Written Communication Apr 1989

Effectiveness in the Environmental Impact Statement: A Study in Public Rhetoric

M. JIMMIE KILLINGSWORTH ; DEAN STEFFENS NCR (United States)

Abstract

The environmental impact statement (EIS) was created by the National Environmental Policy Act in 1969 as a means of ensuring careful study of possible effects on the environment of projects involving public lands and as an aid to effective decisions regarding such projects. This article presents a case study involving the reading of several EISs produced by one government agency, the Bureau of Land Management. An analysis of these documents reveals that, to answer the leading question of rhetoricians in the field of technical writing—Is the document effective?—we must consider the social and cultural context of the EIS as well as the characteristics of the text, its organization and style. Simple notions of purpose and audience are ruled out. We must account for pragmatics as well as syntactics and semantics. The very category of “effectiveness” is conditioned by the historical and political forces that shape the EIS. An approach through genre theory is recommended.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
1989-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088389006002002
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Topics
genre theory discourse analysis technical communication qualitative research
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (8)

  1. Lane (2021)
    Industrial Discourse in Voluntary Environmental Disclosure Questionnaires Respo…
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  2. Ross (2018)
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  3. Dayton (2002)
    Evaluating Environmental Impact Statements as Communicative Action
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  4. STRATMAN (2000)
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  5. Blyler (1994)
    Habermas, empowerment, and professional discourse
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  1. Thralls et al. (1993)
    The social perspective and pedagogy in technical communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Ryan (1993)
    Using environmental impact statements as an introduction to technical writing
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Ross et al. (1991)
    Communicating in public policy matters: addressing the problem of non-congruent…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication

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CrossRef global citation count: 21 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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