Teaching

Teaching Philosophy
“Service learning at its finest makes a ‘contribution to the host community,’ contributes to ‘the creation of a consciousness of the civil society through participation,’ and ‘strengthens the interaction between academia and the world outside’” (Baker-Boosamra).

As a technical writing teacher I believe incorporating service learning into my classroom is the best way to teach students. I incorporate service learning into the curriculum because I want to accomplish the following:

• Teach my students the importance of effective writing in the workplace and community.
• Ensure my students learn how to write, edit, and use writing resources correctly and effectively.
• Instill in my students the importance of contributing their knowledge to the community.
• Teach my students how learning technical writing will give them the resources to contribute to the community.

Service learning lets me do all of those. I believe students learn best by doing. I also believe that students need to become a part of their community. By using service learning as a way to teach technical writing, I can provide students with a way to apply what they've learned in class to the world outside academia, while also showing them what they can do for the community.

I want to challenge my students and I feel that having them work with companies makes it a bit too easy to get through the class. When working with companies, students usually have all the resources and funding they need to make an effective document. With service learning, students have to get more creative. Working with community organizations limits the software students can work with, but students still have to create a good, effective document. Students will have to depend on their own imaginations and not the newest technologies to create a good document. They also have to work within a limited budget and with volunteers who can't dedicate all their time to the organization. This teaches students to become self-sufficient, while also preparing them for the pace of the real world.

Syllabus
I use the following syllabus in my introductory technical writing class at the University of North Texas.

• Syllabus

Last updated: March 9, 2009 at 3:05 P.M.