First, an introduction.

My name is Andrew Kibelbek, and I am beginning the first semester of my master's studies in technical communication. I was born in Pennsylvania, moved to Ohio with my family in 1998, received my B.A. at Cedarville University in central Ohio, and am now joining Texas Tech from the Cincinnati area. I love movie soundtracks, reading and writing science fiction, and watching football - I am a fanatical Pittsburgh Steelers fan.

My undergraduate work was in electronic media with an emphasis on audio. I also have a lifelong interest in writing, which is primarily what sparked my interest in technical communication. In a lot of ways I feel I am entering unfamiliar territory, since I am very new to the field, but I'm eager to find points of contact between my rather eclectic body of undergraduate study, which, as well as E-Media, included creative writing, music, drama, and a smattering of philosophy and aesthetics, and the equally eclectic field of tech comm.

I'm approaching my GPTI responsibilities with some apprehension, since I've never been so directly responsible for other students' grades before. Then there's also the prospect of facing a potentially unhealthy volume of freshman-quality writing. But after orientation, I find myself looking forward to the challenge of meeting students wherever they are and, hopefully, helping them to improve their verbal skills. I'm certain it will involve a substantial learning curve for me, and I'm hopeful that the comments I receive in this blog, along with the posts I read in my classmates' blogs, will be a valuable resource as I tackle my duties as a document instructor.