[ATTW-L] Information on Industry Partnerships

Thu Aug 29 20:17:07 UTC 2019

Across the field, industry partnerships take on 4 distinct forms.
-- internship relationships: about 70-80% of degree programs have formal
internship programs that they developed themselves or developed in
conjunction in an office on campus such as an Office of community
engagement. There is a large body of literature within the field on this
type of partnership. I would start with: Hirst, R. (2016). Bonding With the
Nuclear Industry: A Technical Communication Professor and His Students
Partner With Y-12 National Security Complex. *Journal of Technical Writing
and Communication, 46*(2), 151-171; Bourelle, T. (2014). New Perspectives
on the Technical Communication Internship: Professionalism in the
Workplace. *Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 44*(2), 171-189.

-- advisory boards: like Wayne pointed out, advisory boards take on a
couple of roles, but most often they are used as partners in some way to
provide feedback to students and to faculty and admins on the relevancy of
the program to local industries. About 35-45% of programs have a formal
(and some informal) advisory board. These boards vary in composition (From
alumni of the program to others in local industry). There is a small body
of scholarship on these and I would start with: Söderlund, L., Spartz, J.,
& Weber, R. (2017). Taken Under Advisement: Perspectives on Advisory Boards
>From Across Technical Communication. *IEEE Transactions on Professional
Communication, 60*(1), 76-96.
--client based projects: in some ways similar to the relationships of
internships, these are one off or longer term relationships where a course
works with a specific client on a project. While integrated across the
curricula at both undergraduate and graduate level, the capstone course is
where the most formalized of these may occur. These are often developed
from contacts or word of mouth and are often not sustained in any real way
beyond the course. Though, they can be if the projects come from an ongoing
relationship from a long term internship partner or specifically from a
member of the advisory board. See Melonçon, L., & Schreiber, J. (2018).
Advocating for Sustainability: A Report on and Critique of the
Undergraduate Capstone Course. *Technical Communication Quarterly, 27*(4),
322-33; Kramer-Simpson, E., Newmark, J., & Ford, J. D. (2015). Learning
beyond the classroom and textbook: Client projects' role in helping
students transition from school to work. *IEEE Transactions on Professional
Communication, 58*(1), 106-122.
-- research partnerships: these are pretty rare with only a handful of
institutions that have ongoing relationships and those are typically
associated with research labs of some sort.

Related, a number of institutions have local scholarships that are
connected to local STC chapters or other professional organizations.
For information on the STC, you can likely contact them to get a list of
student chapters and/or student scholarships.

For those considering building these sorts of relationships, here are
some recommendations on how to get started (if you more in depth
information, please email me. What follows is a summary from several
appendices in my book.)
-- what primary programmatic or course goals do the partnerships support?
it is not enough to say that you need industry connections. You need to be
able to determine exactly why. Is it for a check point on the relevancy of
current skills to local industry? Is it for a pipeline of client projects?
do you want to give students vetted internship opportunities?
-- has your program, department, or institution (or all three) developed or
tried to develop these type of partnerships currently or in the past? It is
always good to know any. local histories before you make a move into local
communities or organizations. If they have, try to find out as many details
as possible as to what worked or didn't and what is still around or not.
-- is there an office an campus that deals with these sorts of issue? even
at small schools--and definitely at larger ones--there is often an office
that is charged with these sorts of relationships. their helpfulness
or usefulness is a mixed bag, but it is generally a good move to at least
inquire.
-- are there local chapters of professional organizations relevant to
industries in which your students may work? such as local STC,
AMWA, instructional design, marketing or PR chapters, etc.
-- think of leveraging your local networks of people you. know and who they
may know. Send an email introduction to you and to your program with. very
specific action items of what you may want to accomplish. Generally, an
email that is just about meeting is not going to get the same response. (I
have samples of these if you want them.)
-- staffing and sustianability: you have to consider how to build these
with your current staffing and then how to sustain them. If you do not have
the staff or resources to sustain initiatives, you may wan to consider
other options. Said another way, if you are the only driver
and only advocate, then it may not be the best use of your time because it
will suck you dry and then die on the vine should you leave or step down or
if you priorities change. A single person or a couple of people cannot be
expected to build a TPC program with these sorts
of relationships because they take time and energy to nurture and sustain.
this is why I always include staffing when considering any programmatic
change or addition.

And to be clear, I am a huge advocate of all programs having a connection
in some way to the local industries in their areas, but my own experience
in industry and in the years of progrmmtatic research, I do want to caution
these are hard to build and even harder to sustain. Thus,
thoughtful consideration beforehand is key to any large programmatic
change, and industry relationships are a large programmatic change.

