General Information
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Useful Resources
- Society for Technical Communication
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MTPC Faculty
The Auburn MTPC faculty consists of a talented group of professors who have a broad range of academic backgrounds with myriad professional research interests and experience. The MTPC faculty are fully qualified and driven to prepare students for positions as technical communicators in industry, business, government, and academe, as well as for advanced positions as senior writers and editors, information analysts, and communication managers.
Members of the MTPC faculty have a wealth of experience guiding and instructing MTPC students through the completion of degree requirements while following this effort by assisting graduates with successful job placement in the growing field of technical and professional communication and other related fields.
Joyce M. Rothschild - Coordinator of Technical and Professional Communication
Dr. Rothschild specializes in the teaching of technical writing and technical and professional editing. She has co-written several articles on the practices of professional editors and is currently working on a more theoretical book-length study of the role of editors in corporate America.
Awards, Presentations, and Publications
Dr. Rothschild was appointed technical editor of the Journal of Consumer Affairs (JCA) in August 2001. The JCA is the official semiannual publication of the American Council of Consumer Interests.
Michelle Sidler
"I started teaching technical writing in graduate school and was immediately fascinated by the connections between technology and writing. Technical writing foregrounds the importance of computers to our information culture; the ways we read and write are changing to accommodate sophisticated visuals, interactivity, and design. Other forms of professional writing are fascinating as well; nowhere is persuasion more important and obvious than in a cover letter for employment or a project proposal. Most importantly, professional and technical communication courses are about how writing promotes action, providing information and arguments for 'real world' audiences and situations. Professional and technical writers 'get things done' in fields like business, medicine, and public policy while changing society through tangible action."
Dr. Sidler teaches English Composition as well as graduate and undergraduate courses in technology and literacy. Her primary areas of research interest are computer-mediated composition instruction, technology studies, and rhetorical theory.
Awards, Presentations, and Publications
Dr. Sidler has been awarded the Graduate Faculty Appreciation Award, English Graduate Organization (2002-3); the Humanities Research Grant, Auburn University (Summer 2004); and the Competitive Research Grant, Auburn University (Summer 2001).
Recent publications and conference presentations include:
“The Not-So-Distant Future: Composition Studies in the Culture of Biotechnology.” Computers and Composition 21 (2004): 129-145.
“Making Science Matter: Teaching Biotechnology and Research-Praxis in Composition.” College Composition and Communication Conference. San Antonio, TX. March, 2004.
“Biotechnology and English Studies: Applications of Language Theory to Genetic Research.” Alabama Academy of Science. Montevallo, AL. March 2004. Co-presentor with Elizabeth Cater Childs and Jessica Lueders.
Tiffany Portewig
Tiffany Craft Portewig expects to complete her PhD in Technical Communication and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University in August 2006. She earned a master's degree in English and Technical Communication from Texas State University and a bachelor's degree with a double major in English and Political Science from Texas A&M University.
Her dissertation studies workplace decisions related to the visual design of technical illustrations and graphics. She has conducted numerous research studies, presented at national conferences, and published in the area of visual rhetoric and visual literacy.
Her other research interests include technical editing, document design, and technical communication pedagogy. Tiffany has worked as senior editor of a technical publication, a technical editor and writer, and a consultant in the area of instructional design.
Isabelle Thompson
Dr. Thompson specializes in technical and professional communication, composition, and educational theory and practice and has publications in Journal of Business and Technical Communication, Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, and Technical Communication Quarterly. She is Coordinator of the English Center and Faculty Fellow Associate Director of the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning at Auburn University.
Dr. Thompson is also an active member of the University community. In 2000, she was Secretary of the University Senate. Now she serves on the Liberal Arts Tenure and Promotion Committee and the University Senate Steering Committee. She was also editor of the 2002 SACS Self-Study.
Awards, Presentations, and Publications
Dr. Thompson received the 1999 NCTE Award for Best Article Reporting Historical Research or Textual Studies in Technical and Scientific Communication.
Dr. Thompson's recent publications include:
"Sex Differences in Technical Communication: A Perspective from Social Role Theory." Journal of Technical Writing and Communication 34.3 (2004): 217-232.
Dave Yeats
Dave Yeats is an assistant professor of technical and professional communication. He specializes in usability, Web design, and software documentation.
Dave earned his PhD in Technical Communication and Rhetoric from Texas Tech University , where he served as an Assistant Director of User Research. Before that, he worked as a technical writer at several high-tech companies in Austin , Texas . He still works as a consultant or contract technical communicator as time permits.
In the classroom, Dave likes to emphasize skills that students can apply to their future careers through hands-on projects, including Web sites, research reports, or usability studies.
Dave's research interests include an investigation of usability practices in the open-source software community, examination of the rhetorical purposes of various deliverables related to usability evaluation, and the ethics of technical communication.
Dr. Yeats' recent publications include:
"Understanding the Role of the Highlights Video in Usability Testing: A Consideration of Rhetorical and Generic Expectations." Technical Communication , 52.2 (May) 2005, pp. 156-62. (with Locke Carter)
Donald H. Cunningham - Professor Emeritus
Donald H. Cunningham (B.A., M.A., and Ph.D., University of Missouri) retired from Auburn's Department of English in May 2005, having served as the coordinator of technical and professional communication at Auburn for 16 years. Former students and colleagues may contact Don at cunnidh@auburn.edu.
During his long teaching career, Don also directed writing programs at Texas Tech, Morehead State University, and Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and served as acting head of the Department of Languages and Literature at Morehead State. The author or editor of 10 books and the author of over 40 articles and 25 book and software reviews, he received writing awards from the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) and the Society for Technical Communication (STC). He served as president of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) and is as former member of the executive committees of ATTW and the Conference on College Composition and Communication. He is an ATTW Fellow and an STC Fellow, one of few who hold that distinction.
His teaching awards include The New Outstanding Faculty Award at Texas Tech and the STC Jay R. Gould Award for Outstanding Teaching in Technical Communication. In 2005, the Birmingham, Alabama, STC Chapter established the Dr. Donald H. Cunningham Technical Communication Scholarship, awarded annually to a student in Auburn's Master of Technical and Professional Communication program.
Since his retirement, Cunningham and his wife Pat have moved to central Missouri and reside on 10 acres in a rural setting, about a mile from the Missouri River and "just up the road from Gooch's Mill and near the site of Daniel Boone's salt lick." He is an active member of the Boonslick and Heart of Missouri Master Gardeners and assists in procuring articles for the Heart of Missouri Master Gardener Newsletter published by the University of Missouri Extension Division. One of his current projects is establishing a daylily and iris garden of over 300 plants on a slope on the back side of his front pond.
He continues to be professionally active. He was a visiting scholar in English and Technical Communication at the University of Missouri at Rolla (now Missouri University of Science and Technology) in the Spring 2006 semester and has made presentations at the STC Region VI Student-Faculty Conference at Missouri State University and at the Kansas City STC chapter meetings. He is in his third year of a seven-year term as a member of the Board of Trustees at Cottey College, a 2-year liberal arts and sciences college for women located in Nevada, Missouri, and serves on the BOT's educational policy and student life committee.