A field's identity and sustainability depend on its research as well as on programs, practice, and infrastructure. Research and practice have a reciprocal relationship, with practice identifying research questions and researchers answering those questions to improve practice. Technical communication research also has an exploratory purpose, using…

2008 marked the 10-year Anniversary of the Open Source movement, which has had a substantial impact on not only software production and adoption, but also on the sharing and distribution of information. Technical communication as a discipline has taken some advantage of the movement or its derivative software, but this article argues not as much…

Gathers some of Sir Francis Bacon's educational ideas from his various writings and applies them to the five stages of undergraduate professional and technical writing program development: planning, implementation, mission, design and development, staffing, and administration. (SG)

Provides survey results indicating the relative health of undergraduate writing programs in four-year universities. Reports a significant increase in undergraduate writing programs. However, technical and professional writing programs are not increasing as rapidly as a new broad-based program encompassing creative writing, composition, journalism,…

This article argues that the small school context has been a relatively unexamined or under-examined context for technical and professional communication program development. While graduate program development holds a large share of the field's attention in recent national forums, growth in graduate programs is a consequence of demand in the job…