Hiya everybody! Here's my idea for my final paper:
Next semester I am teaching English 402: Technical/Professional Writing. In an effort to help me generate new material for the syllabus I began compiling last spring, here is my research question: how do multimodal projects help technical writing/communication students better conceptualize audience? I first plan to discuss the theoretical underpinnings of how technical communication tries to teach students about audience. Then, I will use the texts from class and others discussing multimodality to explore the ways in which multimodality frames audience. Last, I will try to bounce the two parts against each other to figure out what technical communication values in audience awareness, and how multimodal approaches can promote this endeavor.
Yay for teaching new classes! It sounds like you have a clear, well-designed idea for a final project here. I can see you taking a lot from the Wysocki and Shipka class readings, particularly the way that they talk about the materiality of writing and they way that they conceptualize composing as making decisions appropriate to our purposes and audiences. I am excited to see how your project turns out : )
ReplyDeleteThat sounds really cool! Whenever I think about technical communication (as opposed to professional), I always think of instructions and guides. Have you thought about having students look at YouTube videos, fix-it blogs, and other guides to doing stuff? ( http://www.buzzfeed.com/peggy/22-things-youre-doing-wrong type things are always fun ). YouTube comments on the DIY videos are usually pretty great for seeing how people evaluate the audience assumptions. That buzzfeed link has some interesting quick, pictoral guides that you could use for a basic "how to" assignment, then have student revise for different audiences.
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