Journal of Business and Technical Communication Jan 1993

The Technical Communicator as Author: Meaning, Power, Authority

JENNIFER DARYL SLACK ; DAVID JAMES MILLER ; JEFFREY DOAK Michigan Technological University

Abstract

The authors explore the parallels to be found by comparing descriptions of the technical communicator with differing views of the communication process—the transmission, translation, and articulation views of communication. In each of these views, the place of the technical communicator and of technical discourse shifts with respect to the production of meaning and relations of power. The authors argue from the standpoint of the articulation view for a new conception of the technical communicator as author and of technical communication as a discourse that produces an author.

Journal
Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published
1993-01-01
DOI
10.1177/1050651993007001002
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
discourse analysis technical communication
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (75)

  1. Griffin (2025)
    Articulating Need: Histories of Financial Aid Deservedness in the FAFSA
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Deptula (2025)
    One Size Does Not Fit All: How Clinical Pain Assessment Scales and Tools Mask C…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Axelrod (2025)
    Improving Proposal Writing by Looking to Information Operations
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Andrews (2025)
    Review of "Fitter, Happier: The Eugenic Strain in Twentieth-Century Cancer Rhet…
    Communication Design Quarterly
  5. Weedon et al. (2025)
    Articulating Science: Knowledge Translation as a Methodology for Scientific and…
    Communication Design Quarterly
Show all 75 →
  1. Deptula et al. (2025)
    Rhetorics of Authenticity: Ethics, Ethos, and Artificial Intelligence
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Willers (2025)
    Lessons from a “Scholar on Fire” for a World on Fire: A Framework to Position T…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Pflugfelder et al. (2024)
    Surveillance Work in (and) Teaching Technical Writing with AI
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Hannah et al. (2024)
    Thinking with Keywords: Investigating the Role and Nature of Professionalism Ke…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. Shelton et al. (2023)
    Historicizing Power and Legitimacy After the Social Justice Turn: Resisting Nar…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  6. Cheek (2023)
    Making a Case for Political Technical Communication (Pxtc)
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  7. Campbell (2023)
    Identifying Digital Rhetoric in the Telemedicine User Interface
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  8. Greene (2022)
    Ethical Design Approaches for Workplace Augmented Reality
    Communication Design Quarterly
  9. Li (2022)
    Defining the racial and ethnic “other”: Constructing an American identity throu…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  10. Clem et al. (2022)
    Unjust Revisions: A Social Justice Framework for Technical Editing
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  11. Gonzales (2022)
    (Re) Framing Multilingual Technical Communication with Indigenous Language Inte…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  12. Bennett et al. (2021)
    Generative Fusions: Integrating Technical and Professional Communication, Disab…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  13. Lane (2021)
    Industrial Discourse in Voluntary Environmental Disclosure Questionnaires Respo…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  14. Butts et al. (2021)
    Rhetorical hedonism and gray genres
    Communication Design Quarterly
  15. Koerber et al. (2021)
    Leadership Communication in the STEM Workplace: A Qualitative Study
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  16. Read (2020)
    How to Build a Supercomputer: U.S. Research Infrastructure and the Documents Th…
    Written Communication
  17. Cheek (2020)
    Zombie Ent(r)ailments in Risk Communication: A Rhetorical Analysis of the CDC’s…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  18. Russell (2020)
    Metaphor 2: Crossing: Retreading, Non-ing, and a TPC Rationale for Sub-discipli…
    College English
  19. Ranade et al. (2020)
    Humanistic communication in information centric workplaces
    Communication Design Quarterly
  20. Yu et al. (2020)
    Recreating the Scene: An Investigation of Police Report Writing
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  21. Dorpenyo (2019)
    Risky Election, Vulnerable Technology: Localizing Biometric Use in Elections fo…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  22. Ross et al. (2019)
    Principles of Place: Developing a Place-Based Ethic for Discussing, Debating, a…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  23. Robles (2018)
    Visualizing Certainty: What the Cultural History of the Gantt Chart Teaches Tec…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  24. Pickering (2018)
    Navigating Discourses of Power Through Relationships: A Professional and Techni…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  25. Wilson et al. (2018)
    Agency in Action: Exploring User Responses and Rhetorical Choices in Interactiv…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  26. Garrison (2018)
    Moving technical communication off the grid
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  27. Batova (2018)
    Work Motivation in the Rhetoric of Component Content Management
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  28. Pina (2018)
    Still life with rhetoric: A new materialist approach for visual rhetorics. L. E…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  29. Ross (2018)
    Environmental Impact Communication: Cape Wind EIS, 2001–2015
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  30. Williamson et al. (2018)
