Tech Comm for Community Action
This website examines the place of community action in technical writing, focusing on the stories that disciplinary practitioners share with the public and their colleagues to affect socially-just, environmentally-aware, and ethically-sound behavior (ranging from the CDC campaign to encourage vaccination to a lone biologist’s support for local conservation efforts).
To support educators as they teach students how stories and community action connect with technical writing, this site shares technical communication assignments that focus on how community action works, how to examine and contribute to social justice and other efforts, and how (and when) to protect and maintain private information in public campaigns. As they complete these assignments, students will investigate how narrative strategies shift as they are presented in different media. Additionally, the projects consider how power and positionality can silence communities.
Project assignments include digital research, rhetorical analysis, and multimedia storytelling, persuasion, and argument. Students will examine how hashtags, Tweetstorms, infographics, and livestreaming can be used for digital activism and then create their own justice-oriented projects using these strategies. Assignments will use free digital tools, such as Twitter, TikTok, Pinterest, YouTube, and Instagram to publish student work.
Getting Started
Community action groups take advantage of the power of working together for change. Students can tap this same power by composing projects in work groups or with partners.
In addition to discussing how to choose a community action to focus on, the resources in this section help students prepare to discuss topics that may be contentious, to work collaboratively, and to complete research that results in sources that go beyond the campus library.
Project Assignments
Community groups and causes can always use more resources as they work toward their goals. The projects included here range from designing social media campaigns to building 3-D models that illustrate a story that is important to the community.
With some customization for writing across the curriculum courses, these projects can also provide ideas for examining historical community action groups and the work that they have done.
Resources
Take advantage of resources in this section, such as materials for teaching technical and professional communication, writing across the curriculum, and documentation and technical support for recommended online tools.
Additionally, you will find example community action toolkits and additional project examples to inspire students and give them models to build on as they help with the community causes they explore.
Accessing This Site
I want everyone to be able to use this site. If you find resources on this site that you cannot access, please let me know, and I will try to fix it or provide what you need.
Definitions
- Community
- A group of people interested in the same goals or ideals. The group can be local, regional, national, or international. It can connect in person or digitally. Anything goes, as long as group members share a common interest.
- Community Action
- The work a community does to achieve its goals or pursue its ideals. The work can take many forms—including protests, fundraising, social campaigns, and volunteering.
- Technical Communication
- Communication that describes and explains information, outlines how to complete tasks, and makes suggestions, proposals, or recommendations. It can take the form of various ways of communicating information and ideas, including audio and video recordings, websites, social media, and oral and visual presentations.
- Technical Writer
- A person who composes texts that present specific or technical information. While sometimes considered a person writing in or for the workplace, technical writers can be anyone anywhere, including family members, club and organization members, and others who share a common need or interest.