The First Wave (1953 -1961) of the Professionalization Movement in Technical Communication

As a former president of the Society of Technical Writers and Publishers (STWP) noted, “There was a controversy in the early days. Was technical writing really a profession? Did we want it to be a profession? If it was, how should we get other people to recognize that it was?” (Root, 1972, p. 1). The first generation of professional technical communicators was deeply interested in the process and prospects of professionalization. They set themselves “the task of exploring what it means to become a profession, how professionalization might be achieved, and what possible consequences might result from our achieving full professional stature” (Savage, 1997, p. 34). The profession-building activities of the 1950s (e.g., the formation of professional organizations and journals, the writing of professional codes of conduct, the creation of academic programs) were attempts to professionalize technical communication. The earliest technical communication journals and conference proceedings included articles strategizing and discoursing about professionalization—for example, Robert T. Hamlett’s “Technical Writing Grows into a New Profession” (1952), Floyd Hickok’s “Professional, Artisan, Something Else?” (1955), and Israel Sweet’s “Is The First Wave (1953–1961) of the Professionalization Movement in Technical Communication