The technical communication course at Iowa State is a service course designed to teach science and applied science majors how how to communicate technical information more effectively. Much the same the goal of my tech comm course is to help prepare students to communicate that technical information not only to their technically-knowledgeable peers, but also to managers, clients, and coworkers who may not understand the ramifications of the technical data itself. This necessarily involves an appreciation of not only the technical information, but also the rhetorical situation and generic requirements, as well as, social, political, and ethical issues at work in technical communication. To these end, I have designed my course to help students study four primary areas:

• Rhetorical analysis and awareness
• Communication processes (including development, revision, and distribution)
• Written, oral, and visual information design
• Social, political, and ethical issues in science and applied sciences communication

To help students develop these areas, I have developed a fusion of the genre-based and case-based approach to technical communication education. Students practice technical communication through the development and deployment of six to seven technical genes and explore rhetorical, social, political, and ethical issues through three cases provided by me in addition to cases chosen by the students. Each of the cases I select help explore three overarching issues in science and applied science communication: 1)inter-discourse community communication, 2) science in public policy, and 3) science in activism.