Position Title
Associate Director & Faculty Advisor, Professional Writing Minor
Associate Professor
Research Areas:
Teaching Areas:
Profile:
Rebekka Andersen is an Associate Professor in the UC Davis University Writing Program, where she teaches courses in professional and technical communication and digital literacy and serves as the Associate Director and Faculty Advisor for the Minor in Professional Writing. She has worked in for-profit and non-profit organizations as a technical writer and editor, content specialist, and process documentation specialist.
Her research focuses on implications of digital content transformations (most specifically the adoption of structured authoring workflows) for education and research in technical communication, as well as on strategies for building stronger connections between academia and industry. Rebekka has also published research focused on editorial roles and processes as well as writing pedagogy, including teaching visual rhetoric as a close reading strategy and teaching project management best practices for successful collaboration in writing courses.
She regularly presents her research at both industry and academic conferences and serves on the Advisory Council for the Center for Information-Development Management. She also serves on the editorial boards or reviewer boards of several journals in the field of professional and technical communication and is the Associate Editor for research articles for IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
Professional Appointments/Editorial Roles, 2024-2025:
- Associate Editor, Research Articles, IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
- Board of Reviewers, Journal of Business and Technical Communication
- Editorial Board Member, Communication Design Quarterly
- Advisor, Advisory Council of the Center for Information-Development Management (CIDM)
- Member, Technical Communication Advisory Board, Department of Writing Studies, University of Minnesota Twin Cities
- Member, Steering Committee, ACM SIGDOC Committee on Structured Authoring and Content Management
- Member, Program Committee, Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication
- Associate Editor at Large, Writing on the Edge
Education:
Ph.D. in Professional Writing, May 2009
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, Milwaukee, WI
M.A. in Rhetoric, Composition, and Technical Communication, June 2002
Certificate in the Teaching of Writing, June 2002
Eastern Washington University, Cheney, WA
B.A., Music and English (double major), May 2000
Areas of Concentration: Music, Piano Pedagogy and English, Writing Track
Whitworth College, Spokane, WA
Awards:
- 2022 Frank R. Smith Award for outstanding journal article in Technical Communication (awarded by the Society for Technical Communication)
- Distinguished SIG Service Award, 2018, Society for Technical Communication (for exemplary service to the Society through dedication to the Technical Editing Special Interest Group and its activities)
- Recognition of Service Award, 2018, Association for Computing Machinery (for role in Chairing the ACM SIGDOC 2017 Conference [International Conference focused on the Design of Communication])
- Leadership Appreciation Award, 2015, Society for Technical Communication Technical Editing Special Interest Group
- Overall Educator of the Year, 2014, Annual Associated Students of UC Davis Excellence in Education Awards
- Information Technology Accessibility Champion Award, 2012, UC Systemwide Electronic Accessibility Leadership Team
- Volunteer of the Year Award, 2012, Society for Technical Communication Technical Editing Special Interest Group
- Conference on College Composition and Communication Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication, 2010
Publications:
Building Stronger Connections Between Academia and Industry
"Practicing Technical Communicators' Experiences with and Perspectives on Academic Publishing." Technical Communication 68.3 (2021): 29-55 (with JoAnn Hackos)
“Increasing the Value and Accessibility of Academic Research.” Proceedings of the 36th ACM International Conference on the Design of Communication. Milwaukee, WI, Aug. 2018: 1-10. (with JoAnn Hackos).
“Industry Perspectives on Academic Research in Technical Communication.” CIDM Best Practices Newsletter 20.4 (Aug. 2018): 91-98. (with JoAnn Hackos)
"Open Research Questions for Academics and Industry Professionals: Results of a Survey." Communication Design Quarterly 1.4 (Aug. 2013): 42-49. (with Sid Benavente, Dave Clark, William Hart-Davidson, Carolyn Rude, and JoAnn Hackos)
"Results of the April 2013 Technical Communication Industry Research Needs Survey." CIDM Information Management News. May 2013. (with Sid Benavente, Carolyn Rude, and Bill Hart-Davidson)
"The Value of a Reciprocal Relationship Between Research and Practice." CIDM Information Management News. May 2013.
"Results of the 2012 Best Practices Research Needs Survey." CIDM Information Management News. April 2013.
