Category: ATTW 2017

Jones, Moore, Walton win 2017 Nell Ann Pickett Award

Congratulations to Natasha Jones, Kristin Moore, and Rebecca Walton, who were awarded the Nell Ann Pickett Award for their article, “Disrupting the Past to Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Communication,” published in Volume 25.4, 2016. This award is given annually for the best article in ATTW’s journal, Technical Communication Quarterly, for the previous publication year. Judges for the award are previous award winners. It is named for a founding member of the association who initiated the award and originally funded it.

nellannpickettwinners
Rebecca Walton, Natasha Jones, and Kristin Moore, ATTW 2017 Awards Reception, Portland

Natasha Jones is an assistant professor at University of Central Florida. Kristin Moore is an assistant professor at Texas Tech University. Rebecca Walton is an assistant professor at Utah State University.

Williams elevated to ATTW Fellow

Congratulations to Dr. Miriam Williams of Texas State University. Williams was elevated to ATTW Fellow at the 2017 conference in Portland, Oregon.

Read the citation read by Bill Hart-Davidson and written by Jerry Savage, with remarks from Natasha Jones, Michael Trice, and Emmelyn Wang.

ATTW 2017 participant information (updated)

ATTW 2017 is next this week! We wanted to round up all the information about conference events in one place before everyone starts traveling. Hopefully, this answers your last minute questions, but if not, please feel free to contact us at attworg@gmail.com.

All ATTW conference events are held at the Doubletree by Hilton Hotel Portland, 1000 NE Multnomah Street, Portland, Oregon 97232, +1-503-281-6111. It’s about a 15 minute walk from the Oregon Convention Center, near the Lloyd Center/NE 11th TriMet stop.

This post last updated Tuesday, March 14.

Weather-related cancellations

If you won’t be able to attend ATTW 2017 or the Women in TC luncheon because of travel problems related to Winter Storm Stella, we’re very sorry! Contact us at attworg@gmail.com and we’ll refund your registration fees. We’ll process the refunds after the conference.

Social media

Our social media ambassadors get started the week of the conference—more soon! Plan to tweet using the #attwcon hashtag. If you like, join our list of @ATTWorg tweeters.

Research Methods Workshops

Workshops will take place Tuesday, March 14 from 12:30-4:30p. Please arrive at least 15 minutes early to get checked in so that workshops can start on time.

We have Ross Island and Morrison rooms located on the first level from 12:30-4:30. Each room will have a projector and screen, but facilitators and participants should bring laptops.

The break will include regular and decaf coffee/tea, soft drinks, bottled water, and cookies.

Conference Check-in

The main room for ATTW on Wednesday will be Multnomah, which is on the first level of the  Doubletree. Check-in and registration will be available outside of this room beginning at 8:00 AM on Wednesday, March 15.

If you preregistered for the conference:

Look for someone with a cellphone or tablet to get you checked in quickly through Eventbrite. Pick up your nametag and program, and have a great conference!

If you registered, but need to pay onsite:

Look for Bradley Dilger or Stuart Blythe. They’ll help you finish your registration.

If you missed the online registration window:

Look for Bradley Dilger. He will be handling onsite registrations. Here are the costs for onsite registrations:

Full-time faculty or professionals $150.00
Contingent faculty $100.00
Students $75.00

Poster Presentation Information

Posters should be 30″ x 40″ or smaller to fit on the foam boards that will be provided.  We will provide foam boards, binder clips, and push pins to mount the posters.

Then the foam boards will be displayed on easels.

Presenter Information

Rooms will have a projector and Internet access. Presenters should bring laptops and connecting dongles for audio visual.

Each session is an hour and fifteen minutes. In general, with a panel of four, each presenter has fifteen minutes, leaving fifteen minutes for questions. The issue of when to take questions is up to the chair and the panel, but taking questions at the end, by which time everyone has had time to present, is a good idea.

