Our History

Technical Communication became a profession, in the sense of having professional associations, in the early 1950s.

• History of Technical Communication

As a discipline, we draw on many other areas. The history of Rhetoric, for example, dates back to the classical Greeks.

• History of Rhetoric
• History of Technology

Suggestions for inclusion into this section:

• roots in practical, applied knowledge transfer, as seen in historical documents such as Julius Sextus Frontinus's manual for maintaining the Roman aqueducts, or books written in the English Renaissance to instruct people in such skills as navigation, medicine, gardening, etc. (see Elizabeth Tebeaux's work, for example)
• focus on responding to technology's demands upon users, such as seen in instructional documents and training for the military, engineering, medicine, etc.
• focus on communication in various ways--writing, speaking, document design, visual media, etc.
• add your topics here....

--MTD]