Kenneth R. Baake (Ken)
Associate professor of Technical Communication and Rhetoric
Texas Tech University
Web page: http://www.faculty.english.ttu.edu/baake
EDUCATION
Ph.D. Rhetoric and professional communication, New Mexico State University, 2000.
M.S. Economics, The University of Texas, El Paso, 1995.
London School of Economics,
summer 1994. Course in intermediate economics.
B.A. English, The University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1978.
SCHOLARLY BOOK
Metaphor and Knowledge: The Challenges of Writing Science. Albany: State University of New York Press, 2003, 245 pages. A book in the series on Scientific and Technical Communication.
OTHER ACADEMIC PUBLICATIONS
“Offshoring and Serving the
Needs of Indian Technical Communication Programs: A Feasibility Study.” With Junhua Wang. Technical Communication,
53(4), November 2006, 427 - 438.
"Metaphors in ecology: what is an invasive species and why do we hate them?" the Exchange: newsletter of STC's Scientific Communication Special Interest Group. Issue 13(3), September 2006. http://www.stcsig.org/sc/newsletter/html/2006-3.htm
“Archaeology Reports: When Context Becomes an Active Agent in the Rhetorical Process.” Technical Communication Quarterly, 12:4. Fall 2003, 389-402. Article explored the economic context in which archaeologists write and argued that such context determines the rhetorical choices.
“Reason and Emotion: Teaching the Complexity of Arid Land Use Policy.” Spring 2002 Forum, the Association for Arid Lands Studies regular journal. Article described a method I developed for teaching how arguments of logic and emotion interact in technical reports about arid lands.
“Metaphor in the Writing Center: How to Place Enthymemes in the Solar System.” The Writing Lab Newsletter. Ed. Muriel Harris, Department of English, Purdue University, 25:1 (2000): 12-16. Article on using metaphor to teach writing concepts in the writing center.
“Inside SFI.” Santa Fe Institute Bulletin. 14:2 (1999): 28-29. Essay in the Santa Fe Institute’s journal discussing my initial dissertation findings on metaphor and other rhetorical issues at the SFI.
“What Is SFI?” 1997. <http://www.santafe.edu/sfi/research/focus/whatissfi.html.> (12 Oct. 1999). An essay that summarizes the different areas of research at the Santa Fe Institute.
“Swarm on the Move.” SFI Bulletin. 13:1 (1998), 18-22. Article describes a software package developed at the Santa Fe Institute that simulates various scientific phenomena.
“The Giant that Ate El Paso
Electric.” Crossroads in Communication. Proceedings of International
Professional Communication Conference, IEEE, 1997, Salt Lake City, Utah.
Rhetorical analysis of an electric utility’s annual reports over a 75-year
period.
BOOK REVIEW
Jeffrey A. Lockwood’s, Locust: The Devastating Rise and Mysterious Disappearance of the Insect that Shaped the American Frontier.” In Great Plains Quarterly, 26:2. Spring 2006, 130-131.
Bernadette Longo’s, Spurious Coin. In Technical Communication Quarterly, 11:1 (Winter 2002).
IN PRESS
“Using Writing Standards to Develop a Moral Foundation for Economic Literacy.” The Literacy Standard. Eds. Alice Horning and Ron Sudol, Oakland University. Cresskill, NJ: Hampton Press, forthcoming 2007.
"Decision Making In a Quasi-Rational World: Teaching Technical, Narratological, and Rhetorical Discourse in Report Writing. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication, forthcoming, June 2007.
“Mentorship, Collegiality, and
Friendship: Making Our Mark as Professionals.” Chapter for an anthology on
mentoring in teaching co-authored by various former graduate students and
faculty at New Mexico State University. Accepted by anthology editors, Parlor
Press, forthcoming.
"Teaching the Rhetoric of
Economics: A Canon of Eloquence, Truth, Lies, or All of the Above?" Chapter for
an anthology Transdisciplinary Readings: Essays on Rhetoric & Economics,
Ed. Edward M. Clift, Foreword Deirdre McCloskey, Mellon Press, forthcoming.
FUNDED SCHOLARLY ACTIVITIES
June 1, 2006. Invited lecture for the Institute for Water and River Basin Management, University of Karlsruhe, Germany. “Water in the American West: How does the public understand water resources, drought, and policy?”
May 29-June 2, 2006. Conducted a daily guest lecture series in English for about 20 PhD. students at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany titled “Navigating Environmental Policy Amid Risk, Hazard, Uncertainty, and Irrationality: the Rhetorical Approach.”
