Browsing by Subject "technical and professional communication"

Now showing 1 - 3 of 3
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    Fertile Grounds in Technical and Professional Communication: Identity, Legitimacy, Power, and Workplace Practice
    (2021-06) Rosselot-Merritt, Jeremy
    This dissertation is about the nature and value of technical and professional communication (TPC) as a field of workplace practice, particularly about how perceptions of TPC among those outside the field can influence the perceived legitimacy of the field more broadly and what implications those perceptions can offer on practical, scholarly, pedagogical and programmatic levels. The dissertation is organized into five chapters. Chapter 1 deals with how TPC has been characterized in academic literature over the years and how a disconnect between academic theory and workplace practice has evolved into the present. Chapter 1 also introduces four constructs—competencies, professional identity, legitimacy, and power—that become a basis for a practical model of TPC in this dissertation. Chapter 2 deals with three concepts from other disciplines that are useful in conceptualizing and studying workplaces in TPC scholarship. Next, chapter 3 begins with the practical framework for TPC and then proceeds to discuss a rhetorical basis for studying workplace phenomena in TPC and an empirical study methodology for studying extradisciplinary perceptions (those held by non-TPC professionals) of TPC. That methodology is based upon a modified grounded theory approach using semi-structured interviews and two-cycle qualitative coding. Chapter 4 presents detailed findings from the empirical study. Findings include the results of 31 interviews and eight patterns developed from analysis of interview data. Limitations of the study are discussed. Chapter 5 provides a detailed discussion of implications of empirical findings for practice, research, pedagogy and programs (both praxis-focused and academic research-focused) as well as thoughts for future consideration in scholarship.
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    Including Critical Feminist Approaches in the Technical & Professional Communication Classroom: An Autoethnography throughout Changing Rhetorical Ecologies
    (2023-05) Fuglsby, Brandi
    This research project analyzes one Technical and Professional Communication (TPC) course’s materials and one instructor’s (the researcher’s) incorporation of social justice through diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) over the course of ten years (2013-2022). The materials analyzed included introductory materials (syllabi and course schedules), lecture notes, genre examples displayed, assignments, class activities, and the Learning Management System (LMS). The researcher relies on a critical feminist approach tailored to TPC, which includes six key principles: permissive listening, generative silence, welcoming difference, multivocality, collaborative labor, and gendered technology. The specific method of analysis involves autoethnography that combined thematic analysis and critical reflexivity. The results of the research indicated that the earlier years (2013-2016) needed significant revisions in order to incorporate DEI; by the most recent year (2022), the instructor had implemented more explicit incorporation of DEI and had attempted to role model DEI practices through the course materials assessed. However, more DEI implementation could happen in future sections of the course. To encourage more DEI implementation in the future for all TPC courses, the researcher provided actions all instructors could take within the classroom and encouraged the use of human-centered approaches, like critical feminism, in the classroom when framing TPC work.
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    Writing Across Layers of Precarity: Professionals’ Digital Social Media Labor in Mental Health Advocacy
    (2022-07) Davis, Katlynne
    This dissertation examines how professionals’ routine social media and advocacy writing work is performed as digital labor within a national mental health nonprofit organization. As a conceptual focus, digital labor asks how types of work, such as social media writing, are ascribed value by workers and by the organizations they work for. Within the field of technical and professional communication (TPC), scholars have explored how social media facilitate workplace writing, and how individuals use digital technologies to advocate for the experiences of those with mental illness. Consisting of two case studies, this dissertation seeks to bridge these areas of focus by exploring how four social media professionals engage in the digital labor of creating mental health advocacy content for two state affiliate organizations of a mental health nonprofit. Through a modified grounded theory qualitative analysis, this study emphasizes how professionals’ social media and advocacy writing labor involved navigating different layers of precarity; professionals faced unique challenges as they were working within a nonprofit environment, as they communicated about mental health advocacy, and as they were using social media platforms to do so. Additionally, within these layers of precarity, social media professionals balanced different dimensions of advocacy, sought out social media tactics to support organizational strategies, and thoughtfully communicated to connect, disconnect, and express care. In considering the field of TPC, this project suggests that precarity can be a useful lens for studying digital, social TPC labor, or teaching TPC courses, because it can highlight how individuals perform the work of communicating against injustices or oppression.