    Cultivating a rhetoric of advocacy for usability studies and user-centered design
    Communication Design Quarterly
  31. Kimball (2017)
    The Golden Age of Technical Communication
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  32. Hannah et al. (2017)
    Cultivating Conditions for Access: A Case for “Case-Making” in Graduate Student…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  33. Wilson et al. (2017)
    The Technical Communicator as (Post-Postmodern) Discourse Worker
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  34. Rice-Bailey (2016)
    The Role and Value of Technical Communicators: Technical Communicators and Subj…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  35. Jones et al. (2016)
    Disrupting the Past to Disrupt the Future: An Antenarrative of Technical Commun…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  36. Jones (2016)
    The Technical Communicator as Advocate: Integrating a Social Justice Approach i…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  37. St.Amant et al. (2016)
    Addressing the Incommensurable: A Research-Based Perspective for Considering Is…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  38. Henning et al. (2016)
    Reconsidering Power and Legitimacy in Technical Communication: A Case for Enlar…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  39. Zhang et al. (2015)
    Influences on Creativity in Technical Communication: Invention, Motivation, and…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  40. McNely et al. (2015)
    Contemporary Research Methodologies in Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  41. Faris et al. (2013)
    iPads in the Technical Communication Classroom: An Empirical Study of Technolog…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  42. Agboka (2013)
    Participatory Localization: A Social Justice Approach to Navigating Unenfranchi…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  43. Haas (2012)
    Race, Rhetoric, and Technology: A Case Study of Decolonial Technical Communicat…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  44. Evia et al. (2012)
    Beyond Compliance: Participatory Translation of Safety Communication for Latino…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  45. Bokor (2011)
    Moving International Technical Communication Forward: A World Englishes Approach
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  46. Maher (2011)
    The Technical Communicator as Evangelist: Toward Critical and Rhetorical Litera…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  47. Hannah (2010)
    Legal Literacy: Coproducing the Law in Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  48. Herrington (2010)
    Copyright, Free Speech, and Democracy: Eldred v. Ashcroft and Its Implications …
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  49. Hovde (2010)
    Creating Procedural Discourse and Knowledge for Software Users: Beyond Translat…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  50. Mara et al. (2009)
    Posthuman Rhetorics and Technical Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  51. Koerber et al. (2008)
    Guest Editors' Introduction: Online Health Communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  52. Johnson et al. (2007)
    User-Centered Technology in Participatory Culture: Two Decades “Beyond a Narrow…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  53. Spinuzzi (2007)
    Guest Editor's Introduction: Technical Communication in the Age of Distributed Work
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  54. Sun (2006)
    The Triumph of Users: Achieving Cultural Usability Goals With User Localization
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  55. Abbott et al. (2005)
    How Academics and Practitioners Evaluate Technical Texts: A Focus Group Study
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  56. Scott (2004)
    Tracking Rapid HIV Testing Through the Cultural Circuit: Implications for Techn…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  57. Jeyaraj (2004)
    Liminality and Othering: The Issue of Rhetorical Authority in Technical Discourse
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  58. Sullivan (2000)
    Keeping the rhetoric orthodox: Forum control in science
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  59. Ranney (2000)
    Beyond Foucault: Toward a user‐centered approach to sexual harassment policy
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  60. Coppola (1999)
    Setting the discourse community: Tasks and assessment for the new technical com…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  61. Bushneil (1999)
    A contrary view of the technical writing classroom: Notes toward future discussion
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  62. Grabill et al. (1998)
    Toward a critical rhetoric of risk communication: Producing citizens and the ro…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  63. Cooper (1996)
    The Postmodern Space of Operator's Manuals
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  64. Savage (1996)
    Redefining the ResponsibiIities of Teachers and the Social Position of the Tech…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  65. Johnson-Eilola et al. (1996)
    Policing ourselves: Defining the boundaries of appropriate discussion in online…
    Computers and Composition
  66. HENRY et al. (1995)
    Workplace Ghostwriting
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  67. Henry (1995)
    Teaching technical authorship
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  68. Johnson-Eilola (1995)
    Accumulation, circulation, association: economies of information in online spaces
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
  69. Henry (1994)
    Toward Technical Authorship
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  70. Kynell (1994)
    Considering our Pedagogical past through Textbooks: A Conversation with John M.…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