Always happy to chat with those interested to work through the pros/cons of
these sorts of things and/or to share the fuller versions of the
information presented here.
Lisa

Lisa Melonçon, PhD

Co-Editor, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (
http://journals.upress.ufl.edu/rhm
<https://urldefense.proofpoint.com/v2/url?u=http-3A__journals.upress.ufl.edu_rhm&d=DwMFaQ&c=l45AxH-kUV29SRQusp9vYR0n1GycN4_2jInuKy6zbqQ&r=pixVoNlEUATCd42x07Q5ArPXRPzmxr7XUhwZ3R0VPL8&m=Shj3vbvM5sT5RXbA2Q4DPfyv9-MYu0r9-86YpB-c3Jo&s=kHZQlabmFC-di_7ldUObKDW_e4L69mcKBtbd9nAiW_U&e=>
)

Series Editor: Foundations and Innovations in Technical and Professional
Communication (https://wac.colostate.edu/books/tpc/)

Professor, Technical & Professional Communication

Department of English

https://www.usf.edu/arts-sciences/departments/english/
<https://na01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.usf.edu%2Farts-sciences%2Fdepartments%2Fenglish%2F&data=02%7C01%7Cmeloncon%40usf.edu%7Ce75d9f5bc132485bcf3508d646846df3%7C741bf7dee2e546df8d6782607df9deaa%7C0%7C0%7C636773931959217946&sdata=YR50K7JF5CaXnwLcHdbXCvt8E%2BlXZgU0EIQLnwTOcOw%3D&reserved=0>

University of South Florida

4202 Fowler Avenue, CPR 311

Tampa, FL 33620-5550

Phone: 803-370-0008

Email: Meloncon dot research [at] gmail dot com OR meloncon [at ]usf dot edu

http://tek-ritr.com

Twitter: @lmeloncon

Pronouns: she/her/they

On Thu, Aug 29, 2019 at 2:51 PM Grover, Stephen <stephen.grover at park.edu>
wrote:

> I second Fernando’s request. I’m a brand new faculty member at Park
> University, brought on to develop our PTW offerings, and one of my first
> steps will be to conduct interviews and focus groups with local employers
> in the KC area to find out how we can tailor our offerings to their needs.
> It would greatly benefit me if any on this list were able to share their
> own findings from such efforts, any published articles in this vein, and
> any general advice. Feel free to message me off list or get a conversation
> going right here.
>
>
>
> Thanks in advance!
>
> David
>
>
> Stephen   Grover
> Assistant Professor of English
> Park University ‑  Parkville Campus
> English
> 8700 NW River Park Dr
> Parkville ,  MO   64152
> *stephen.grover at park.edu* <stephen.grover at park.edu>
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> *From:* ATTW-L [mailto:attw-l-bounces at attw.org] *On Behalf Of *Sanchez,
> Fernando
> *Sent:* Thursday, August 29, 2019 8:32 AM
> *To:* attw-l at attw.org
> *Subject:* [ATTW-L] Information on Industry Partnerships
>
>
>
> *CAUTION:* This email originated from outside of the organization. Do not
> click links or open attachments unless you recognize the sender and know
> the content is safe.
>
> Hello all,
>
>
>
> My department is currently debating expanding our PW presence in the
> current English curriculum and I’d like to be able to speak to the benefits
> that might come from cultivating industry partnerships via a strong TC/PW
> presence.
>
>
>
> I would greatly appreciate any information on how your programs and
> departments have benefited from industry associations — research
> collaborations, resource allocation, funding for fellowships, scholarships,
> research projects, etc. These aspects could be at the undergraduate or
> graduate level and could involve either faculty or students.
>
>
>
> Please feel free to message me off list. Any information would help
> immensely.
>
>
>
> Thank you for your time.
>
>
>
> Best,
>
>
>
> Fernando
>
>
>
> Fernando Sánchez
>
> Department of English
>
> University of St. Thomas
>
> Fsanchez at stthomas.edu
>
> [image: University of St. Thomas : All for the Common Good]
> <https://www.stthomas.edu/e>
>
> [image: University of St. Thomas : All for the Common Good]
> <https://www.stthomas.edu/e>
>
>
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-- 
Lisa Melonçon, PhD
Co-Editor, Rhetoric of Health and Medicine (
http://journals.upress.ufl.edu/rhm)
Book Series Editor, Foundations and Innovations in TPC (
https://wac.colostate.edu/books/tpc/)
Professor, Technical Communication, Department of English
University of South Florida
4202 Fowler Avenue, CPR 311
Tampa, FL 33620-5550
Phone: 803-370-0008
Email: meloncon.research at gmail.com or meloncon at usf.edu
http://tek-ritr.com
Twitter:@lmeloncon
Pronouns: she/her
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