Facilitating Action in the World, with Technical Communication Researcher Rebecca Walton

Technical Communication is "communication that facilitates action in the world," according to Rebecca Walton, an associate professor of Technical Communication at Utah State University. Furthermore, tech comm is like house cleaning, when it's done well no one ever notices, but do it poorly and it's all anyone can talk about. 

Dr. Walton reminds us that technical communication is more than software manuals, it can be recipes, instructions for building refugee shelters, and so much more. Her research investigates how people intervene for justice in their workplace, specifically academics.  During the study, she and her collaborators developed the 4 R's of social justice communication:

• Recognize injustice is occurring
• Reveal the injustice to others
• Reject the injustice together
• Replace with something better, together.

At the end of the day, if Dr. Walton could wave a magic wand and change one thing about how we communicate, she'd "make us better listeners."