April 16-19, 2004. Working Group of 12 scholars invited to the National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis in Santa Barbara, CA. Topic was “Ecological Metaphors: Their Cultural Resonance and What We Can Do About It.” Along with the others in the group, I am now writing and revising an article summarizing the conference for submission to an ecology journal.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS
"Water in the High Plains: How does the public understand water resources, drought, and policy?" 2006 International Conference on Water in Arid and Semiarid Lands: Innovative Approaches and Informed Decision-Making, Association for Arid Lands Studies, conference at Texas Tech.
"Online Glossaries in Support of Efficient Risk Communication for Inter- and Transdisciplinary Water Resources Management." Environmental Informatics Conference Graz, Austria, September 2006. (Paper co-written with Charlotte Kaempf, Marc Müller, and Jürgen Ihringer, presented by Kaempf).
"Metaphors in Ecology: Their Implications for Public Policy." Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, spring 2006.
“Hell in Texas:” Stories, Songs, and Reports of the Arid Southwest and Great Plains.” Paper presented with musical performance along with Susan Youngblood at the West Texas Music West Texas Music: A Century of Accomplishment Friday, October 7 – Saturday, October 8, 2005; sponsored by Southwest Collections Special Collections Library.
“So what if Science is Rhetorical?” Assessing the Goals of a Rhetoric of Science teaching and Research Program.” Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication (CPTSC), Fall 2005 conference held at Texas Tech.
“Rhetorical Choices: Words and Images in Flood-Risk Management.” CEDIM/ “Natural Disasters” 2004 Conference “Disaster and Society” (July 26–27, 2004, Karlsruhe, Germany). This paper was presented by Charlotte Kaempf of the University of Karlsruhe and also one of the Texas Tech Online graduate students in Technical Communication in consultation with Ken Baake.
“Human Sin or Natural Cycle? Changing Narratives in Technical Drought Reports.” 11th Biennial International Conference of the Rhetoric Society of America, Austin, spring 2004. Paper analyzed changing narratives in drought reports.
“Metaphors Harmonics: Using Music Theory to Explain How Metaphor Constitutes Knowledge in Science.” Conference on College Composition and Communication, San Antonio, spring 2004. Paper considered the history of semantic problems in complexity science and argued that such problems help scientists to fine tune their theories.
"The Rhetoric of Drought Reports: From Blaming People to Accepting the Climate Cycle." 26th International Conference Association for Arid Lands Studies. Las Vegas, Nevada, April 2003. Paper analyzed the text of various international drought reports for changing language related to cause of droughts.
“Complexity: A Term Evolves and Sweeps Through the Arts and Sciences.” 15th Annual Conference of The Society for Literature and Science. Buffalo, NY, October 2001. Paper looked at the etymology of terminology in complexity science.
“Same Theory, Different Books: Why Audience Matters in Science Writing.” 2000 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Convention, Boise, Idaho, fall 2000. Paper compared two science texts by the same author and discussed how the author appeared to have a confused sense of audience.
“The Role of Rhetoric at a Postmodern Science Think Tank.” 1999 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Convention, Santa Fe, NM, fall 1999. Paper reported my science writing experiences at the Santa Fe Institute and early dissertation findings.
“How Do Economists Respond to the Storytellers?” Conference on College Composition and Communication, Chicago, spring 1998. Paper considered rhetorical issues in the economics discipline; subsequently included in ERIC microfiche database.
“The Role of First-Year Composition in Writing Across the Curriculum: What Does Field Dependency Mean for First-Year Composition Teachers?” 1998 Rocky Mountain Modern Language Association Convention, Salt Lake City, fall 1998. Paper offered evidence that first-year writing courses based on argument theory are effective in helping students develop reasoning skills across disciplines.
ACADEMIC EXPERIENCE
Associate professor, technical communication and rhetoric (English), Texas Tech University, fall 2005-present.
Assistant professor, technical communication and rhetoric (English), Texas Tech University, fall 2000-fall 2005.
Courses taught:
§ Rhetoric of Economics for online graduate students (with Dr. Locke Carter) (Eng. 5377).
§ Foundations of Technical Communication for onsite and online graduate students (Eng. 5371).
§ Technical Reports for onsite and online graduate students (English 5372).
§ Rhetoric of Science (English 5365, now English 5384: The Rhetoric of Scientific Literature.) A course developed for graduate students; it looks at scientific discourse. Taught both onsite and online sections.
§ Style in Technical Communication graduate online (English 5377) and undergraduate onsite (3366).
§ Research Methods in Technical Communication and Composition (English 5363) for onsite graduate students.
§ Professional Reports for undergraduate students (English 3365).
§ Technical Writing introductory course for undergraduate students (Eng. 2311).
Other English Department and University Activities:
§ Dissertation director, Pinfan Zhu, successfully defended August 2004.
