Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jul 1998

Rhetorical Practices in Technical Work

DOROTHY A. WINSOR

Abstract

Engineers' use of rhetoric differs from that of scientists because of the material objects engineers work with and the material conditions under which they act. For engineers, “publication” takes the form of releasing a marketable object, not a refereed article. Thus, they have less need than scientists do to create written theoretical work and can instead build knowledge by group discussion of instrument traces that they tie directly to the object. The fact that they usually work in hierarchical, for-profit organizations also affects their rhetorical practices, as they must shape the actions of those both below and above them in the corporate hierarchy.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
1998-07-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651998012003004
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Topics
rhetorical criticism
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (15)

  1. Weedon et al. (2021)
    Embodied Genres, Typified Performances, and the Engineering Design Process
    Written Communication
  2. Robles (2018)
    Visualizing Certainty: What the Cultural History of the Gantt Chart Teaches Tec…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Bivens et al. (2018)
    Coordinating Distributed Memory: An Environmental Engineer’s Proposal-Writing P…
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  4. Read (2016)
    The Net Work Genre Function
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  5. Rivers et al. (2016)
    Speculative Usability
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Show all 15 →
  1. Dannels (2009)
    Features of Success in Engineering Design Presentations: A Call for Relational …
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Wolfe (2009)
    How Technical Communication Textbooks Fail Engineering Students
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Dannels et al. (2008)
    Critiquing Critiques: A Genre Analysis of Feedback Across Novice to Expert Desi…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. Brady (2007)
    Article: What We Teach and What They Use: Teaching and Learning in Scientific a…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  5. Luzon (2005)
    Genre Analysis in Technical Communication
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  6. Dannels (2003)
    Teaching and Learning Design Presentations in Engineering: Contradictions betwe…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  7. Todd (2003)
    Teaching the History of Technical Communication: A Lesson with Franklin and Hoover
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  8. HALLER (2000)
    Rhetorical Invention in Design: Constructing a System and Spec
    Written Communication
  9. WINSOR (2000)
    Ordering Work: Blue-Collar Literacy and the Political Nature of Genre
    Written Communication
  10. Todd (2000)
    Burkean Invention in Technical Communication
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

References (28) · 7 in this index

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CrossRef global citation count: 24 View in citation network → Build reading path →

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