Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jan 2006

Technology Artifacts, Instrumentalism, and the Humanist Manifestos: Toward an Integrated Humanistic Profile for Technical Communication

Michael Knievel Wyoming Department of Education

Abstract

Since the late 1970s, technical communication scholars and teachers have largely agreed that technical communication’s humanistic character can be found in the field’s rhetorical nature and the social nature of discourse. Building on Patrick Moore’s efforts to rehabilitate “instrumental discourse” in the face of such general consensus, this essay argues that such notions of technical communication’s humanistic character, although unquestionably groundbreaking and crucial to the field’s sense of self and mission, remain too deeply indebted to traditional academic humanities’ and English studies’ constructions of humanistic purview, which largely refuse to accommodate technology, especially physical technology artifacts. Considering alternatives that recast the technology-humanities relationship and situate technology within a humanistic framework can yield benefits for both technical communication and English studies broadly construed.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
2006-01-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651905281040
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Topics
rhetorical criticism discourse analysis technical communication
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (10)

  1. Jiang et al. (2024)
    From Hype to Practice: Reinterpreting the Writing Process Through Technical Wri…
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CrossRef global citation count: 11 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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