Emeritus
College of Engineering | Technical Communication Program
Hometown: Brooklyn, NY
Steven Zwickel taught Technical Communications (technical writing, speaking, and document design) at UW-Madison from 1992 to 2020. He is a graduate of Binghamton University, where he majored in political science. He has a law degree (Brooklyn Law School), a M.S. in Social Work (UW–Madison), and a Diploma in Graphic Arts/Printing from Madison Area Technical College. Mr. Zwickel is author of two books on anger and workplace stress, of a text on technical presentations and professional speaking, and of a series of articles on agencies that helped American immigrants. Recent presentation topics include Communication-based Leadership, Persuasive Speaking, Researching Family History, Asylum Seekers at the Border, Finding the Chinese Jews, and Basics of Typography and Page Design.
Talks:
A Communication-Based Leadership Model
Leadership is defined as the ability to get people to participate in a journey from the way things are to the way they could and ought to be. Essential elements are:
1 Understanding of system
2 Vision of possibilities
3 Planning
4 Desire
5 Ability to communicate vision so want to reach goals
6 Flexibility
Persuasive Speaking
1 What is persuasive? Theories of persuasion from Aristotle to Click-bait
2 Common Persuasion Techniques
3 Secrets of Really Persuasive People
4 Ethics and persuasion—protect your reputation!
5 How Persuasion can work — A Five-Phase Process for Handling Objections and making your point