Angles of Repose: Encouraging Productive Exchange among Technical Communication Programs and the Workplace

Technical communication programs and the workplace often find themselves residing on a slippery slope, each representing different goals and aims, but sharing a compelling interest to work together to achieve them. On the one hand, programs need to determine what kinds of knowledge and which skills they will teach their students to prepare them for professional life. This charge, in part, depends on consulting with those already in the workplace about what knowledge and skills are valued there. Slippage occurs if programs don’t listen to these voices, or if they listen uncritically, taking them as absolute mandates for programmatic and curricular development. On the other hand, the workplace benefits if its practitioners understand how programs are preparing students for professional work in their organizations and if they can serve as consultants in the preparation process. Slippage occurs here if practitioners do not respect, or cannot appreciate, academic interests while offering advice.

This panel reports on three initiatives to establish sites where our program, including faculty and students, can engage in productive exchanges with workplace practitioners, including program graduates, advisory board members, and workplace professionals.