ABSTRACT
When I was asked to consider how I use technical communication in my work
as an institutional researcher at a historically Black college, I began by reading
an important article in the field, “The Case Against Defining Technical Writing,”
by Jo Allen (1990). I was surprised to find that the work of Jo Allen, a scholar
I am familiar with from institutional research and assessment literature, is also
prominently placed in the technical communication literature. From an institu-
tional research perspective, a significant percentage of work in institutional
research involves writing reports, which is clearly an integral form of technical
writing. Interestingly, I noticed that researchers of technical communication
conduct research and discuss various workplace writing practices in myriad
work environments, including healthcare facilities, scientific and high tech com-
panies, and the government. Yet there’s little research available regarding
workplace writing in colleges and universities, let alone workplace writing in
historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs).
