Journal of Business and Technical Communication Oct 1993

Remapping Curricular Geography

PATRICIA A. SULLIVAN ; JAMES E. PORTER

Abstract

Most discussions of disciplinarity start by claiming an emerging group as constituting a discipline or a profession and authorizing that group by locating appropriate research foci, programs for graduate education and undergraduate certification, professional societies, and central professional meetings. Our discussion examines the field of professional writing, focusing not so much on defining it as a discipline as on working out its curricular geography, an activity that will affect its status in both academy and industry. To that end, we explore the status of professional writing within the department of English by (a) briefly examining the problem of defining professional writing; (b) reviewing several theoretical positions within English that have provided a status for professional writing—literature, rhetoric/composition, business and technical writing—to expose the competition for control of the term and to surface the implications of accepting these various groups on their own terms; and (c) considering the curricular status to which professional writing might aspire by sketching a geography that positions professional writing in a new space within English.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
1993-10-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651993007004001
Open Access
Closed
Topics
graduate education technical communication professional writing multilingual writers affect and writing

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (25)

  1. Hart-Davidson et al. (2025)
    Revisiting Four Conversations in Technical and Professional Writing Scholarship…
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  2. Hunter (2024)
    Toward TPC-UX: UX Topics in TPC Journals 2013–2022
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  3. Love (2024)
    Lessons of experience: Labor habits of a long-time, contingent online technical…
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  4. Williams et al. (2021)
    So You Want Your Own Tech Comm Department? One Program’s Story of Separating fr…
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  5. Dubinsky et al. (2021)
    The Disappearance of Business Communication From Professional Communication Pro…
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  1. Read et al. (2018)
    Hidden in plain sight: findings from a survey on the multi-major professional w…
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  2. Sánchez (2017)
    The Roles of Technical Communication Researchers in Design Scholarship
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  3. Vealey (2016)
    The Shape of Problems to Come
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  4. Unger et al. (2015)
    Locating Queer Rhetorics: Mapping as an Inventional Method
    Computers and Composition
  5. Weber (2013)
    Constrained Agency in Corporate Social Media Policy
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  6. Sullivan (2012)
    After the Great War
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  7. Dragga (2010)
    Positioning Programs in Professional and Technical Communication: Guest Editor'…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  8. Graham (2009)
    Agency and the Rhetoric of Medicine: Biomedical Brain Scans and the Ontology of…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  9. Knight et al. (2009)
    About Face: Mapping Our Institutional Presence
    Computers and Composition
  10. Rude (2009)
    Mapping the Research Questions in Technical Communication
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  11. Kent (2007)
    The “Remapping” of Professional Writing
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  12. Porter et al. (2007)
    “Remapping Curricular Geography”: A Retrospection
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  13. Spigelman et al. (2006)
    Why We Chose Rhetoric
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  14. Porter (2003)
    Why technology matters to writing: A cyberwriter’s tale
    Computers and Composition
  15. Latterell (2003)
    Technical and Professional Communication Programs and the Small College Setting…
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  16. MacNealy et al. (1999)
    Can This Marriage Be Saved: Is an English Department a Good Home for Technical …
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  17. Henson (1996)
    Why and How to Advance Technical Copywriting
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  18. HENRY et al. (1995)
    Workplace Ghostwriting
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  19. Blyler (1995)
    Research as ideology in professional communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  20. Wickliff et al. (1995)
    Hypertext in a professional writing course
    Technical Communication Quarterly

Cites in this index (7)

  1. Werner et al. (1988)
    A survey of specialized writing courses for English majors: 1975–76 to 1985–86
    Rhetoric Review
  2. Blyler (1988)
    The Components of Purpose and Professional-Communication Pedagogy
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Phelps (1986)
    The Domain of Composition
    Rhetoric Review
  4. Kelly (1985)
    Professional Writing in the Humanities Course
    College Composition and Communication
  5. Lauer (1984)
    Composition studies: Dappled discipline
    Rhetoric Review
Show all 7 →
  1. Bataille (1982)
    Writing in the World of Work: What Our Graduates Report
    College Composition and Communication
  2. Harris (1978)
    On Expanding the Definition of Technical Writing
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Also cites 7 works outside this index ↓
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  2. 10.2307/357434
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  3. 10.2307/377272
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  7. 10.2307/357861
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CrossRef global citation count: 30 View in citation network →

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