A Small-Scale Experiment in the Application of Creativity to the Teaching of Technical Communication

At Cornell University, a course in technical writing and speaking, required for fifth-year electrical engineers, was redesigned for the summer co-op session to encourage creative thinking, both as an aid to the students in their general engineering work and as a more efficient medium for conveying good technical communicating processes. Students were required to "invent" devices, find answers to imaginary problems, and convey the ideas derived from these projects to other people. Emphasis was also placed on fast, efficient methods for finding information, and coherent explanations of technical problems to many different types of audiences. No attempt has been made to evaluate the long-range effects of this course on the creativity of the individuals concerned. It is felt, however, that the major accomplishments along these lines were the introduction of techniques for ideational fluency and creative problem solving and the constant reinforcement of creative efforts. Included in this paper are the original assignments for the course and a proposal for an ideal, but wholly practical, new course in technical communications based upon the results of this course.