Abstract

Technical communication pedagogy often uses two distinct processes to help students construct user-centered documents: audience analysis and invention. However, posthuman contexts, such as virtual reality, challenge traditional methods for audience analysis and invention. In virtual environments, knowledge is constructed by and through embodied interactions with people, technologies, spaces, and ideas—and the dual processes of analysis and invention are conflated. In this article, I present data from a semester-long comparative study between two technical communication courses. Students in both courses created instructions for filming in a virtual environment, but students from only one of these courses experienced the space/place of virtual reality. The data emphasize the importance of embodied experiences in technical communication pedagogy and practice.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2009-12-29
DOI
10.1080/10572250903373056
Open Access
Closed
Topics

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Computers and Composition
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

Cites in this index (5)

  1. Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Technical Communication Quarterly
Also cites 4 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.1207/s15327809jls0603_1
  2. 10.2307/356600
  3. How we became posthuman: Virtual bodies in cybernetics, literature, and informatics.
  4. 10.1207/s15327876mp0203_4
CrossRef global citation count: 5 View in citation network →