Advocating for Sustainability: A Report on and Critique of the Undergraduate Capstone Course

ABSTRACT

The authors provide an overview of what capstone courses do by presenting information from across the field based on materials received from and interviews with technical and professional communication program administrators and faculty. The authors then point to opportunities to improve the course. Finally, the authors argue for sustainable program development as the theoretical framework to perform programmatic work.

KEYWORDS:

• Curriculum design
• programmatic research

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank the colleagues who so graciously and generously provided materials and especially those who agreed to talk with us about their capstone. Research such as this would not be possible without your help. We are humbled and thankful for your trust.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lisa Melonçon

Lisa Melonçon is an associate professor of technical communication at the University of South Florida where she also directs the undergraduate professional writing program. Her award-winning teaching and research focuses on the rhetoric of health and medicine and programmatic and professionalization dimensions of the field.

Joanna Schreiber

Joanna Schreiber is an assistant professor of technical and professional communication at Georgia Southern University. Her research focuses on the intersections of management philosophies and systems, project management, organizational culture, and leadership as they relate to TPC practices and pedagogies.