Teaching Business, Technical and Academic Writing Online and Onsite: A Writing Pedagogy Sourcebook

This book grows out of the insights and proficiencies gained through teaching undergraduate and graduate students in onsite, online, and blended formats for almost three decades. Using a practitioner focus, it proffers best practices utilized and validated during the process of successfully instructing students in writing their scientific or technical proposals, professional or business reports, and academic papers or doctoral dissertations at premier American universities. The book guides facilitators through syllabus creation, discussion management, and open educational resources use, while specifically offering strategies and support to the underserved online writing teachers who utilize multimedia materials and virtual discussions in learning management systems to reach out to students. Also, insider insights and specialist knowledge on using visual creation tools and open educational resources are shared. The text is a must-have handbook for undergraduate and graduate teachers, and particularly fills the need for a helpful sourcebook for remote teaching in a post-COVID world.


A University Grants Commission scholar, Sarbani Sen Vengadasalam holds an MA, MPhil, PhD, and a professional MBA certificate. As a teacher, she has pioneered nearly 30 different blended, onsite, and online courses at prominent universities worldwide, and has also contributed to the profession through consultancies to leading global organizations such as Tata and the Infinitee Group. A founding member of the Graduate Writing Program at Rutgers University, USA, she is currently a senior faculty member in the Business and Technical Writing program at the same institution. Her publications include over 20 scholarly journal articles and the groundbreaking book New Postcolonial Dialectics (2019).

"Not only is Dr Sen Vengadasalam acutely aware of the current state of instruction of our professional writing population, at both undergraduate and graduate levels, she has been at the forefront of its evolution, and assists us, through this book, in leading our students and colleagues into its inevitable next stage. I am certain this text will remain one of my most valuable resources for years to come."

William Magrino, PhD Associate Teaching Professor, Rutgers University; Lead author, Scientific and Technical Writing & Business and Professional Writing

"Sarbani Sen Vengadasalam’s sharing of resources in this book, culled from a career in the field, is a sign of her meta-teaching; her syllabi and explication are “how-to” in that, with her academic writing pedagogy, Sarbani Sen Vengadasalam calls writers “teachers.” In that sense, she is the teacher of teachers."

Miriam Jaffe, PhD Associate Teaching Professor, Rutgers University; Associate Editor, Writing and Pedagogy

"This book is at one and the same time a theoretically sophisticated guide to the principles and best practices of writing instruction, a how to manual for designing and implementing writing courses across disciplines and modalities, as well as a sourcebook of course-ready exercises, assignments, syllabi, and daily schedules that will plug and play into classes across English, business, and scientific departments. Drawing on responses from employers themselves as well as the author’s own rich experiences in the academic and the corporate world, this is a book designed to train professionals to represent themselves and their institutions with distinction."

Jonathan Elmore, PhD Coordinator of First Year Writing, Savannah State University; Managing Editor, Watchung Review

"Industry advisory boards constantly bemoan that students are not adequately equipped with soft skills such as written communication and presentation skills. This book provides the means by which individual educators or academic communities can explore, discuss and address a widening communications gap within and without the institution. The book readily provides the basis for faculty development and training programs designed to meet the demands of the learning environment in the 21st century. A practical guide that integrates material from a very wide range of sources for busy academics, Dr Sen Vengadasalam’s sourcebook is preparing faculty for an interactive learning environment and shares best practices for integrating technology and technology-oriented thinking into course and syllabus design and the art and craft of online discussions."

Deborah Helman Marketing Professor; Editor, DeVry Journal of Scholarly Research

"As technical and professional writing teachers, would not it be a treasure to discover a resource that offers tested classroom practices that enable professional writing students with hands-on practice to sharpen their skills before they join the workforce? Through her seasoned examples and detailed models, Sarbani Sen Vengadasalam’s Writing Pedagogy Sourcebook: Teaching Business, Technical and Academic Writing Online and Onsite: A Writing Pedagogy Sourcebook offers exactly that. She shows us how to teach professional writing so our students are fully prepared for the writing and workplace communications they will perform on the job. Her book offers readily available strategies for scaffolding the lessons that in turn, provide transformative processes for writing students, including a comprehensive classroom discussion management pedagogy that is well-suited for all learning management systems."

Lynn O. Ludwig University of Wisconsin, Stevens Point, USA; Computers and Composition 64 (2022)

"Post COVID-19, when traditional classroom settings are no longer considered as norms, Vengadasalam’s timely publication is extremely helpful for both educators and students to cope with online, hybrid, or blended pedagogical approaches. As responsible technical, business, and/or academic writing teachers, our obligation is to offer the neces¬sary skills to our students who need both professional development and academic credibility. In this regard, this book is the first of its kind to offer some unique pedagogical practices that blend technology with multiple genres/formats and help create student-advocates."

Priyanka Ganguly PhD candidate in Rhetoric and Writing, Virginia Tech, USA

"Sabrani Sen Vengadasalam’s Teaching Business, Technical, and Academic Writing Online and Onsite: A Writing Pedagogy Sourcebook is a helpful guide for new instructors and others who are looking for new assignments or approaches for business, technical, and academic writing courses. It is, as the title implies, a handy pedagogical sourcebook."

Diane Martinez Associate Professor of English, Western Carolina University, USA

"The book is a great source that brings out best practices for teaching project writing, business, and technical writing onsite and online. The author shared examples, scenarios, and sample teaching materials that will help teachers have a better understanding of the ideas presented. Vengadasalam’s Teaching Business, Technical and Academic Writing Online and Onsite: A Writing Pedagogy Sourcebook is a very useful tool for technical and business writing instructors."

Dorcas A. Anabire Presidential Doctoral Research Fellow, Utah State University, USA

Buy This Book

ISBN: 1-5275-6873-3

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-6873-0

Release Date: 29th June 2021

Pages: 164

Price: £58.99

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ISBN: 1-5275-9796-2

ISBN13: 978-1-5275-9796-9

Release Date: 22nd April 2023

Pages: 164

Price: £29.99

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