About this Book
Welcome to Open Technical Communication, 2e! We're so happy that you—whether you're a student or an instructor—have decided to use our textbook.
Meet Open Technical Communication
Open TC is a freely accessible online textbook for technical communication, technical writing, workplace writing, and other related courses. Now in its official second edition, it's had an interesting history. In 2015, Dr. Tamara Powell at Kennesaw State University gathered a team of like-minded colleagues to develop an Open Educational Resource that would allow us to move away from a well-respected but very expensive textbook and towards something equally as valuable but more affordable for students. Our team applied for and received an Affordable Learning Georgia grant to fund the project, and in July 2016, after a thorough remix of David McMurrey’s Online Technical Writing, we published Sexy Technical Communication online with a CC BY Attribution license.
What's with the title, you ask? One day, deep in the development process, our team shared a plate of dry-fried eggplant at Tasty China in Marietta, GA, and contemplated what to call the as-yet untitled project. We didn't land on a title worth keeping, but we decided to use Sexy Technical Communication as an in-joke working title until we thought of something better. Then, as we worked through the project, one team member (Dr. Cassie Race) wrote a fun introduction that worked well with the Sexy TC title, so we decided to keep it for the moment. That moment lasted four years.
The textbook's original design was as idiosyncratic as its title. Our team had a student assistant who had experience creating computer-based background art, so we handed the design reins over and asked James Monroe to design the background art for the first rendition of Sexy TC. The fun design worked well with the fun title.
Figure 1: Sexy Technical Communication
As the years passed by, however, we ultimately decided to move in a more professional direction. Two of the original team members (Dr. Tamara Powell and Dr. Tiffani Tijerina) applied for a smaller Affordable Learning Georgia grant to help fund a design overhaul and content edit. This second rendition of Sexy TC had more neutral colors as well as a consistent logo and design. We also worked hard to ensure that all chapters had consistent objectives, good accessibility and document design, and Google Analytics embedded into the back end, among other improvements. We kept the Sexy TC title for the time being again.
As Summer 2019 rolled in, another team member (Dr. Jonathan Arnett) pointed out that the new, professional design was great, but it doesn't mean as much without a professional title. It was only then that the team got serious about finding a more permanent title for the textbook. We considered several ideas, but we wanted something that was clear on the purpose of the textbook but also embodied the whole point of the project: affordability. Thus, Open Technical Communication was born.
In early 2020, project manager Tiffani Tijerina left KSU to manage the grant program that originally funded this textbook. In her new role at Affordable Learning Georgia, she had the opportunity to move Open Technical Communication, as well as many other texts, to its current platform: Manifold. In ALG's instance, called OpenALG, Open TC evolved into an even more interactive textbook with new accessibility, annotation features, and a user-friendly interface.
The New and Improved Open Technical Communication, 2e
If you’ve been using Open TC in your classes already, you likely already know the storied history you’ve just read. The textbook has stayed mostly stagnant (albeit still going strong) since that big 2020 revision, with very few minor updates. Tiffani and Tammy have known for several years that the textbook was in need of some major content, consistency, and organization updates; but this much needed project was put on hold while Tiffani completed her Ph.D. (hooray!) and then navigated the academic job market.
Then in Summer 2025, Tammy applied for a small amount of funding through KSU’s Radow College of Humanities and Social Sciences in order to finally get this revision going. Tammy then gathered Tiffani and a collection of faculty and students with experience using the first edition of Open TC to start a major overhaul and publish an official second edition by the end of the summer.
Open TC 2e features a new chapter organization, updated content and examples, new topics, and space for needed chapters to be included in the near future. But we’re not done yet! Our next steps are to seek additional funding and then solicit proposals to author those needed chapters including Intercultural Communication, Social Justice, Digital Accessibility, Artificial Intelligence, Graphic Design, User-Centered Design, Instructional Design, and Professional Development. Stay tuned for this opportunity in the coming year. In addition, Tiffani will soon produce two supplemental OER for this textbook: an Open Technical Communication Handbook and Open Technical Editing. Stay tuned for those as well!
