1. TECHNICAL WRITING As a CURRICULUM

2. 2 HISTORY A. ANCIENT CULTURES: (no curricula, but…) Technological Artifacts & Documents Operational Information Aztecs, Chinese, Egyptians Babylonians, Greeks, Romans Procedures & Statutes religious works, such as the Torah, Talmud Scientific Information Renaissance documents

3. 3 HISTORY B. 19 th CENTURY: PRE-Civil War: “Classical” education Latin & Greek 7 Liberal Arts: Grammar, Logic, Rhetoric Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, Astronomy

4. 4 HISTORY B. 19 th CENTURY: POST-Civil War: “Land-Grant Schools” Morrill Acts (1862-1890) 30,000 acres per congressman To educate the “industrial classes”

5. 5 HISTORY B. 19 th CENTURY: POST-Civil War: (cont’d) “Land-Grant Schools” Agriculture and Mechanical schools agriculture, military skills, engineering/mechanical arts (technologies)

6. 6 HISTORY B. 19 th CENTURY: POST-Civil War: (cont’d) specialization what are now “liberal arts”: math, literatures technical schools w/o “liberal arts” classes — “vocationalism”

7. 7 HISTORY C. 20 th CENTURY: PRE-World War II: technical writing/communication burgeoning field teaching engineers to write

8. 8 HISTORY C. 20 th CENTURY: PRE-World War II: (cont’d) mostly taught at engineering institutions mixed in “liberal arts” lessened vocationalism rarely taught at traditional colleges teach literature vs. teach writing teaching writing = “inferior”

9. 9 HISTORY D. 20 th CENTURY: 1940s World War II: Introduction of sophisticated equipment during the war  the need for clear, easy- to-understand user & repair manuals  “Thus, with the defense industry, rose the beginnings of technical communication” (Carliner).

10. 10 HISTORY E. 20 th CENTURY: 1940s & 1950s POST-World War II: training writers to write for engineers opposed to the prior practice of training engineers to write

11. 11 HISTORY E. 20 th CENTURY: 1950s POST-World War II: (cont’d) post-war defense industry boom Cold War 1958 = 1 st degree program at Carnegie Institute of Technology (CMU)

12. 12 HISTORY F. 20 th CENTURY: 1960s & 1970s Computer Age: Growth in computer industry Growth in “plain language” laws Jimmy Carter Document Design Center at American Institutes for Research

13. 13 HISTORY D. 20 th CENTURY: 1980s Computer Age: accepted by academe: classes and degrees offered at traditional schools growing professional and academic organizations more places at conventions improved research into the field changes in technology, especially computers

14. 14 HISTORY F. 20 th CENTURY: 1980s and Beyond Computer Age: Demand for “user-friendly” manuals Demand for services = demand for training  TRAINING = EDUCATION

15. 15 HISTORY F. 20 th CENTURY: 1980s and Beyond Computer Age: (cont’d) Computers change how we publish typesetters, press operators, production personnel, layout artists, copy editors Computers change what we publish formats, forms