Design Discourse: Composing and Revising Programs in Professional and Technical Writing

Reviewed by Katie Walkup, Collegiate Assistant Professor, Virginia Tech on 12/30/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

This book's essays are grouped into five categories: composing, revising, minors/certificates/engineering, futures, and post-scripts. Audiences learn how to establish a technical and professional communication (TPC) program, draw on faculty strengths to staff the program, and maintain the program. Readers will find the program artifacts particularly useful, i.e. anecdotes on program development, heuristics on types of student deliverables within programs, sample proposals for courses/programs. A potential area that could be updated might be an essay (or perhaps editors could ask future authors for more information) about career and placement data for programs. This type of information would be helpful in determining how well TPC programs are responding to student needs. As well, given TPC's social justice turn, future editions of the book should incorporate the social justice work of TPC programs within each chapter.

Content Accuracy rating: 4

Most chapters are anecdotal accounts of creating, implementing, or assessing TPC programs at authors' institutions. Chapters that cited research relevant to TPC were more useful than chapters that relied on literary or philosophical sources--though perhaps the authors chose these sources to show the interdisciplinary nature of TPC work.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 3

Social justice has been a central tenet of TPC work for many years now, so I was concerned that the terms "social justice" and "social change" occurred one time apiece in the textbook. Future editions of this book can increase their relevance to the field by focusing on this tenet.

Clarity rating: 5

Chapters are easy-to-understand, provide helpful examples, and give readers multiple options for implementing a TPC program at multiple types of institutions.

Consistency rating: 5

I appreciated the first-person narrative of the chapters and the emphasis on the process of departmental/programmatic/curricular change. I think readers who want to embark on making those types of changes will find this setup particularly useful, as the authors explain which campus departments/agencies/organizations they encountered as they implemented their program.

Modularity rating: 4

The editors' themes help differentiate the parts of the book. However, if I were assigning this text, I would probably assign essays piecemeal or else encourage students to find and read chapters they find most helpful.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

I did not observe any issues with organization, structure, or flow of the text.

Interface rating: 4

I appreciate that readers are given the option to click on individual chapters or the entire pdf of the text. One suggestion for future editions: instead of a preface, consider a "How to Use this Book" piece.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

I did not observe any grammatical concerns that interfered with my comprehension of the text.

Cultural Relevance rating: 3

One of the other reviewers for this texts suggested here that they would like to see more treatment of diversity, equity, and inclusion within the text. I agree. Anecdotally, anyway, I see greater diversity in TPC's undergraduates, graduate students, and early-career teachers and scholars. I would like to see how TPC programs are mobilizing to support and amplify the voices of these stakeholders.

Reviewed by Jennifer Barton, Senior Instructor, Assistant Director of PTW, Virginia Tech on 5/8/21

Comprehensiveness rating: 4 see less

The essays in this book cover a lot of ground—from starting a new program, to revising an existing one, to alternatives to full programs for majors, to visions of the future. All of it is very good, but I feel that, 10 years after this book was created, we are living in the futures envisioned. I'd like to see that section in particular updated. No index or glossary. An index would be helpful.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

Since the essays in this book are all essentially first-person case studies, one has to take on faith that they are accurate. The case study approach is very helpful for showcasing the wide range of situations and institutional constraints that a WPA might encounter. Seeing the different approaches and their effects is useful.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 4

As mentioned under "Comprehensiveness," it would be helpful to update the futures section, and perhaps add a few new essays from more recent program developers. I'd also like to read about how program administrators are addressing the changing expectations around diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Clarity rating: 5

Excellent. Each essay is clearly and personably written. A pleasure to read.

Consistency rating: 5

As a collection of essays, there is naturally some variation in style and terminology, but nothing that is confusing or jarring. Everything works very well together.

Modularity rating: 5

The section dividers as well as the essays themselves make the book easy to use in any number of ways. As another reviewer mentioned, it is not perhaps intended for the average college course, but it is an immensely useful resource, and I am glad it is available.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 5

The sections each make sense and progress in logical way.

Interface rating: 5

The book is very straightforward and plain, but that makes it very easy to navigate.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text is very clean.

