on practical knowledge. This, combined with the improved and increased technology that would soon alter the field and create exigence for the profession as we see it today.
