Historical Evolution of Technical Communication

Passed in 1862 and 1877, these acts made a secondary education accessible for the majority of Americans, not just those attending small religions institutions.

Humanities courses greatly diminished from the classes taught at secondary education institutions.

The Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education (SPEE) is founded, advocating for an increase in humanities courses taught to engineers.

Many engineering schools began to create their own English departments to address the growing concern that engineers were not adequately literate.

"A Guide to Technical Writing" by T.A. Rickards, the first textbook written about technical writing, was published to help engineers specifically.

Samuel Earle's "The Theory and Practice of Technical Writing" was published. Earle was focused on "giving systematic training in technical writing." To him, technical writing was either narrative, descriptive, expository or directive.

A period in which demand for humanities courses to be available to students in all faculties in higher education rose, mainly in reaction to the way these courses were deemed unimportant for engineers in the late 1800s.

Sada Harbarger's "English for Engineers" was the first textbook organized by technical forms, a system which is still used today. This event was a critical part in the rise of people who were devoted specifically to technical writing.

Despite a SPEE survey conducted in 1930 revealing that most engineers students and teachers approved of the use of English courses within their faculty, there was a degree of discontent in the English faculty. The Great Depression resulted in English teachers being underpaid and interest fell. However, technical writing courses were still popular.

Alvin M. Fountain's report found that technical writing courses were thriving across American but that their teachers were still undervalued and that English departments within engineering schools were dying off.