Texas Tech University

Rich Rice

Professor
Department of English
College of Arts & Sciences

What are your current research interests?

I work in Technical Communication and Rhetoric, with a focus on composition and global communication. It's perhaps the most useful second major or minor on campus, because effective communication includes analyzing any relationship between readers, writers, and texts in order to express complex information. I research situations involving this triangle of readers, writers, and texts because, like a triangle, if any angle changes so must the other two. If we compose a text or a video or an infographic or a website or a podcast, and our intended audience base pivots or shifts, we must rethink the composition. And nothing has impacted communication more than globalization and technology. Intended and secondary audiences can narrow or expand, oftentimes beyond our control, and how and when and where an audience receives content can be just as important as what that content is. The medium and the message is the message.

I research, in particular, location and modality in educational and workplace contexts. That is, a printed text that is instead read online impacts readers differently. What if that reader is using an iPad or a smartphone? How about if the reader is using the content to solve an immediate problem rather than for general information? What if an ongoing transaction with the reader is important to continue developing the text? What if the reader is in India or China or Africa? What if the materials are meant to be read by readers with several cultural value differences simultaneously? I research types of intercultural communication competencies we need to know and practice today, using the expanded rhetorical triangle of reader, writer, text, location, and modality.

What types of outreach and engagement have you been involved with?

A good friend once told me that knowledge is meaningless unless applied. I work to connect my teaching, research, and grant writing with service in different communities. With my colleagues at the Rotary Club of Metropolitan Lubbock, I serve our community in a variety of ways, including developing internship opportunities for students. I support the work of Lubbock's Coalition of Community Assistance Volunteers. CCAV helps more than 3,000 low-income families prepare their taxes every year. A great organization, and they're looking for help to expand. I use technical communication and rhetoric to help CCAV with digital and print signage, with grant writing, and with student interns. I also work with UIL Ready Writing at TTU and in several regional school districts, directing and judging high school academic writing contests. And the envy of many a book lover, I run an online bookstore called iBookSwap, with the mission of getting books into the hands of people who will read them.

Why did you choose this field?

The field chose me, actually. I grew up in a place referred to as silicon forest, which has an educational system that prioritizes computer literacy. I studied to become an engineer, even working for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as a computer technician during college, but always had an interest in English, Philosophy, and Education. Studying literary criticism and how to teach coupled well with working with engineers to fix software and hardware and networking problems. Like peanut butter and chocolate, the combination led me to a dynamic field called Computers and Writing. My research and pedagogical interests developed alongside the field, such as with online writing, writing across the curriculum, ePortfolios, distance education, multimodal composing, digital literacy, service learning, and teaching with technology. Because knowledge is meaningless unless applied, and in thinking about how best to support students who use their education in a variety of workplaces, I expanded my interests to workplace communication. I currently direct TTU's workplace communications program in Technical Communication & Rhetoric. Technical communicators are people who find effective ways to present complex ideas to the users who need to use them to solve problems.

 rich rice

How do you define good teaching?

Good teaching is reflective teaching. More specifically, it's sincere, wholehearted, and responsible. And good teaching recognizes that we are working with students to make meaningful change in the world. I value principles of andragogy: good teachers design learning experience wherein students know why they need to learn something, learn experientially, see all learning as problem-solving, and discover immediate value.

What is your proudest professional accomplishment?

When students find success in their own professional lives, whether it's a teaching technique they've used with their students that they may have picked up from one of my classes, an article they've published that they developed in a class, or a grant or community-based project where they can apply their learning. Sometimes students contact me a few years into their career and let me know how an "aha moment" they had working with me is making a big impact on their current work—that's the best, and what I'm most proud of.

How do you integrate research and outreach into teaching?

I'm lucky to teach courses in a field that, by design, is practical learning. And much of my research is largely what we call "action research," which is reflective analysis of teaching techniques. Some examples: I study ways in which students find success in college, and when I teach Freshman Seminar courses I often have students write letters to seniors at the high schools from which they themselves graduated. I teach grant writing and bring grant writing projects I'm completing, including the research processes involved, into the discussion of my courses. And I study the impact of new media projects such as photo essays on teaching principles of effective composing cross-culturally, such as in India and China, as well as ways to create sustained interactive educational practices across borders. When I teach abroad I use blogs or synchronous communication tools to connect TTU students with my students in other cultures.

More about Rich Rice

Rich Rice is Professor and Director of Technical Communication & Rhetoric in the TTU Department of English. He holds a Ph.D. in English, with a focus on Composition and Rhetoric, from Ball State University. His publications focus on global communication, teaching with technology, online education, portfolio thinking, and problem-based service-learning.

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