The Technical Communication Advisory Board: Expanding Professional Pathways for PhD Students in Writing Studies Fields

Abstract

Advisory boards can add value to technical and professional communication graduate programs by mentoring students, contributing to research projects, and providing helpful insight on program curricula. However, it is unclear how graduate students view departmental advisory boards as resources for strengthening their research, teaching, and professional development. To answer this question, this paper details findings of a qualitative study that investigates graduate student perspectives about the value of technical communication advisory boards in graduate education. Graduate students at a large Midwestern university participated in a brief survey and follow-up interviews to discuss how they found value in their department’s technical communication advisory board (TCAB). Additionally, we wrote brief, autoethnographic reflections on participant feedback to interrogate our own positionalities and bias related to TCAB. We found that students felt pressure to craft professional academic identities and were unsure of how TCAB could be part of those identities, indicating that they felt there was a divide or gap between academia and industry practice. However, we argue that through thoughtful framing that allows for an expansive view of technical communication, advisory boards can play a key role in graduate students’ professionalization for a variety of careers.