Journal of Business and Technical Communication Oct 2017

Moments and Metagenres

Brian McNely

Abstract

Professional and technical communication increasingly involves developing narratives that traverse multiple genres, media formats, and publishing venues. In marketing and advertising, brand stories unfold across Web sites, ad campaigns, and social media properties. A fundamental challenge in such work is multigenre coordination, leading to a key question: How do professionals manage complex ecologies of genres, media content, and interactions in ways that build and sustain narrative coherence and audience engagement? Reporting findings from a study of transmedia writers, this article argues that metageneric texts may emerge as important coordinative resources for planning, developing, and tracking uptakes within multigenre narratives. It thus contributes to professional and technical communication by describing a widening gap in scholarly approaches to metagenre; arguing for empirical examinations of metageneric constructs in tangible, flexible texts that serve situated needs in given activity systems; and demonstrating how such texts may emerge and play a formidable role in coordinating contemporary, multigenre narratives.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2017-10-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651917713252
Open Access
Closed
Topics
genre theory writing across the curriculum social media technical communication

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (9)

  1. Adavi et al. (2025)
    “Proud to Be the Enabler”: Closed System Ideology in the Origin Stories of Indi…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Cagle (2024)
    “A Proficiency in What We Call Rhetoric”: A Role for Community-Engaged Technica…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Falconer (2024)
    The Discursive Boundary Work of Recontextualizing Science for Policy: Opening t…
    Written Communication
  4. Doody (2024)
    Navigating Genres in Interdisciplinary Life Sciences Doctoral Programs
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Spinuzzi (2023)
    What Is a Workplace? Principles for Bounding Case Studies of Genres, Processes,…
    Written Communication
Show all 9 →
  1. Wickman (2023)
    Genre and Metagenre in Biomedical Research Writing
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Dush (2022)
    Drawing Into Being: Charter Graphics and Their Functions
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  3. Weedon et al. (2021)
    Embodied Genres, Typified Performances, and the Engineering Design Process
    Written Communication
  4. Danner (2020)
    Story/Telling with Data as Distributed Activity
    Technical Communication Quarterly

Cites in this index (12)

  1. Spinuzzi (2011)
    Losing by Expanding
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Spinuzzi (2010)
    Secret Sauce and Snake Oil: Writing Monthly Reports in a Highly Contingent Envi…
    Written Communication
  3. Rude (2009)
    Mapping the Research Questions in Technical Communication
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. Devet (2008)
    Instructional Note: Linking Composition and Literature through Metagenres: Usin…
    Teaching English in the Two-Year College
  5. Smagorinsky (2008)
    The Method Section as Conceptual Epicenter in Constructing Social Science Resea…
    Written Communication
Show all 12 →
  1. Carter (2007)
    Ways of Knowing, Doing, and Writing in the Disciplines
    College Composition and Communication
  2. Winsor (2006)
    Using Writing to Structure Agency: An Examination of Engineers' Practice
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Schryer et al. (2005)
    Genre Theory, Health-Care Discourse, and Professional Identity Formation
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. Wegner (2004)
    The Collaborative Construction of a Management Report in a Municipal Community …
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. BERKENKOTTER (2001)
    Genre Systems at Work
    Written Communication
  6. GEISLER (2001)
    Textual Objects
    Written Communication
  7. MacNealy (1999)
    Strategies for Empirical Research in Writing
    College Composition and Communication
Also cites 15 works outside this index ↓
  1. Alexander B. (2011)
    The new digital storytelling: Creating narratives with new media
     ↗
  2. 10.7551/mitpress/6352.001.0001
     ↗
  3. Carpenter R. (2011). Disability as a socio-rhetorical action: Towards a genre-based approach. Disability Stud…
     ↗
  4. 10.1017/CBO9780511812774.025
     ↗
  5. 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199764129.001.0001
     ↗
  6. 10.1207/s15327884mca0404_3
     ↗
  7. 10.1057/9781137388377
     ↗
  8. 10.1177/107780049500100301
     ↗
  9. 10.1017/CBO9780511809989.004
     ↗
  10. 10.3233/EFI-2004-22201
     ↗
  11. 10.2307/j.ctt5hjqkk
     ↗
  12. 10.7551/mitpress/6875.001.0001
     ↗
  13. 10.1145/1026533.1026560
     ↗
  14. 10.1017/CBO9780511509605
     ↗
  15. 10.2190/CPIC1
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 12 View in citation network →

Related Articles

  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication Oct 2020
    How Large Information Technology Companies Use Twitter: Arrangement of Corporate Accounts and Characteristics of Tweets ↗
    Shu Zhang; Jordy F. Gosselt; Menno D. T. de Jong
    writing across the curriculum social media technical communication
  2. Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jul 2017
    Start-Up Nation ↗
    Steven Fraiberg
    genre theory multimodality social media technical communication
  3. Journal of Business and Technical Communication Oct 2016
    Surviving Outsourcing and Offshoring ↗
    Jenni Virtaluoto; Annalisa Sannino; Yrjö Engeström
    genre theory writing across the curriculum technical communication race and writing
  4. Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jul 2009
    Integrating Social Media Into Existing Work Environments ↗
    Karl Stolley
    genre theory multimodality social media technical communication
  5. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jul 2025
    Risk Revisited: The Role of Technical Communication in Negotiating Barriers to Effective Health Risk Messaging ↗
    Kathryn Lambrecht
    quantitative research social media technical communication place and space