Technical Communication Quarterly Jan 2000

Writers and their maps: The construction of a GAO report on sexual harassment

Kelli Cargile Cook Texas Tech University

Abstract

This article examines a 1994 General Accounting Office (GAO) report on sexual harassment at U.S. service academies to determine how power structures affected the report writers' rhetorical choices. Employing postmodern mapping theories, the article identifies what is valued and devalued in the report's contents. Then it describes Congress's reaction to the report and speculates on the report's impact on public discourse and subsequent social action. It offers postmapping theory as a way of understanding the relationship between discourse and power in policy reports.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
2000-01-01
DOI
10.1080/10572250009364685
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Topics
rhetorical criticism discourse analysis public rhetoric
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (6)

  1. Stevens (2024)
    Publicly Available, Transparent, and Explicit: An Analysis of Academic Publishi…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  2. Stevens (2024)
    Publicly Available, Transparent, and Explicit: An Analysis of Academic Publishi…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  3. Novotny et al. (2019)
    Data Our Bodies Tell: Towards Critical Feminist Action in Fertility and Period …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  4. Weber (2016)
    Stasis in Space! Viewing Definitional Conflicts Surrounding the James Webb Spac…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Thompson et al. (2006)
    Women and Feminism in Technical Communication—An Update
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Show all 6 →
  1. Smith et al. (2002)
    Feminist Theory in Technical Communication: Making Knowledge Claims Visible
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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CrossRef global citation count: 6 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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