Mapping the Unexplored Area: Developing New Courses and Coherent Programs in Technical Communication

Abstract

Teachers new to technical writing must understand that “Technical Writing” is not one course. Rather it is a whole variety of courses distinguished from one another primarily by differences in objectives and only secondarily by differences in subject matter. To identify needed technical writing courses and to define coherent sets of courses, teachers of technical writing and program administrators need “a mapping procedure” to help them consider alternatives systematically in terms of objectives. This paper proposes such a mapping procedure.