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Congratulations to Our Members!

The Academic SIG is proud to announce a number of honors to be bestowed on our members at the upcoming Summit.

  • Sally Henschel and Lisa Meloncon for the Frank R. Smith Outstanding Article Award for their article "Current State of U.S. Undergraduate Degree Programs in Technical and Professional Communication."
  • Pam Estes Brewer for the Jay R. Gould award for excellence in teaching.
  • Kirk St.Amant for his election to Fellow of the STC, and Cindy Pao for her election to Associate Fellow of the STC.
  • Craig Baehr for the Distinguished SIG Service Award.

Congratulations on your well-deserved honors!

The Academic SIG is also proud to announce it has earned two honors to be presented at The Summit: Community of Excellence (third year in a row), and sharing the Pacesetter award with the Orlando-Central Florida and Willamette Valley chapters for their partnership with the Sigma Tau Delta Society.

The Academic SIG is always pleased to announce news of its members' accomplishments.
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STC Academic SIG Strategic Plan for 2013

The STC Academic SIG is a community of educators, practitioners, and students. We mentor young professionals to become future leaders in the field of technical communication and support the exchange of knowledge between academia and industry. In order to accomplish these goals, we have adopted the following strategic plan for 2013:

  • Support student priorities and participation in STC through
    • hosting the student poster competition and aligning the judging of that competition with the STC International Summit Awards Entry Assessment
    • participating in the development of a mentoring program and database
    • supporting cross-organizational collaborations
    • offering student-centered webinars
    • serving as leaders in STC society-level student initiatives
  • Serve as leaders in the Technical Communication Body of Knowledge initiative
  • Increase our visibility and contributions to STC and the field of technical communication through STC publications
  • Encourage dialog between practitioners, educators, and students by hosting the STC Academic Partnership Pre-Conference
  • Offer webinars that support the interests of the SIG membership
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A Message from Our SIG Manager

Dear Colleagues—

I just returned from STC Summit 2013 in Atlanta. It was a wonderful experience. I learned about the latest trends in technical communication so that I can bring them back to my students, and I networked with many people (educators and practitioners) who are interested in preparing students to become excellent practitioners.

We saw a definite upsurge in interest in student members, which was punctuated by the entire STC Board of Directors attending the student poster competition. We announced the launch of the new Mentorboard. And, we celebrated with the members and friends of our SIG who were award winners this year. Let me share just a few of those honors with you:

  • For the second year, the Academic SIG was recognized as an STC Community of Excellence
  • Craig Baehr, Texas Tech University and a member of the SIG Administrative Council, was named an Associate Fellow
  • Bethany Bowles, University of Central Florida, received an Academic SIG Volunteer of the Year award for her work with student mentoring
  • Samantha Gale, Appalachian State University, won first place in the student poster competition
  • Sally Henschel and Carol Anne Wall, members of the SIG Administrative Council, received Distinguished SIG Service Awards
  • Mak Pandit, Technowrites Pvt. Ltd., India, was named an Associate Fellow
  • Kirk St.Amant, East Carolina University, was honored with the Jay R. Gould Award for Excellence in Teaching
  • Dan Voss, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, won both a President’s Award and an Academic SIG Volunteer of the Year award for his work with student mentoring

I send sincere congratulations to these and other award winners. In addition, STC inducted four new students into the honor society Sigma Tau Delta. It was a good year! Please join our winning team in the work of creating another year of support for educating the technical communication professionals of tomorrow.

Best wishes,

Pam Estes Brewer, Ph.D., Manager, Academic SIG

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Notes from The Summit

By Carol Anne Wall, Communication Manager

It's been a couple weeks since I returned from The Summit in Chicago, and my head is still spinning. When it stops spinning, I hope all the information, names/faces, and memories are sorted neatly in my brain. Here are some of the Academic highlights, from my point of view.

Education Progression and SIG meeting

Monday was a big day for the Academic SIG. Bright and early at 8:30 am, the Education progression kicked into high gear, with 20 minute sessions on:

The Academic SIG meeting included a lovely light lunch, camaraderie, and updates from the SIG leadership. Items that created the most buzz were the Academic SIG taking leadership on the TCBOK and the student initiatives, such as the student sub-SIG and student participation at The Summit.

Student Poster Contest

The Student Poster Contest broke new ground with The Summit's first-ever virtual student poster presentation. Heather Kfoury, a graduate student at the University of Houston-Downtown, presented "Have a Very Merry Recession: A Rhetorical and Ethical Analysis of a Corporate Holiday Card during the Recession".

The First Place poster "Social Media Marketing for Technical Communication Professionals" was presented by Adaline Haseltine and Samantha Gale, undergraduate students at Appalachian State University.

Communities Reception and Music Jam

The Academic SIG wrangled at table near the entrance, between the Chicago chapter and the Marketing SIG, sharing our table with the Emerging Technologies SIG. Reception passports were cheerfully stamped with an "A", sometimes an "A+" or even an "AA". We spread the word about our SIG, passed out pens and brochures, and basically had a good time promoting the Academic SIG.

