Written Communication Jul 2000

Rhetorical Invention in Design: Constructing a System and Spec

CYNTHIA R. HALLER

Abstract

Though scholars have begun to explore how texts mediate design, little is known about rhetorical invention in design. To investigate how heuristics used for rhetorical invention and design might be related, the author analyzed how one disciplinary design heuristic, the information system cliché, influenced the production of both a computer system and a specification text for the system. The cliché was used to generate design proposals, which designers evaluated using at least three criteria: projected context of use, correspondence between the proposals and their textual inscriptions, and system coherence. Results indicate that disciplinary heuristics and rhetorical topics overlap in design; however, the rhetorical character of disciplinary heuristics is obscured in textual representations of the design. Both types of heuristic serve as interpretive instruments and are used dialogically to develop the parts of a design or text within the context of the whole.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2000-07-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088300017003002
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical criticism digital rhetoric
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. McCaughey (2026)
    Model as Missed Opportunity for Writing Transfer During Career Change
    Written Communication
  2. Weedon et al. (2021)
    Embodied Genres, Typified Performances, and the Engineering Design Process
    Written Communication
  3. Alexander et al. (2015)
    DMAC After Dark: Toward a Theory of Distributed Invention
    Computers and Composition

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CrossRef global citation count: 4 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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