Conference Time

I'm off to conference after today's class: Wednesday I'll be at the conference of the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing and Thursday and Friday I'll attend the Conference on College Composition and Communication. The first one is small. The second is huge.

I'll be thinking about research methods the whole time: at ATTW I'm meeting with a number of scholars at other universities who teach this course in one form or another. One of these meetings will be focussed on the need for a textbook which could be focussed on this class.

I'd be interested in hearing the thoughts of my students on this issue. What should be taught in a class like this, a class that serves grad students, creative writers, journalists, prfessional writers of all kinds? What disciplines should be explored?