Outlines a framework for graduate education designed to situate disparate approaches to technical communication into a coherent structure. Analyzes the development and application of this framework for a standard, entry-level graduate "leveling" course in technical communication. Concludes with suggestions about ways that the framework…

Describes four important aspects of critical thinking as: identifying and questioning assumptions, seeking a multiplicity of voices and alternatives on a subject, making connections, and fostering active involvement. Discusses theoretical links between critical thinking and ethics. Concludes with a large-scale service learning project that…

Notes that applying abstract ethical principles to the practical business of building a code of applied ethics for a technical communication department teaches students that they share certain unarticulated or unconscious values that they can translate into ethical principles. Suggests that combining abstract theory with practical policy writing…

Proposes a theoretical frame for technical communication pedagogy based on six layered literacies: basic, rhetorical, social, technological, ethical, and critical. Suggests how the frame can be applied to a program of study or individual course in order to establish teaching objectives; develop course and lesson activities; and assess pedagogical…

Notes that as teachers integrate social theory into the technical communication classroom, they interpret the connection between writing and culture in different ways. Describes four social pedagogies of writing--the social constructionist, the ideologic, the social cognitive, and the paralogic hermeneutic--distinguishing them by their pedagogic…