“Re-imagining Our Relationship with Technology: Toward a More Sustainable Technical Communication.” Technical Communication 52.3 (Aug. 2005): 289-301. (with Dave Clark)
Perspectives on Educating and Training Technical Communication Professionals
"The New Generation of Tech Writers" (No. 57) [Audio podcast episode]. In Content Components, hosted by Patrick Bosek (October 13, 2022). Heretto. (with Carlos Evia)
"Preparing the Next Generation of Technical Communication Leaders and Innovators." [Video podcast episode]. In Coffee and Content, hosted by Scott Abel and Patric Bosek (January 20, 2022). The Content Wrangler. (with Carlos Evia)
"Beyond Management: Understanding the Many Forces that Shape Content Today." In Teaching Content Management in Technical and Professional Communication. Ed. Tracy Bridgeford. New York, NY: Routledge (2020): 213-231. (with Carlos Evia)
"What Leaders in Industry and Academia Think About Technical Communication Training and Education." Proceedings of the 2019 STC Technical Communication Summit. Denver, CO. May 2019. (with Carlos Evia)
“Perspectives on Preparing Technical Communication Professionals for Today and the Future” (Editorial). Communication Design Quarterly 6.2 (Sept. 2018): 4-13. (with Carlos Evia).
“Preparing the Next Generation of Leaders and Innovators in Technical Communication.” Intercom. July/Aug. 2018. 22-24. (with Carlos Evia)
Implications of Content Management for Practice, Research, and Education in Technical Communication
"Content Management." In Keywords in Technical and Professional Communication. Eds. Han Yu & Jonathan Buehl. WAC Clearinghouse series on Foundations and Innovations in Technical and Professional Communication (2023): 67-74 (with Tatiana Batova)
“A Systematic Literature Review of Changes in Roles/Skills in Component Content Management Environments and Implications for Education.” Technical Communication Quarterly 26.2 (2017): 1-28. (with Tatiana Batova)
“Incorporating Component Content Management into Technical Communication Curricula.” Proceedings of the 34th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication, Arlington, VA. Sept. 2016. (with Tatiana Batova, Carlos Evia, Matthew Sharp, and John Stewart)
“Introduction to Special Issue: Content Strategy—A Unifying Vision.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 59.1 (Mar. 2016): 2-6. (with Tatiana Batova)
“The Current State of Component Content Management: An Integrative Literature Review.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 58.3 (Sept. 2015): 247-270. (with Tatiana Batova).
“Introduction to Special Issue: Content Management—Perspectives From the Trenches.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 58.3 (Sept. 2015): 242-246. (with Tatiana Batova).
"The Emergence of Content Strategy Work and Recommended Resources" (Column). Communication Design Quarterly 2.4 (Aug. 2014): 6-13.
"Rhetorical Work in the Age of Content Management: Implications for the Field of Technical Communication." Journal of Business and Technical Communication 28.2 (Apr. 2014): 115-157.
"Toward a More Integrated View of Technical Communication" (Column). Communication Design Quarterly 2.2 (Feb. 2014): 10-16.
Diffusion of Content Management Technologies in Information Development Teams
“A Study of the Usefulness of Deploying a Questionnaire to Identify Cultural Dynamics Potentially Affecting a Content Management Project.” IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 58.3 (Sept. 2015): 289-308. (with Joe Gollner, Kathleen Gollner, and Tenny Webster)
"Planning for the Shaping Force of Cultural Dynamics in a Component Content Management System Implementation." IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication 57.3 (Sept. 2014): 216-234.
"Component Content Management: Shaping the Discourse through Innovation Diffusion Research and Reciprocity." Technical Communication Quarterly 20.4 (2011).
"A Study of the Role of Culture and Communication in the CMS Adoption Process." CIDM Best Practices Newsletter 12.5 (Oct. 2010): 105, 108-118.
“The Rhetoric of Enterprise Content Management (ECM): Confronting the Assumptions Driving ECM Adoption and Transforming Technical Communication.” Technical Communication Quarterly 17.1 (2008): 61-87.
Visual Rhetoric and Multimodal Literacies
“Teaching Visual Rhetoric as a Close Reading Strategy.” Composition Studies 44.2 (2016): 15-38.
Other Research Interests
"Building a Collaborative Writing Strategy." CIDM Best Practices Newsletter 13.3 (June 2011): 57, 61-70. (with Charlotte Robidoux)
“Applying Project Management Strategies to Collaborative Projects in Business Communication and Writing Courses.” Proceedings of the 2005 Association for Business Communication Annual Convention, October 20–22, 2005. Irvine, CA, Nov. 2005. 1-12.
"The Context Dependent Editorial Process: Toward a More Complex Understanding of the Technical Editor:" Proceedings of the IEEE International Professional Communication Conference, July 10-13, 2005. Limerick, Ireland, July 2005. 484-497.
- Technical communication, focusing on the content discipline and academia-industry partnerships; professional writing research, pedagogy, and internships; multimodal literacies; research-practice/theory-practice connections