|
|
-
Fitting together
Research, trip and award all interrelate for English's Rebecca Burnett.
-
What do a new honor, a USAID-sponsored trip to South Africa and continual
updating of a popular textbook all have in common?
At first glance, the answer would be Rebecca Burnett, university professor
of English.
However Burnett likes to look a little deeper.
"They all interrelate," Burnett said. "And technical communication
plays a major role."
Earlier this year, Burnett was named an associate fellow of the Society
for Technical Communication (STC), the largest professional organization
for technical writers, editors, illustrators, managers and educators with
more than 23,000 members. Less than one percent of STC members achieve
the grade of associate fellow.
To become an associate fellow, a member must have been active in the field
of technical communication for at least 15 years.
Burnett was cited "for continuous outstanding contributions to the
field of business, technical and professional communication through book
and article publications, workshops and training sessions for professionals
in the workplace as well as the academy."
One of those publications is Technical Communication, an 800-page
textbook that is in its fifth edition. Burnett is currently working on
the publication’s sixth edition, which is scheduled to be published
in the summer of 2004.
"Each succeeding edition has included the increasingly extraordinary
role that technology plays in technical communication," Burnett said.
"There have been other changes as well with increased interest in
international and multicultural issues and in the ethics of communication
in the workplace."
Some of the relevant information that Burnett will include in the sixth
edition of Technical Communication was obtained in South Africa
while working on a USAID project at Mangosuthu Technikon, a technical
college in Durban. Burnett was asked to go to South Africa by the grant’s
principal investigators, Kenneth Lassila of the Department of Physics
and Astronomy and Lita Rule of the Department of Natural Resources Ecology
Management.
Burnett has traveled to Mangosuthu Technikon on two different occasions
in the past year. During her two-and-a-half week visit each time, she
has worked with lecturers and senior lecturers on faculty development
issues including alternatives to traditional lecture approaches.
"I introduced the concept of (written, oral and visual) communication
across the curriculum," she said. "While I was in South Africa,
I established a small, ongoing classroom research group with the faculty
there. We are looking at issues that matter to them."
At the conclusion of her second visit to South Africa, Burnett took the
opportunity to explore the countryside. There she saw examples of technical
documents (ranging from prehistoric drawings to AIDS-prevention posters)
that she will include in the sixth edition of Technical Communication.
Around LAS
November 3-16, 2003
|
|
