Technical Communication Quarterly Apr 1996

Responding to Hostile Questions: More insights from Speech Act Theory

Kim Sydow Campbell ; Frank Parker ; Saroya I. Follender

Abstract

As environmental communicators partcipating in public meetings and interviews, engineers and scientists must sometimes walk a thin line between representing the best interests of their organizations and responding to the public's need to know. Unfortunately, published guidance designed to aid technical communicators in such situations is not clearly based on theory or actual behavior. This study analyzes actual responses to hostile questions by drawing upon speech act theory to demonstrate that spokespersons use five strategies for composing indirect answers to questions perceived as hostile.

Journal
Technical Communication Quarterly
Published
1996-04-01
DOI
10.1207/s15427625tcq0502_2
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
discourse analysis technical communication
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Campbell et al. (2015)
    Responding to Hostility: Evidence-Based Guidance for Communication During Plann…
    Business and Professional Communication Quarterly

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