PCAE Technical Communication Division Concludes a Successful Year
Our Technical Communication Division — The Terra Preta @ MTU Working Group — concluded a successful year this weekend with a team breakfast. The Working Group will formally join Michigan Tech’s D80 Center in the fall.
Among the Working Group’s accomplishments this year:
- A community presentation attended by local community members and gardeners
- Our Science Research Team Leader, Amanda Taylor, is quoted in the February 2009 issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, a journal dedicated to research on the impact of the environment on human health
- Working Group won The “People’s Choice Award” at the Sustainable Futures Institute Poster Session
- Working Group is also discussed in the 3.3.09 issue of Science News: “Getting The Dirt On Carbon”
- Met local soil scientists and potential clients at this year’s Undergraduate Research EXPO
Spring 2009 Team Photo
Typography Keyboard Layout Software
From Smashing Magazine
April 2nd, 2009 — 12:28 pmGood designers, undoubtedly, know that quotation marks look like “this” and not like “this.” The latter are typewriter legacy and today are to be used solely in programming. Good designers also know, that dash is not the same as hyphen.
The most common use for hyphens in English is (surprisingly enough) hyphenation; dashes are used in ranges (2006–2009) or — and this is an example — as an alternative to parentheses. Good designers never use letter ‘x’ instead of multiplication sign in 1920×1440, and they never put (c) instead of © under their work. Oh, and they also do good designs.
So, now life is going to be a little bit easier. No more will you need to open Character Palette or try to recover that Alt+0163 combination from your memory.
PCAE members featured in Design Critique Podcast
Jenna Dahlstrom, Michael Moore and Shahryar Rizvi designed a poster for World Usability Day on November 13 2008 at Michigan Tech related to Participatory Design. Our poster detailed Participatory Design as applied to our Digital Studio project. Included on the display were pictures of the Digital Studio and a sample of cited documents. Jenna and Shahryar were interviewed by Tim Keirnan from Design Critique.
The podcast containing the interview is available at the link below.
http://www.designcritique.net/index.php?post_id=438296
Fall 2008 Team Photo and 2009 Info
Meet the Fall 2008 team! See if you can name everyone in the picture.
If you want to join the team to add professional works to your portfolio, learn more about design and the creation process, or just work together with a group of like minded individuals, here are the course numbers needed to register for the PCA Enterprise in Spring 2009. We accept any and all majors!
- First-year: CRN# 13012 ENT 1960 L22 1.0
- Sophomores: CRN# 13015 ENT 2960 L22 1.0
- Juniors: CRN# 13018 ENT 3960 L22 1.0
- Seniors: CRN# 13022 ENT 4960 L22 2.0
Enterprise vs. Classwork
During my four semesters in the Professional Communication Arts Enterprise, I have learned so much that I never would have learned in my classes. Don’t get me wrong; I’ve learned a lot in my classes, but Enterprise is a perfect complement to classes. In classes, the audience for my work is generally a teacher, and possibly a few classmates. In Enterprise, my audience are not only real-world clients that I work with, but the people that they are presenting to. My projects in classes will earn me a letter grade, but my projects in Enterprise will earn me professional recognition. In classes, I am dictated to by an instructor. In Enterprise, I am advised by an adviser than considers me a colleague.
Enterprise has its bumps and bruises because of its sometimes unexpected differences from classwork, but learning both classwork and Enterprise work and how to balance the two has given me a much wider range of knowledge than I would have had with just classes. I would strongly encourage joining an Enterprise, namely the Professional Communication Arts Enterprise, as it provides valuable experience that you cannot get elsewhere outside of the professional work environment.
November 8th, 2008 — 02:12 amThe Digital Studio
Hello all,
This is my first time blogging on our website! I am Elsa Roberts, the project manager for PCAE and I am going to talk a little bit about one of the projects that PCAE has been working on.
This Fall PCAE took began staffing the J.R Van Pelt Library’s Digital Studio; a small room in the Library that contains a few computers with design software, a large format printer, and a laminator. Currently the most exciting piece of equipment we get to use is the large format printer, which can print posters up to 42″ in width and a variety of paper types. We have recently put together a tutorial about the printer so that the PCAE members staffing the Studio and future people staffing the studio have an easier time using this printer.
We are also working on getting together a focus group to get a sense of how students respond to the atmosphere of the Studio, how useful the software and equipment is to them, and other factors of interest. We hope, eventually, to work to make the Studio a more dynamic, creative space and increase its visibility on campus!
November 7th, 2008 — 03:36 pmOn Projects
The Professional Communication Arts Enterprise prides itself on its projects. These projects differ in size, but always better those involved with the enterprise and solve communication problems locally and nationally. This semester is no different for PCAE, and it’s highlighted by a national design project and helping a local group to promote their great work for Lake Superior.
Changing from STC Arts to Professional Communication Arts Enterprise was a big move for us. The rhetorical debates, logical steps and eventual final decision resulted in a complete overhaul of all of our resources including our web site, promotional materials, and internal documentation. The work has been long and hard this semester, nevertheless our name change has been highly successful and will prove to be a worthy move for years to come.
While working on our internal projects has kept us busy, the team has also been working tirelessly at the Digital Studio inside the J. Robert Van Pelt and Opie Library at Michigan Tech. The Digital Studio is a brilliant opportunity for the PCA Enterprise to use participatory design to fulfill the possibilities of the space provided. PCAE is, as far as we have been able to find, the only student-run group that is in charge of a space like the digital studio in the nation.
For the remaining month and a half of the semester, we’re looking forward to working on our two newest projects, working with Keystone Healthcare and the Lake Superior Stewardship Initiative. Both projects will be pushing members to their limits, allowing experienced members to help teach newer members to develop their skill set. Check back to www.pcaenterprise.org for updates throughout our projects.
October 31st, 2008 — 05:00 pmFrom STC to P.C.A.E
In Spring 2008, we decided that we were in need of a name change! For three and a half years we called ourselves the STC Arts Enterprise. But as the team grew, we noticed the drawbacks for this choice.
Like nearly all the student groups here at MTU, the STC Arts Enterprise strove to be multidisciplinary. Yet, with a name like “STC Arts”, we tended to draw one particular major; you guessed it, scientific and technical communications! And although much of our work with the enterprise is focused in the realm of STC we needed better representation from some of the other talented majors at MTU.
So, after some debate, in the Fall of 2008 we finally took the plunge and changed our name! We are now the Professional Communication Arts Enterprise, P.C.A.E. for short, and we feel that our new name is much more representative of the work that we do.
Above all, PCAE (pronounced p-kay) strives for professionalism in our communications in various mediums. We are very happy to have this represented in our new name, and it might just be doing the trick, because PCAE is increasingly multidisciplinary with team members representing not only STC but: communication and culture studies, psychology, education, and even civil engineering!
October 31st, 2008 — 11:25 amFall 2008
