Technical Communication and the Discipline of Content: Considerations for Research, Training, and Career Readiness

by Rebekka Andersen, Carlos Evia

Overview

This book explores how workflows and technologies that treat content as computable data are changing the roles, work activities, and outputs of professional technical communicators.

It describes how the need for disciplinary approaches to design, manage, and deliver content has given rise to “the discipline of content” – content strategy, content design, content engineering, content operations – that increasingly defines a facet of technical communication work in modern organizations. The book draws on extensive research of the discipline of content and dozens of interviews with industry leaders, hiring managers, and academic administrators, educators, and alumni. These first-hand accounts outline how roles and activities in content organizations are changing, how these changes are impacting hiring needs and practices, and what'skills and qualities students and early-career professionals now need to obtain content-related jobs and advance to strategic positions. This book also offers guidance for building curricular pathways that prepare students for work in the discipline of content and offers strategies for enhancing pathways through industry outreach and partnerships.

A thorough assessment of the implications of the discipline of content for technical communication, this book will be of interest to students and scholars in the fields of technical writing, professional and public writing, content strategy, content marketing and information design.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781032588476
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	09/22/2025
Series:	ATTW Series in Technical and Professional Communication
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x (d)

About the Author

Rebekka Andersen is an Associate Professor and the Associate Director for Professional Writing in the University Writing Program at the University of California, Davis, USA.

Carlos Evia is a Professor, Associate Dean, and Chief Technology Officer in the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences at Virginia Tech, USA. He is the author of Creating Intelligent Content with Lightweight DITA (Routledge, 2018).

Table of Contents

SECTION I: Discrepancies, Challenges, and Opportunities  Introduction  1. Embracing Content in Technical Communication’s Collective Identity  2. Emergence of the Discipline of Content  SECTION II: Roles, Activities, and Career Trajectories  3. Changing Technical Communicator Roles and Activities  4. Hiring Needs for Entry-Level Content-Focused Jobs  SECTION III: Competencies, Curricular Pathways, and Programmatic Innovations  5. Technical Communication Literacy Frameworks and Approaches to Identifying Competencies and Skills  6. A Competencies Framework for Technical Content Professionals  7. Preparing Students for Roles and Activities in the Discipline of Content  

Editorial Reviews

Andersen and Evia provide a comprehensive, yet accessible, explanation of the various categories of the content discipline. More importantly, they outline what it will take to prepare students for the kind of work going on right now in the workplace. Their approach is to teach carefully and specifically. This book will interest both academia and industry.”

Tracy Bridgeford, University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA

“Technical Communication and the Discipline of Content is exactly what the field of technical communication needs right now—rigorous empirical research that describes both how content work is evolving and what those shifts mean for educators, students, and practitioners of content strategy.”

Erin Friess, University of North Texas, USA

“Andersen and Evia share novel research into, and apply thoughtful reflection on, the core question of how the education of technical communicators needs to evolve especially now that AI has joined us at the table. For those of us working in this field, the time to engage this question is now. This book will help us to do this.”

Joe Gollner, Managing Director of Gnostyx Research Inc., Canada

From the Publisher