Lean Technical Communication: Toward Sustainable Program Innovation

Winner of the 2020 CCCC Research Impact Award

Lean Technical Communication: Toward Sustainable Program Innovation offers a theoretically and empirically-grounded model for growing and stewarding professional and technical communication programs under diverse conditions. Through case studies of disruptive innovations, this book presents a forward-looking, sustainable vision of program administration that negotiates short-term resource deficits with long-term resilience. It illustrates how to meet many of the newest challenges facing technical communication programs, such as building and maintaining change with limited resources, economic shortfalls, technology deficits, and expanding/reimagining the role of our programs in the 21st century university. Its insights benefit those involved in the development of undergraduate and graduate programs, including majors, service courses, minors, specializations, and certificates.

Meredith A. Johnson is Associate Professor and Director of the graduate program in Rhetoric and Composition at the University of South Florida where she previously served as the interim director of Professional Writing, Rhetoric, and Technology. She received her Ph.D. in Rhetoric and Composition from Purdue University. Her research appears in journals such as Technical Communication, Technical Communication Quarterly, Computers and Composition: An International Journal, Computers and Composition Online, IEEE: Transactions on Professional Communication, Kairos: A Journal of Rhetoric, Technology, and Pedagogy, and enculturation.

W. Michele Simmons is Associate Professor of English, faculty affiliate with the Institute for the Environment and Sustainability, and Director of Professional Writing at Miami University. Her research lies at the intersections of civic engagement, research methodologies, user experience, and institutional change. Her publications include Participation and Power: Civic Discourse in Environmental Policy and her research appears in journals such as Technical Communication Quarterly, College Composition and Communication, and The Writing Instructor.

Patricia Sullivan is a Professor and Director of the graduate program in Rhetoric and Composition at Purdue University where she previously directed Technical Writing. Recently she has published on emerging technologies, institutional change, mentoring, research methodologies, rhetorical theory, video, and usability/UX.