Where do we need to go next? What are the critical components for a new agenda for research in our field?In the first part of the article, we synthesize current opinions about the quality and consistency of our research, we address the field's uses of research methodologies and the quality of our training in research methods, and we address relationships within our field (e.g., between academics and practitioners) and between our field and related fields. We also consider how research is recognized and supported within and beyond our field. As we address these issues, we consider how our recent approaches to our research have been both helpful and harmful to the integrity, vitality, and influence of our work.In the second part of the article, we propose an action plan aimed at focusing and improving approaches to research in our field. This plan involves holding a series of forums to set goals for the future of technical communication research. These forums would occur at the major conferences in the field and would encourage input from as many academic and practitioner researchers (and trainers of researchers) as possible. The next step would be to develop guidelines and standards for technical communication research and then to establish a professional mechanism for ensuring continuous sharing, support, and information exchange regarding our research.In developing this article, we have consolidated conclusions about the quality, status, and future of research in technical communication from the following sources: • A survey of group facilitators at the 2003 Research Network at the annual ATTW Conference about what impressed or concerned them about participants' research-in-progress. (Facilitators included
This article reports data from questionnaires assessing the day-to-day experiences that members of the technical communication field have in carrying out their research. The data revealed that most members experience at least some frustration and numerous constraints that prevent them from doing the kinds and amounts of research that they want to do and that may affect the quality of their research. In short, technical communication scholars face an array of challenges. This article presents examples of these challenges and ideas that respondents had both for lessening the challenges scholars face and for better preparing graduate students. It suggests several practical initiatives for addressing these challenges along with realistic strategies for implementing those initiatives.
Situated learning theories offer useful insights into how learning to write can be supported and transacted through interactions between newcomers and experienced practitioners in academic and professional domains. Reporting the findings from a study of a mentoring relationship in physics, this article addresses how such processes work to teach composing in advanced academic contexts and what can make them more or less effective. The author identifies and discusses three factors that may constrain situated learning in such contexts and the transmission of authority that purportedly occurs through such learning. These factors include newcomers' existing skills for, and approaches to, composing, which may limit their acquisition and use of new skills; the implicitness of situated learning, which may pose difficulties for newcomers as they struggle to grasp the conceptual complexity entailed in composing disciplinary texts; and the location and distribution of authority in practitioner/newcomer relationships, which may inhibit newcomers as they struggle to acquire and establish their own authority by making original contributions to their fields.
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