2:2: New Technologies' Implications for Technical Communication Theory
Up one levelMany critics have argued that changes in any profession's material circumstances have implications for its theories and methodologies. This issue will examine what the Web, portable computing, and other emerging technologies might imply for future technical communication theory.
- Rhetorical Shifts in Author/Audience Roles on the World-Wide Web
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Sandy Bartell
Audience analysis has figured prominently in Technical Communications curricula for many years because much of technical communication has to do with instructing and persuading people from specific discourse communities to do tasks. In order to get them to do these specialized tasks, we must be intimately familiar with their real and anticipated needs, expectations, and limitations. Many different models of the author/audience relationship have been proposed to aid in this analysis. These models have worked well (depending on what school of thought one subscribed to) when the main delivery system consisted of print media. However, the popularization of second-generation Web browsers in 1993 introduced a delivery medium that did not fit neatly into any previous theoretical framework. - Does Web Delivery Impact the Reader-Response Approach to Technical Communication?
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Jeanette Fisher
This paper is an attempt to explore how reader-response criticism and the overall approach to using rhetoric in technical communication may be impacted by the large amount of technical documentation moving to the Web. The discussion focuses on three main areas: moving from the "reader" to the "user" in online documentation; the value of plain language style in this medium; and how Web delivery seems to be bridging the gap between user interface (UI) text and help documentation.