This week I’ve been struggling to think about what to write regarding technical writing. I’ve thought of style, and how it weaves its way into my classroom. I’ve thought about exploring more about intercultural components or the writing center, but I’m going to go a different direction altogether. Service learning.
Service Learning in TW
While service learning isn’t a new concept in technical writing, I think it deserves more emphasis. When I think of service learning, as it pertains to TW, it usually is paired to client-based projects. I value client-based projects because I feel that students put a little extra effort into a project when they know that it is for “real life”. Additionally, if you make the stakes just a tad bit higher and say they are going to have to submit the project not to just the client but to all the other people who would deal with the project, I think that makes it all the better.
When I’ve been conferencing with my students over the past two years in TW, the one consistent theme they say is “I like how practical this work/information is”. They usually compare this to composition classes, and I internally cringe a little, but I’m also conflicted because I’m glad that they are putting the effort to make these projects turn out well. I keep this in mind, and I try to make all the units practical and useful for the students. I’m not sure if this is the best approach, but I find that if there is more than just their grade on the line, they tend to approach the project a little differently and with a little more curiosity, problem-solving, and critical thinking. For the units that are typical, we have:
- Resume, cover letter, and memo
- Technical instructions
- Proposals
- Social Media/Creative Elements
For each of these, I try to make them practical, and service learning comes into play for the larger projects: technical instructions and proposals. For the technical instructions, I have my students brainstorm things they are an expert in, and they I have them think about instructions they could write that would benefit others. For some, it is writing instructions about a procedure at work, or instructions for how to secure an internship, etc. Then I tell them to take it a step further by thinking who they could serve and give these instructions to. This is where the service aspect comes in. Sometimes it’s a low-scale service opportunity such as creating instructions to be used within their major’s department, and other times it is larger scale, such as creating instructions for the library to help users with limited computer experience to instructions for vet techs about how to hold dogs during specific examinations. While students tend to like these, the proposals seem to be the most rewarding for them. At the last institution I worked at, I had students go find a problem, research the solution, and craft a proposal to fix the problem. This was almost a semester-long project because the amount of breadth they had put into the project. At the end they presented the project, and I found that was the most rewarding part for the students. They also tended to get a little competitive trying to show whose project did the most work and whose was going to be accepted (but that’s beside the point). I’m going to do more investigating to see what’s already been done!
Katie Rieger, Portfolio 