As you can see, Open TC has been through many, many revisions. That’s why the first edition won an Open Education Global Award for Excellence in Open Reuse/Remix/Adaptation in 2022! And we pledge to continue this trend, ensuring the sustainability of this vital resource in technical communication.
Please feel free to reach out to Dr. Tiffani Tijerina (tiffani.tijerina@gmail.com) if you ever have questions or suggestions for improvement. Whether you're an instructor designing your course around this textbook, a student using this textbook for a class, or someone who just stumbled upon our textbook by chance, the Open Technical Communication, 2e team hopes you find it valuable.
The Open Technical Communication, 2e Team
Our amazing textbook team is made up of faculty and students at several institutions.
Assistant Professor of Rhetoric and Writing
University of Arkansas at Little Rock
tiffani.tijerina@gmail.com | ttijerina1@ualr.edu
Professor of English
Kennesaw State University
Michelle Jimmerson
Instructor of English
Louisiana Tech University
Jenny Rissen
Graduate Student, Master of Arts in Professional Writing
Graduate Professional Assistant
Kennesaw State University
Copyright and Acknowledgements
Open Technical Communication, 2e carries a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 license. It also includes remixed content from several other openly licensed resources, and all detailed attribution information can be found at the end of each chapter.
ChatGPT 4o was used in the revision of this open textbook for learning objectives, tone consistency, and minor editing.
There are a plethora of contributors and source authors of remixed materials in Open Technical Communication, 2e that we would like to thank.
- Kennesaw State University's Radow College of Humanities and Social Science, for the dissemination grant funding that supported the second edition of Open TC
- Affordable Learning Georgia, for several grants that funded past versions of Open TC
- The authors of Open Technical Communication, 1e: Dr. Tiffani Tijerina, Dr. Tamara Powell, Dr. Jonathan Arnett, Monique Logan, and Dr. Cassandra Race
- The author of Online Technical Writing: David McMurrey
- The authors of Why Brilliant People Believe Nonsense: Steve Miller and Cherie Miller
- The authors of three blog posts about LinkedIn from the City University of New York Graduate Center’s Office of Career Planning and Professional Development: Emily Seamone and Anders Wallace
- The authors of several chapters in Howdy or Hello?: Technical and Professional Communication: Kalani Pattison, Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt, David McMurrey, Jodi Naas, Annemarie Hamlin, Chris Rubio, Michele DeSilva, and Claire Carly-Miles
- The author of The Process of Research Writing: Dr. Steven D. Krause
- Michelle Jimmerson’s students at Louisiana Tech University who contributed valuable feedback on the first edition of Open TC
- Accessibility support specialist Gabrielle Punzalan
- Graphics update assistant Sean Amaso
Table of Contents
About this Book (what you are reading now)
Chapter 0: Introduction to Technical Communication
Part 1: Processes and Guidelines in Technical Communication
Chapter 1: The Writing Process
Chapter 3: Library and Internet Research
Chapter 4: Documentation and Citation
Chapter 5: Quoting, Paraphrasing, Plagiarism, and AI
Chapter 7: Collaboration and Peer Review
Chapter 8: Revision Techniques
Chapter 10: Organization and Structure
Part 2: Applications of Technical Communication
Chapter 12: Business Correspondence
Chapter 13: Job Application Materials
Chapter 16: Guidelines for Technical Reports
Chapter 17: Contents of Technical Reports
Chapter 18: Instructions and User Guides
Chapter 19: Definitions and Descriptions
Chapter 20: Tables and Graphics
Chapter 21: Oral Presentations
Part 3: Ethics and Audience in Technical Communication
Chapter 25: Intercultural Communication (coming soon!)
Chapter 26: Social Justice (coming soon!)
Chapter 27: Digital Accessibility (coming soon!)
Chapter 28: Artificial Intelligence Tools (coming soon!)
Part 4: Design in Technical Communication
Chapter 30: Graphic Design Basics (coming soon!)
Chapter 31: User-Centered Design (coming soon!)
Chapter 32: Instructional Design (coming soon!)
Chapter 33: Creating Professional Development (coming soon!)
Next: Chapter 0: Introduction to Technical Communication →