We’ve updated (Sun Mar 12) the ATTW 2017 program preview which includes detailed session descriptions with a few late-breaking changes. Have a look — and plan your conference!

Women in TC Luncheon

The luncheon is scheduled for Multnomah on the first level of the Doubletree. Tickets to the luncheon are sold out. Organizers will check people in at the door using the Eventbrite registration information.

Accessibility

Please refer to the CCCC accessibility guide (link is PDF).

If you have have accessibility concerns for which you need assistance, please contact Michelle Eble at EBLEM@ecu.edu.

Portland Information

The local arrangements committee for CCCC has created a Portland 2017 web site with information about restaurants, ground transportation, and more.

From Our Conference Co-Chairs

We look forward to welcoming your to the 20th Annual Conference of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW), where we will be celebrating the 20th anniversary of the conference itself.

The city of Portland and the anniversary suggests a Kairotic moment to gauge our field’s depths and currents, forge new tributaries, and steward a sustainable future. This is where the theme of this year’s conference came from. “Celebrating 20—Retrospection and New Directions in Technical Communication,” acts as a call for collective disciplinary reflections and envisions, to relay the legacy of ambition, retrospection, and innovation, established from the founders of our field.

Thanks to your great submissions, we have thus compiled a conference program that includes 29 concurrent sessions, 2 workshops, and 20 posters. These presentations represent a wide variety of topics on technical communication research, pedagogy, and practice. We hope you will find this conference both inviting and invigorating.  

ATTW 2017 Program (PDF)

As the largest city, Bridgetown and seaport in Oregon, Portland provides the perfect platform for ATTW’s 20th anniversary conference by reminding us of the importance of connections across disciplines, campuses, research interests, and industries. While you create professional connections at the conference, we hope you can also take time to enjoy the many cultural and historical sites as well as wonderful cuisine and breweries offered by Portland.

Please register for the conference by Friday March 3, 2016. Onsite registration will be available, but will include a $25 onsite surcharge registration fee. Attendees may register online and pay at the door if necessary.

We look forward to seeing you in person and watching the new connections forged in Portland!

Huiling Ding and Huatong Sun
ATTW Conference Co-chairs

Sponsorship at ATTW 2017

ATTW announces new sponsorship opportunities that offer publishers, universities, and other sponsors greater visibility throughout the 2017 annual conference.

Meet the People who Shape the Field of Technical Writing:

  • Share your catalog with program coordinators and instructors
  • Meet graduate students who will lead tomorrow’s classrooms
  • Have your publications seen by faculty and students from universities across the country.

Sponsorship benefits include:

  • Visibility in the program
  • Recognition at conference events
  • Program advertisements
  • Exhibition tables at the publishers’ event
  • Other opportunities to make your branding visible to all conference attendees

To choose your level of support, visit our sponsorship opportunities page. The deadline is February 14, 2017.

You can email any questions to sponsorship@attw.org

 

2017 ATTW Career Workshop

Since 2009, under the leadership of Richard Johnson-Sheehan and Lisa Meloncon, the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) has offered a successful Career Workshop at the annual conference. Each year, about 25 faculty members and 30 graduate students participate.

careerworkshop.JPG
ATTW 2016 career workshop in Houston, Texas

The workshop gives graduate students in Technical Communication, Professional Writing, Rhetoric, and Composition opportunities to meet with faculty from a variety of universities.

The workshop will be held at the ATTW Conference in Portland, OR on Wednesday, March 15, 2017 from 4:00 to 5:15 pm. (Rooms TBD.) The ATTW Conference meets at the DoubleTree by the Hilton Portland, 1000 NE Multnomah St.. (You can learn more about ATTW and the ATTW Conference at http://www.attw.org/conference).

The workshop format is “speed dating.” Graduate students and faculty members meet one-to-one in five minute segments, so they can share ideas, talk about the job market, and discuss preparing for the job search.

