Humanistic approaches for teaching technical writing service courses better meet the needs of our students (and our discipline)

This paper argues that the technical communication survey course occupies a unique position as a humanistic methods course obviously connected to the major disciplines of an institution's students. Humanistic technical communication pedagogy can thereby be used to organize or rationalize other humanistic interventions in the curriculum, especially with STEM majors. Examples are described for two approaches to integrating rhetorical considerations into junior-level technical writing courses. Senior capstone courses for STEM majors are also considered as sites for challenging students to consider social implications of technological development. Finally, results from a study at Georgia Tech support the authors' contention that students are open to considering technical communication as a rhetorical enterprise.