The best of the evening was yet to come, when the lights went down in the hall, and up on the stage to greet the return of The Rough Drafts, the STC's house band. Anchored by original members, Tommy Barker on lead guitar and Rich Maggiani on the drums, they welcomed newcomers Viqui Dill and Robert Hershenow to the group.

A set list was published, and audience members were encouraged to sign-up before the show to jam with the band.

Honors Banquet

After a full day of sessions on Tuesday, it was time to recognize individuals, chapters, and SIGs for their contributions to the larger STC Community.

Our SIG Manager, Pam Estes Brewer was named an Associate Fellow of the STC. Her citation read: "For passionately supporting communication between those who practice and those who teach in the field of technical communication, and for promoting global communication to students of technical writing". Congratulations, Pam!

The Academic SIG was named a 2011 Community of Excellence. Please see the story at http://www.djcline.com/2012/05/23/may-22-2012-stc-summit-awards/

Thank yous

Thanks to STC Chicago for hosting The Summit, and to the Program Committee for putting together a great educational experience. Thanks as well to all the speakers, whether they did solo presentations, spoke on or coordinated a panel, progression, or lightning talks. Without your willingness to share your expertise and "put yourself out there", The Summit couldn't happen.

Kudos to Sally Henschel and Valerie Ball, for their work coordinating the organizational, technical and judging responsibilities for the student poster presentation.

A hearty and heart-felt thank you to Lloyd at the STC HQ for making the arrangements for the virtual poster presentation and for setting up the student volunteer program. The student volunteers work at the Summit for a day, in exchange for their registration fee for The Summit. It was great seeing all the students and feeling their enthusiasm for our profession.

Now it's time for me to start up my Summit '13 spare change jar so I can attend next year's Summit in Atlanta. Hope to see you there!

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Partnership Pre-Conference Discussed in Intercom Article

The Academic SIG leadership team discusses the processes of putting together the Partnerships for Professionalism Pre-Conference workshop at last Fall's CPTSC conference in the January issue of Intercom,"STC Academic SIG Hosts Partnership Preconference at CPTSC".

The article includes the lessons learned by the Academic SIG as they developed their first ever-preconference, and the logistics of using a hybrid presentation format.

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Bakke Webinar Follow-up and Slides

Dr. Ken Baake of Texas Tech University presented "The Rhetoric of Science and How Metaphor Constitutes Knowledge in Science" at our first co-hosted Webinar on 23 February 2012. The presentation had nearly 35 participants with lively participation and questions after the main presentation by Dr. Baake. In attendance were members from both the Academic and SciCom SIGs which included both industry and academic professionals.

Thanks very much to Dr. Baake, members of the Academic and SciCom SIG leadership, and to the participants who attended. We look forward to hosing the next event and welcome any comments or suggestions.

If you were not able to attend the session, you can still view the slides from the following link. Baake Presentation Slides

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Academic SIG Earns Community of Excellence Award

The Society for Technical Communication has notified the Academic SIG leadership that the Academic SIG has earned the Community of Excellence Award for 2011. The SIG will be recognized during the Leadership Day event on Sunday, May 20,2012 at the Summit in Rosemont, Illinois.

The award honors the Academic SIG for "developing innovative activities that build bridges between those who practice in the field of technical communication and those who teach and study in the field."(award citation) Some of those activities included:

  • Partnerships for Professionalism workshop at the CPTSC.
  • Co-hosting “The Rhetoric of Science and How Metaphor Constitutes Knowledge in Science” with the SciCom SIG.

In her email to the SIG membership, announcing the award, SIG President Pam Brewer stated: "I just want to say thank you to our many SIG members who have worked so hard this year... We have an extraordinary leadership team that gets things done (and they are fun to work with)."

If you'd like to become more involved in the work of the Academic SIG contact any member of the SIG leadership.

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Academic SIG Members to Present “Global and Local Issues in Technical Communication Instruction” at the 2011 International STC Summit this May in Sacramento

By Pam Estes Brewer

The Academic SIG Progress for Summit 2011 will take place on Wednesday, May 18, 8:30 to 9:30 am.  We will have seven excellent presentations, as both academics and practitioners address key areas of education and training for STC attendees. The following seven presentations are featured in the progression; attendees will have the opportunity at attend three of the seven presentations.

  • "Hands-on Research Courses and Distance Education Classes" presented by Michael Albers (East Carolina University)
  • "From Student Menu to Professional Technical Communication" presented by Valerie M. Ball (Oregon Institute of Technology)
  • "STC Profession Resources for Graduates of Technical Communication Programs" presented by Thomas Barker (Texas Tech University) and Craig Baehr (Texas Tech University)
  • ""Positively" Global:  Editing the Work of Multilingual Writers" presented by Tatiana Batova (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee)
  • "How Academics can Involve Practitioners in Educating Students" presented by Ann Jennings (University of Houston-Downtown)
  • "An Ethical Perspective on Teaching Across International and Intercultural Boundaries" presented by Daniel W. Voss (Lockheed Martin) and Sara Baca (University of Central Florida)
  • "Full-Time Technical Communicators as Part-Time Instructors:  Improving Professional Development Practices in the Tech Comm Classroom" presented by Dave Yeats (Sentier Strategic Resources)

Please join us at STC Summit 2011!