Cultural Relevance rating: 4

I would like to see some text that wrestles with the ways in which professional and technical writing expectations are being challenged as for being exclusively white and middle-class, and how those expectations are changing as a result. How do we make visible that issues of accessibility, equality, diversity, and inclusion are important elements of what we are teaching in our programs? How have people successfully incorporated such elements into their programs?

Reviewed by Per Henningsgaard, Interim Director of Technical and Professional Writing, Portland State University on 2/8/17

Comprehensiveness rating: 5 see less

While the book contains neither an index nor a glossary, this is not much of an impediment in a book that is so clearly organized. The book is a series of essays written by twenty-four different authors, and each essay is clearly titled, so it's not hard to navigate through the book in order to find the essays that are of greatest interest to the individual reader. Moreover, the book absolutely covers all areas and ideas of the subject appropriately. If you're interested in the complexities of composing and revising programs in professional and technical writing, this book will have something for you, no matter your institutional context or where you're at in the process of program development.

Content Accuracy rating: 5

The book is definitely error-free; I was impressed by the copyediting and fact checking. As for whether or not the content is accurate and unbiased, that's a little harder to say because the book's editors are very open about the fact that, in gathering the essays that comprise the book, they "emphasized that [they] were looking for case studies in first person that revealed how designers made sense of and organized their particular location." In other words, the essays contained in this book are subjective. In my opinion, this is a strength of the book, rather than a weakness. It's exciting to read about such a diversity of experiences; this diversity almost guarantees that the reader will be able to relate to at least some of the essays, no matter the reader's institutional context. Also, the first-person narratives make this book a much more enjoyable read than your standard academic prose.

Relevance/Longevity rating: 5

This book was published in 2010, but if it weren't for being asked to comment in this review on the book's relevance/longevity, I wouldn't have even noticed that the book is already seven years old. In other words, it feels very up-to-date; the concerns it addresses are still the concerns of those who are developing professional and technical writing programs today.

Clarity rating: 5

In the book's preface, David Franke writes that he emphasized to prospective authors that the book's editors "were looking for case studies in first person that revealed how designers made sense of and organized their particular location." The first-person narratives make this book a much more enjoyable read than your standard academic prose. The text is written in lucid, accessible prose, and any jargon/technical terminology that has been used is appropriately contextualized.

Consistency rating: 4

Terminology and framework vary across the different essays, as you would expect in a book with twenty-four different authors. However, the book's editors experimented with peer review: "Alex Reid and I wrote responses to each essay we accepted and mailed our comments back to the author. Simultaneously, each essay was mailed to another contributor in the book for further response and comments." This little experiment means that there is perhaps greater consistency than is found in similar collections of essays (though the book's editors only rarely inserted cross-references between chapters, which might have been a nice addition). Overall, I was impressed by how well the book worked as a whole, not just as a collection of parts.

Modularity rating: 5

This book is a collection of essays by twenty-four different authors, so it's readily divisible into smaller reading sections. However, I have a hard time imagining it being used as part of a course. I think it's a great book for administrators of professional and technical writing programs, but I don't think the audience goes much beyond this. It's not that the book is too difficult for students; it's that the subject matter is perhaps too particular to be used in any but a very small number of very specific, advanced courses.

Organization/Structure/Flow rating: 4

The sixteen essays in this book are arranged in five sections. Of these five sections, four of them are well conceived and represent a logical progression. In the middle, however, is a section titled "Minors, Certificates, Engineering." Even the title of this section represents a strange mixture of things. It's not that the essays in this section aren't important or valuable; on the contrary, there are some particularly excellent essays in this section. However, the organization of this section within the larger structure of the book is... well, strange.

Interface rating: 5

The book contains no significant interface issues. There are no display features that would distract or confuse the reader. The tables that have been included are well chosen and well designed.

Grammatical Errors rating: 5

The text contains no significant grammatical errors. It's remarkably well copyedited for an academic book with a presumably small market.

Cultural Relevance rating: 5

The text is not culturally insensitive or offensive in any way. Jude Edminster and Andrew Mara's essay, “Reinventing Audience through Distance,” makes a particularly valuable contribution to the book by drawing on Thomas Kent and post-colonialist theory in its discussion of professional and technical writing.