communication department

News from the Board 

 

From Writer to Communicator: University of Central Florida Changes Its Program Name

By Mike Murray
STC Board of Directors

By now, I hope you're all aware of the changes taking place in our profession. We're moving from being "technical writers" to "technical communicators," and it's more than just a change in job titles. (Read "Technical Communicator," Your Time has Come and From Writer to Communicator to learn more.)

This movement is taking place both in the workplace and, now, in academe. On March 19, STC Treasurer W.C. Wiese and I attended a meeting of the faculty of the University of Central Florida's technical writing program. I'm pleased to report that we had significant success in making the case for a switch to "technical communication."

W.C. and I explained the importance and value of changing the UCF program from “technical writing” to “technical communication.” For data, we drew on a document that STC recently presented to the United States Department of Labor that argues for official recognition of "technical communicator" in the Standard Occupational Classification system, a Bureau of Labor Statistics document that influences hiring decisions, funding grants, and statistic gathering. (See The Case for Technical Communication).

We also got support from UCF Professor and STC Fellow Dan Jones, who summarized the view of Dan Voss, who could not attend the meeting. (Voss spent eleven years as manager of STC's Education Committee and is the co-founder of the Orlando Chapter's mentoring program at UCF.) Jones pointed out that several of the English Department's new course titles already included the words "technical communication" (such as "The Visual in Technical Communication" and "International Technical Communication").

As a result of the meeting, the faculty unanimously agreed on changing the title of both the BA and MA programs to "technical communication."

Jones said he would look into what is officially required at the department, college, and university levels to make the name change. Jones also encouraged the faculty to use "technical communication" in place of "technical writing" in all program-related correspondence with other faculty, staff, administrators, and students. He plans to make the necessary changes to the 2008-2009 undergraduate catalogs when the next deadline comes in late fall.

The Board is, of course, pleased with this development, and we encourage other educational iinstitutions to consider changing their program names to "technical communication." And for those of us in the workforce—maybe it's time we talk to our bosses about a title change.

Personally, I think "Mike Murray, technical communicator" has a nice ring to it.

TW2TC