Frank Aydelotte: AT&T's First Writing Consultant, 1917–1918

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Bibliographische Detailangaben
Beteiligte: Moran, Michael G.
In: Journal of Technical Writing and Communication, 25, 1995, 3, S. 231-241
veröffentlicht:
SAGE Publications
Medientyp: Artikel, E-Artikel

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weitere Informationen
Umfang: 231-241
ISSN: 1541-3780
0047-2816
DOI: 10.2190/k5ug-n9p7-3ktf-qlu5
veröffentlicht in: Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Sprache: Englisch
Schlagwörter:
Kollektion: SAGE Publications (CrossRef)
Inhaltsangabe

<jats:p> In 1917 Frank Aydelotte, an English professor at MIT, became AT&amp;T's first outside writing consultant. Because many of its older, better-educated male employees had been mobilized to fight World War I, the company found itself with numerous young, poorly-educated employees. Drawing on the humanistic approach to writing instruction that he had developed at MIT in his book English and Engineering, Aydelotte created a year-long program at AT&amp;T that taught employees to think and write about issues important to their work. The course is important for two reasons: first, it offers insight into the kinds of early consulting work that English professors did, and, second, it shows that Aydelotte's humanistic approach to technical communication worked as well in business as it did in academic settings. </jats:p>