Technical and Professional Writing Commons^™

Pity The Poor Reader, Charles H. Haddad

School of Communication and Journalism Faculty Publications

I conceived my book “Pity the Poor Reader” as an un-textbook, an irreverent “Elements of style.” Like Elements, it’s designed to complement textbooks. Pity is concise, memorable and portable. Under 300 pages, Pity serves as an aspiring writer’s keepsake. Concision lies at the heart of Pity. The key concepts of writing well are distilled into irreverent, memorable lines and axioms. Many of them are organized as lists that are easily printed and taped to a wall or a computer. Indeed, in testing the book with my university students, I’ve found that many of them did print out its list of …

Pity The Poor Reader, Charles H. Haddad

School of Communication and Journalism Faculty Publications

I conceived my book “Pity the Poor Reader” as an un-textbook, an irreverent “Elements of style.” Like Elements, it’s designed to complement textbooks. Pity is concise, memorable and portable. Under 300 pages, Pity serves as an aspiring writer’s keepsake. Concision lies at the heart of Pity. The key concepts of writing well are distilled into irreverent, memorable lines and axioms. Many of them are organized as lists that are easily printed and taped to a wall or a computer. Indeed, in testing the book with my university students, I’ve found that many of them did print out its list of …

A Word From The Writing Team (November 2024), Pam Walter, Mfa

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Publication Spotlight
• Attend our Friday Writing Retreat online
• Check out Biorender’s resources to build better graphics
• And check out Proofig to secure your graphics
• The Theresa and Charles Yeo Writing Prize deadline is December 31st
• The OPWPC Canvas Page offers helpful tools

Avoiding Common Pitfalls In Medical Writing: An Editor’S Advice, Deanna Erin Conners

Milne Open Textbooks

Avoiding Common Pitfalls in Medical Writing is a useful companion text to comprehensive style guides for the biomedical sciences. This book walks authors through best practices for writing scientific papers and grant proposals in a concise and accessible format. Authors and teachers worldwide will benefit from these shared insights of an experienced scientific editor.

Read this book online at: https://milnepublishing.geneseo.edu/medical-writing/

Biden's Puppet And Mcconnell's Protege: Manipulative Political Communication Design In The 2023 Kentucky Govenors Race, Ryan Cheek, Samuel Allen

English and Technical Communication Faculty Research & Creative Works

Building on research identifying manipulative communication design (MCD) tactics, including clickbait and dark patterns, in the 2020 U.S. election, we analyzed the interface of political emails from the 2023 Kentucky gubernatorial contest between Andy Beshear (D) and Daniel Cameron (R). This extended abstract reports study results from a critical interface analysis of 291 emails to answer the question: How does political ideology influence the use of MCD tactics? Such tactics exploit cognitive biases to gain political advantage by maximizing the extraction of donations from supporters. Five MCD tactics were prominent in both campaigns (individualization and personalization, inverted authority appeals, political …

"You Want Me To Teach What?!": Emerging Technologies, Required Knowledge, And Pedagogical Practice, Rachel Bryson, Ryan Cheek, Sam Clem, Hannah Stevens

English and Technical Communication Faculty Research & Creative Works

Being assigned to teach unfamiliar content is an experience that many technical communication (TC) instructors can relate to. In this experience report, four TC instructors describe their experiences teaching unfamiliar and emerging technology, providing takeaways for readers about how they might approach similar tasks, particularly when constrained by a lack of time and resources when teaching a class for the first time. The instructors had to adapt their pedagogical approaches to teach a range of technology and software. These approaches include building students' visual and rhetorical literacy, diving deep into ethics, explicitly teaching students how to learn, and humbly showing …

Holistic Methodologies For Fusing The Material And The Ideological: Tracing The Sociotechnical Imaginaries That Enable The World’S Fastest Supercomputer, Sarah Read, Jordan Firth

English Faculty Publications and Presentations

When the Aurora supercomputer launches at Argonne National Laboratory it will operate at the exascale and be one of the fastest supercomputers in the world. We have been invited by Argonne to do field work to understand both the day-to-day processes that maintain supercomputing (e.g. user documentation, government reporting, user testing) and the sociotechnical national imaginaries [11], –in particular the increasingly tense global competition between the US and China in the supercomputing race–that shaped the development of Aurora. This article proposes our work-in-progress methodological approach that accounts for both higher-level imaginaries and the everyday practices of supercomputing. We also describe …

