ABSTRACT
The field of technical communication has witnessed a paradigm shift over the last 20 years, from writing to content creation and management. Content creators compose with words, images, video, data, and metadata, but they also design and implement (and sometimes actually code) the containers that deliver the content. Content management is a systematic way of thinking about how to create, share, archive, and track the efficacy of information; who wrote which version(s); which version is current; how old it is; its siblings and descendants; its planned lifecycle; and so on. Such a shift from “writing” to content management requires a reconceptualization of our traditional pedagogical practice. This article explores and explicates what a content-management-oriented technical communication pedagogy entails, and explains what a technical communication instructor new to content management needs to know and teach.
