Open Technical Communication

*The content below has been exported from SoftChalk as a PDF, therefore, the formating, videos, and interactivity from the original project have been removed.* Click for Full SoftChalk Open TC Experience

Letter from the Project Manager

Welcome to Open Technical Communication! We're so happy that you—whether you're a student or an instructor—have decided to use our textbook.

Open TC is a freely accessible online textbook for technical communication, technical writing, workplace writing, and other related courses. Currently in its third rendition, it's had an interesting history. In 2015, Dr. Tamara Powell at Kennesaw State University gathered us, a team of like-minded colleagues, to develop an Open Educational Resource that would allow us to move away from a well-respected but very expensive textbook and towards something equally as valuable but more affordable for students. Our team applied for and received an Affordable Learning Georgia grant to fund the project, and in July 2016, we published Sexy Technical Communication online with a CC-BY attribution license.

What's with the title, you ask? One day, deep in the development process, our team shared a plate of dry-fried eggplant at Tasty China in Marietta, GA, and contemplated what to call the as-yet-untitled project. We didn't land on a title worth keeping, but we decided to use Sexy Technical Communication as an in-joke working title until we thought of something better. Then, as we worked through the project, one team member (Dr. Cassie Race) wrote a fun introduction that worked well with the Sexy TC title, so we decided to keep it for the moment. That moment lasted four years.

The textbook's original design was as idiosyncratic as its title. Our team had a student assistant who had experience creating computer-based background art, so we handed the design reins over and asked James Monroe to design the background art for the first rendition of Sexy TC. The fun design worked well with the fun title.

As the years passed by, however, we ultimately decided to move in a more professional direction. Two of the original team members (Dr. Tamara Powell and I, Tiffani Reardon) applied for a smaller Affordable Learning Georgia grant to help fund a design overhaul and content edit. This second rendition of Sexy TC had more neutral colors as well as a consistent logo and design. We also worked hard to ensure that all chapters had consistent objectives, good accessibility and document design, and Google Analytics embedded into the back end, among other improvements. We kept the Sexy TC title for the time being again.

As Summer 2019 rolled in, another team member (Dr. Jonathan Arnett) pointed out that the new, professional design was great, but it doesn't mean as much without a professional title. It was only then that the team got serious about finding a more permanent title for the textbook. We considered several ideas, but we wanted something that was clear on the purpose of the textbook but also embodied the whole point of the project: affordability. Thus, Open Technical Communication was born.

As we roll out this third rendition of the textbook, we're excited to debut the new title as well as some new interactive activities and a few new chapters. Please feel free to reach out to me, the project manager for Open TC, if you ever have questions or suggestions for improvement. Whether you're an instructor designing your course around this textbook, a student using this textbook for a class, or someone who just stumbled upon our textbook by chance, the Open Technical Communication team hopes you find it valuable.

Yours,

Tiffani Reardon
treardo2@kennesaw.edu

Our Team

Ms. Tiffani Reardon, Instructional Designer and Part-Time Instructor of Technical Communication | Project Manager, Instructional Designer, and Instructor of Record for Open Technical Communication, treardo2@kennesaw.edu

Dr. Tamara Powell, Special Assistant to the Dean for Distance Learning and Professor of English | Instructor of Record for Open Technical Communication, tpowel25@kennesaw.edu

Dr. Jonathan Arnett, Program Coordinator and Assistant Professor of Technical Communication | Instructor of Record for Open Technical Communication, earnett@kennesaw.edu

Dr. Monique Logan, Lecturer of Technical Communication at Kennesaw State University | Instructor of Record for Open Technical Communication, mlogan15@kennesaw.edu

Dr. Cassandra Race, Part-Time Assistant Professor of Technical Communication at Kennesaw State University | Instructor of Record for Open Technical Communication, crace@kennesaw.edu

Special thanks to the following people for their additional help on this textbook:
• Mr. David McMurrey, Author of Online Technical Writing
• Ms. Megan Gibbs, Former Instructional Designer for Academic Accessibility, Kennesaw State University
• Ms. Jennifer Nguyen, Former Student Assistant, Kennesaw State University
• Mx. James Monroe, Former Student Assistant, Kennesaw State University
• Mr. Lance Linimon, Closed Captioner, linimon@me.com