Born and raised in Denver, Colorado, Danielle Black spent her early life admiring the eastern plains and western peaks of the state’s beautiful wilderness. But when she wasn’t outside, Black was inside writing. When the time came for college, and her family moved to Iowa, Black sought a field where she could apply her passion and talent for the written word.
Photo provided by Danielle Black
She chose to study technical communication rather than pursue a typical English degree because she saw the wide range of career paths that the field could lead her down. She first heard about the major from her father, who has coworkers who studied and worked in TComm fields. Her interest in TComm eventually led to her decision to study at Iowa State, her father’s alma mater.
Studying the key principles of technical communication was not only interesting for Black but also a catalyst for changing how she viewed certain aspects of the world. A poster was not just a poster anymore but an aggregate of information and design choices. She references Charlie Kostelnick’s Graphic Communication in Business and Technical Writing and Geoff Sauer’s Rhetorical Website Design classes as particularly enlightening experiences in her education.
Of her TComm courses, Black said, “Going in, I thought it was going to be a super objective major. I thought that when you’re just writing instructions, you wouldn’t want a persuasive voice. But it’s actually super important to have that when you’re effectively communicating with people.”
Black is now one of the newest Between the Lines staff members and was also one of the organizers of the Society of Technical Communication meetings on campus at one time. When she graduates, Black said, she wants to work in technical writing, in a job such as creating instructions for equipment. She discovered her passion for the practice when she had an in-class assignment to write insructions for a typewriter. She described learning about the subject of her writing while writing about it and said it appealed to her. “What really interested me about technical writing is there’s a constant learning aspect. You’re always learning!”