Rachel Spilka
- Associate Professor Emerita, English
Education
- PhD, Rhetoric, Carnegie Mellon University, 1988
- MA, English, Boston University, 1982
- MS, Journalism, Boston University, 1977
- BA, English, Clark University, 1975
Teaching Interests
- Professional Writing Research
- Qualitative Research in Writing and Literacy
- Technical Editing
- Project Management
- Introduction to Professional Writing Theory and Practice
- Advanced Business Writing
- Business Writing
Research Interests
- Status of Audience Scholarship in Technical Communication
- Contextualized Approaches to Theory and Research
- Issues of Identity and Exclusion for Minority Students in Professional and Technical Communication
Related Activities
- Fellow, Association of Teachers of Technical Writing, March, 2010
- Delivered the Keynote Address at the annual meeting of the Council of Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC), "Technical Communication Research in Academic Programs: A Call for Action," Lubbock, TX, October 20, 2005
Selected Publications
Spilka, Rachel. “Foreword” Designing for User Engagement: 10 Basic Principles Ed. Geisler, Cheryl. New York, New York: Taylor and Francis/Routledge. (2013).
. Digital Literacy for Technical Communication: 21st Century Theory and Practice 1st Edition. Ed. Spilka, Rachel. New York, New York: Routledge. 2010.
Spilka, Rachel. “Practitioner Research Instruction: A Neglected Curricular Area in Technical Communication Undergraduate Programs” Journal of Business and Technical Communication 23. (2009): 216-237.
Blakeslee, Ann, and Spilka, Rachel. “The State of Research in Technnica Communication” Technical Communication Quarterly 13.1. (2004): 73-92.
. Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Changes for the 21st Century Ed. Spilka, Rachel, and Mirel, Barbara . Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. 2003.
Spilka, Rachel. “The Issue of Quality in Professional Communication: How Can Academics Make More of a Difference?” Technical Communication Quarterly 9.2 (2000): 207-220.