A Word From The Writing Team (October 2024), Pam Walter, Mfa

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Publication Spotlight
• Call is Open for Submission to the Theresa and Charles Yeo Writing Prize
• Mark Your Calendars: First Friday Writing Retreats Are Back!
• Are you looking for grant funding? We have resources for that
• We are seeking a Research Communication Specialist
• Jefferson has no-fee agreements with specific publishers
• Sign up for the OPWPC Canvas Page

A Word From The Writing Team (September 2024), Pam Walter, Mfa

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Publication Spotlight
• Mark Your Calendars: First Friday Writing Retreats Are Back!
• Jefferson has funding agreements with specific publishers
• For FY24-25, the Open Access Publishing Fund process has changed
• The OPWPC Canvas Page offers helpful tools

Beyond Gaming: Using Discord To Increase Communication In Your Courses, Christine I. Kugelmann, Carolyn Glasshoff

Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Discord is a versatile, free communication platform that supports text, voice, and video interactions within customizable servers. This tutorial shows how to integrate Discord into educational settings, highlighting its ability to facilitate instantaneous communication and secure information sharing. By organizing course-related discussions into distinct channels, educators can enhance student engagement and collaboration. The platform’s compatibility with various devices, including mobile phones, tablets, laptops, and desktops, ensures accessibility for all users. Additionally, Discord’s web-based option provides flexibility for those who prefer not to download the app. To comply with FERPA regulations, educators can set clear guidelines on the appropriate use of …

Great Games Need Great Leaders: From Masters To Publication, Matthew Dyet

Staff Scholarship - Australia & Dubai

This talk was given to the SAE Graduate Seminar and looked at the whole process of writing the book Great Games Need Great Leaders. It covers the Masters research that informed the book, the process of interviewing experts from the games industry and other fields, and the writing of the book itself.

A Word From The Writing Team (August 2024), Pam Walter, Mfa

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Publication Spotlight
• Come to the Book Launch Party on August 8th at William Way
• Join Us for Summer Writing Time
• For FY24-25, the Open Access Publishing Fund process is changing
• Jefferson has funding agreements with specific publishers
• The OPWPC Canvas Page offers helpful tools

Teachers’ Self-Reported Practices Of Teaching Academic Writing In Pakistani Universities, Hafiz Yar

Language, Literacy, and Sociocultural Studies ETDs

This study has explored teachers’ self-reported practices of teaching academic writing in Pakistani universities. The English language based developmental literacy courses in Pakistani undergraduate degrees are offered as part of the curricula rather than through specialized language centers. The three-course progression of developmental English literacy in Pakistani undergraduate curricula aims to develop academic writing proficiency besides effective business communication and technical report writing skills.

This study has used generic qualitative research methodology (Caelli et al., 2003; Kahlke, 2014; Kostere & Kostere, 2021), snowball sampling for participant recruitment, and a combination of survey and one-to-one semi structured interviews for data collection. …

A Word From The Writing Team (July 2024), Pam Walter, Mfa

A Word From the Writing Team (Newsletter)

This issue includes:

• Publication Spotlight
• Join Us for Summer Writing Time
• For FY24-25, the Open Access Publishing Fund Process is Changing
• Jefferson has Funding Agreements with Specific Publishers
• The OPWPC Canvas Page Offers Helpful Tools
• Scott Memorial Library Archive Renovations are Done!

How My Pw Classes Prepared Me, Lainey Hardiman

Memorandum (student professional writing magazine)

No abstract provided.

The Value Of Internships, Annie Swantek

Memorandum (student professional writing magazine)

No abstract provided.

Uab's "New Normal", Jazzlyn Miller

Memorandum (student professional writing magazine)

No abstract provided.

Memorandum 9.1 (Front Matter), Memorandum Staff

Memorandum (student professional writing magazine)

No abstract provided.

Journalism & Professional Writing, Taylor Hanson

Memorandum (student professional writing magazine)

No abstract provided.

What Is Markdown?, John Channell

Memorandum (student professional writing magazine)

No abstract provided.