Technical Communication across Cultures: Five Philosophical Questions

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
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (11)

  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  3. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Show all 11 →
  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Technical Communication Quarterly
  6. Journal of Business and Technical Communication

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