Graduate students:

The format gives you an opportunity to meet professors from other universities, discuss your career goals and learn more about their programs. You will also receive a helpful 20-page guide that will help you navigate the job search process from beginning to end.
Please RSVP to Lora Arduser by February 24. Then, bring a one-page CV and business cards that you can leave with people in the workshop and at the conference. You do not need to be registered for the conference to participate in the workshop, but we encourage you to join us for the day.
If you have questions, email Lora Arduser (lora.arduser@uc.edu) or Lisa Meloncon (lisa.meloncon@uc.edu).

Faculty:

This workshop is always fun, and it’s a good way to meet up-and-coming members of our field and potential members of the ATTW. Even if your program isn’t hiring next year, we could use your expertise and wisdom. There is no preparation. If you might be hiring, though, this workshop is a great way to meet the people who you might want to interview next year.
To volunteer, email Lora Arduser (lora.arduser@uc.edu) with your name and affiliation by February 24, 2017.
If you are unable to attend, please share this post with your graduate students who might be interested.

ATTW Announces 2017 Graduate Research Award Winners

ATTW is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2017 ATTW Graduate Research Awards. In our commitment to advancing graduate students in the field, the award’s purpose is to support and advance the research of graduate students in the latter stages of their PhD programs.

Congratulations to the following recipients for their contributions to research in technical and professional communication:

  • Jeffrey Gerding, Purdue University, “Advocating for Users, Engaging Citizens: Analyzing User Experience Research and the Rhetoric of Civic Engagement in Public Sector Digital Service Design”
  • Eric Stephens,  Clemson University, “Correctional Inclinations: Using Big Data to Trace Correctional Officer Handbooks”
  • Rachel Tofteland-Trampe, University of Minnesota-Twin Cities, “Developing Digital Literacies: Engaging Technical Communication at an Urban Community Technology Center”

The award selection committee was really impressed with the quality and potential contributions of these research projects. Award recipients will be featured and present their research in a panel at the annual ATTW conference, which will be held on March 15, 2017, in Portland, OR.

The Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) is an active professional organization of about 500 teachers, researchers, and practitioners of technical communication. Formed in 1973 to encourage dialogue among teachers of technical communication and to develop technical communication as an academic discipline, the organization boasts an international and interdisciplinary membership. ATTW produces Technical Communication Quarterly, a leading academic journal, and it collaborates with Taylor & Francis/Routledge to publish the ATTW Book Series in Technical and Professional Communication.

Call for Participation ATTW 2017 Research Methods Workshops

ATTW 2017 Research Methods Workshops

Portland, Oregon March 14, 2017 12:30-4:30
Application deadline: December 15th
Scholarships are available!
Visit attw.org for the call for participation and full workshop descriptions
The Research Methods Workshops are an initiative of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) aimed at providing an opportunity for those entering the profession and those less trained in research to develop more sophisticated research skills.
This year, ATTW is sponsoring two Research Methods Workshops. Each workshop focuses on a methodology for data analysis and is designed to help researchers devise and try out an analytic approach.

Iconographic Tracking: A Digital Research Method for Circulation Studies

Laurie E. Gries, University of Colorado-Boulder

Conducting Quantitative Content Analysis

Ryan K. Boettger, University of North Texas

Have you collected so much content for your research that you don’t know how to analyze it all?
bottgerContent analysis (CA) is a powerful empirical method for analyzing texts, images, maps, sounds, and symbols. Briefly defined, CA is the systematic, objective, and quantitative analysis of message characteristics (Neuendorf 2016). Researchers then make inferences about the messages within the texts, the writer, and the audience. The applied nature of CA has made it popular with academics, commercial researchers, and communication practitioners. However, the method is often misapplied or mislabeled in fields like technical communication.
These two half-day workshops will be held in Portland, Oregon on Tuesday afternoon, March 14, 12:30-4:30. This is the day preceding the ATTW conference (March 15) and the CCCC conference (March 15-18).
Registration for each workshop is $100. Ten scholarships of $200 each are available to graduate students to defray the cost of the workshop and hotel.