§ Dissertation director, Kathryn Northcut, successfully defended February 2004.
§ Served or serve on various dissertation committees for technical communication doctoral candidates; currently chair of seven doctoral student committees, served as Dean’s representative for doctoral defenses in music, biology, and history.
§ Have served or am serving as internship advisor for several master’s students in technical communication.
§ Serve on various departmental committees, 2001-2002 editor of the department’s once-a-semester newsletter.
§ Helped the archaeology staff of the Texas Tech Museum revise a national grant application in 2001.
§ Member of the Arts and Sciences Faculty Awards Committee, 2003-2004. Reviewed applications.
§ Reviewer for the Texas Tech President’s Book Award, spring 2004.
§ Presenter at the English Department’s Intradisciplinary Interest Group Spring 2004 Colloquium.
§ Have served on faculty recruitment sub-committees for technical communication and rhetoric job candidates and a linguistic job candidate.
§ Participant in the Texas Tech Library’s “2004 Faculty Academic Contributions Exhibit.” Book and a journal article were part of the exhibit.
§ Moderator for several panels at the annual Graduate English Society conferences.
College instructor, writing center tutor and assistant director. Graduate assistant, New Mexico State University, 1997-1999.
English teacher, U.S. Peace Corps, 1984-86, Nyahururu, Kenya. Taught English, East African literature, and history to high-school students at a rural Kenyan school. Wrote a small grant proposal to secure books for the school library. Edited newsletter serving U.S. volunteers and Peace Corps staff members.
PROFESSIONAL/JOURNALISM EXPERIENCE
Science writer, Santa Fe Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 1997-2002. Worked closely on occasional projects with research scientists at this nationally recognized research center for complexity science. Projects include redesign of SFI Web page, an introductory article for the page, and articles about computer simulation research and related topics for the Institute’s regular journal, SFI Bulletin.
Business editor, staff writer, El Paso Herald-Post, El Paso, Texas, 1987-1997. Wrote business news and performed editing duties for 27,000-circulation Scripps Howard daily newspaper. Covered business news in border city of 500,000. Wrote a weekly border business column. Reported regularly on Mexico’s twin manufacturing plants and free trade in Ciudad Juarez. Other coverage included utilities, banking, real estate, retail sales, public and private companies, and small businesses. Considered an expert in electric utility and free trade issues.
Newspaper journalism, extensive experience, 1980-1990: Managing editor and staff writer, Calvert County Recorder, a 6,000-circulation, twice-weekly in Southern Maryland; features correspondent, Daily Nation, East Africa’s largest circulation English language daily, Nairobi, Kenya; city hall reporter, El Paso Herald-Post; contributing writer, The Kiplinger Texas Letter, a monthly business newsletter.
SELECTED AWARDS
Spring 2004. Association of Teachers of Technical Writing Nell Ann Picket Award for the 2004 Best Article in Technical Communication Quarterly for “Archaeology Reports: When Context Becomes an Active Agent in the Rhetorical Process.”
Spring 2004. Graduate English Society award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring of Graduate Students at Texas Tech. Winner, second year in a row.
Fall 2004. Inducted into the Texas Tech University Teaching Academy.
Spring 2003. Texas Tech University College of Arts and Sciences co-winner Texas Tech Alumni Association New Faculty Award.
Spring 2003. Graduate English Society award for Outstanding Teaching and Mentoring of Graduate Students at Texas Tech.
2001 Outstanding Dissertation Award in Technical Communication from the Conference on College Composition and Communication (CCCC) for dissertation, "Metaphor and Knowledge: The Rhetorical Challenges at a Postmodern Science Think Tank." The CCCC Committee considers all the dissertations completed in a calendar year in a national competition.
First place, business reporting: 1993, 1994, and 1995. Texas Associated Press Managing Editors’ competition for newspapers under 30,000 circulation.
Received Ellen Browning Scripps fellowship for $25,000 from the Scripps Howard Foundation to pursue Ph.D. Wrote a proposal to secure the fellowship.
Featured in interview, BBC World Service radio program, “The World Today,” discussing pending North American Free Trade Agreement. 1992.
Appeared in an interview on “Nightline” network television program discussing a nuclear power plant in Calvert County, Maryland. 1980.
PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
March 2002. Moderated a
discussion about teaching master’s students. Annual Association of Teacher’s of
Technical Communication conference, Chicago, Ill.
Member of the following:
Society for Technical Communication
Association of Teachers of Technical Writing
Society for Literature and Science
Association for Arid Lands Studies
National Council of Teachers of English.
Inducted into Beta Gamma Sigma,
the National Honor Society in Business, and The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi.
Last
updated by Ken Baake