I am very proud that STC (Society for Technical Communication) has recognized my teaching with the prestigious Jay R. Gould Award. STC’s magazine Intercom had a nice writeup about the award. Also, NJIT News included an announcement of the award.
The CPTSC Diversity Committee requests applications for the CPTSC Graduate Student Diversity Scholarship.
This scholarship supports the goal of CPTSC to increase diversity in its membership and in technical communication. Eligible candidates include graduate students whose race, ethnicity, disability, or nationality are underrepresented in the technical communication field. The scholarship is provided to assist the recipient with expenses associated with participating in the CPTSC conference. It waives the conference fee and provides the winner a $350 scholarship from Bedford/St. Martin’s with an additional $150 supplement from CPTSC for a total of $500.
*Eligibility*
Applicants should satisfy all of the following criteria for the scholarship:
• Full or part-time graduate student enrolled in a technical communication graduate program or closely related field • Member of a racially or ethnically underrepresented group, OR a person with “a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits a major life activity” (Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990), OR an international student from a nation that is underrepresented in the technical communication field • Member of CPTSC by the deadline for current year conference registration and attend the current year annual meeting of CPTSC to receive the scholarship
*Selection Factors*
The scholarship will be given to an eligible applicant who exhibits the most potential in the field of Technical and Scientific Communication in his or her studies and research, as determined by the Diversity Scholarship review panel.
*Deadline*
Applicants must submit an application with all attachments by May 15, 2010. The scholarship committee will notify the recipients of the scholarship by e-mail no later than June 1, 2010.
NOTE : The scholarship recipient must attend the CPTSC conference to receive the scholarship.
All application materials are to be submitted electronically to the chair of the scholarship review committee. See the attached scholarship application form and list of materials to be submitted.
Contact Jerry Savage gjsavag@ilstu.edu if you have questions regarding the scholarship or the application process.
Students in my graduate and undergraduate classes in technical communication this semester have been working with the Plain Language Guidelines. Plain language, sponsored by the US government, promotes communication that an audience can understand the first time they read or hear it. The tenets of plain language are useful for all writers – write for your audience, organize for readers’ needs, use active voice and short, simple sentences, etc.
Plain language also recognizes the importance of information design in improving communication:
These are indeed important and practical lessons for all of us. We know that readers who confront a large block of uninterrupted text simply won’t read it. The Onion took this commonplace to the extreme in its satirical report on Americans collectively recoiling when confronted with a solid block of uninterrupted text. It’s really funny. I hope you’ll read it.
STC Chapter at NJIT Meeting this Friday at 7
WE NEED MS.PTC STUDENTS
A teleconference will be held this Friday, February 26, 2010 for those of you who are interested in revitalizing our NJIT STC Student Chapter.
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/join/616422104
Dial 646-558-2101
Access Code: 616-422-104
Audio PIN: Shown after joining the meeting
Meeting ID: 616-422-104
Scott McCoy
This is a throwdown to the critics of Stanley Fish. Fish argues that college composition courses should teach writing and only writing, focusing exclusively on grammar, style, clarity, and argument. His critics, who also bemoan the prevailing poor writing skills of college students, say that teaching grammar without content leads to boring classes. Without movies, books, or contemporary culture to write about, students write vapid essays – like, what I did on my summer vacation. This is a fascinating exchange — one you should read — where Fish persuasively argues for “drilling students in the forms that enable meaning; and these are not inert taxonomic forms, but forms of thought.”
However, it was the “vapid essays about summer vacations” that irked me as I returned to NJ and to NJIT. I left behind narrow country roads for the dusty grooved pavement of Route 280 East, still under construction since I last traveled it three months ago. I traded hummingbirds and Monarch butterflies in my gardens for butterflies in my stomach that always typify the first day of school for me. While not a Luddite summer, it was certainly a summer without many of the most common technological and worldly intrusions – no television, no traffic, no NY Times delivery.
I already miss the early morning sun on my back as I stand at the end of the dock with Kodi, our yellow lab, watching the clear river water for fish. But these summer memories instill me with a renewed sense of creativity. I look forward to the challenge that new students, new courses, and a new semester always bring.
I hope that your summer vacation has inspired you as well.
“The only difference between an audience and a community is which direction the chairs are pointing.” -@chrisbrogan
