Technical Communication across Cultures

Journal of Business and Technical Communication Apr 1998

Technical Communication across Cultures

EDMOND H. WEISS

Abstract

Technical communication, to be more effective in international business, must attempt to be culture free (without cultural impediments and irrelevancies) and culture fair (adjusted to meet local cultural expectations and communication styles). Both requirements raise serious philosophical questions of strategy and style: (1) Are the principles associated with North American-style technical writing in any sense universal? (2) Is it possible to write natural English documents that are univocal and reliably translatable? (3) Does the characterization of cultural differences lead inevitably to stereotyping and condescending tolerance? (4) Does the business motivation driving much international communication promote situations that may be exploitative of, and disadvantageous to, the targeted cultures? and (5) Does a postmodern approach to technical communication undervalue Western methods and the English language?

Journal: Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published: 1998-04-01
DOI: 10.1177/1050651998012002005
Open Access: Closed
Topics: multimodality technical communication voice and style

Citation Context

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Also cites 4 works outside this index ↓

Associated Press. 27 Mar. 1997.

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10.1109/47.475590

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10.1109/47.536261

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10.1109/47.557512

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