References (35) · 1 in this index

  1. Althusser, Louis
    For Marx
  2. Bakhtin, M. M.
    The Dialogic Imagination: Four Essays
  3. Butenhoff, Carla
    Readings in Business Communication
  4. Carey, James
    Communication as Culture: Essays on Media and Society
  5. Connors (1982)
    The Rise of Technical Writing Instruction in America
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Show all 35 →
  1. Cooper, Marilyn M.
    The Council for Programs in Technical and Scientific Communication [CPTSC] Proceedings 1990
  2. Deleuze, Gilles (1981)
    Ideology & Consciousness
  3. “Ferment in the Field” [Special issue]. Journal of Communication 33.3 (1983).
  4. Fiske, John
    Introduction to Communication Studies
  5. Fiske, John
    Television Culture
  6. Foucault, Michel
    Language, Counter-Memory, Practice: Selected Essays and Interviews
  7. Gramsci, Antonio
    Selections from the Prison Notebooks
  8. Grossberg, Lawrence
    Mass Communication Review Yearbook
  9. Grossberg, Lawrence (1979)
    Studies in Symbolic Interaction
  10. Hall, Stuart
    Culture, Media, Language
  11. 10.1177/019685998601000204
     ↗
  12. Hall, Stuart
    Sociological Theories: Race and Colonialism
  13. 10.1080/15295038509360070
     ↗
  14. Horkheimer, Max
    Dialectic of Enlightenment
     ↗
  15. Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE)
    International Professional Communication Conference Proceedings
  16. 10.2307/378062
     ↗
  17. Kostur, Pamela
    International Professional Communication Conference Proceedings
  18. Laclau, Ernesto
    Politics and Ideology in Marxist Theory
  19. Markel, Michael H.
    Technical Writing Essentials
  20. McQuail, Denis
    Communication Models for the Study of Mass Communications
  21. 10.1080/10510977809367983
     ↗
  22. Morley, David
    The “Nationwide” Audience
  23. Oxford English Dictionary
  24. Shannon, C.
    The Mathematical Theory of Communication
  25. Slack, Jennifer Daryl
    Rethinking Communication
  26. Souther, James W.
    Technical Writing Theory and Practice
  27. Sullivan, Dale L. (1990)
    Journal of Advanced Composition
  28. Vaughan, David K.
    International Professional Communication Conference Proceedings
  29. Wells, Susan
    Theory in the Classroom
  30. Williams, Raymond
    Keywords
CrossRef global citation count: 100 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Sep 2025
    UX Research, Management, and Design: What a Textual Analysis of UX Job Ads Means for Technical Communication ↗
    Guiseppe Getto; Bremen Vance
    discourse analysis technical communication professional writing
  2. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication Jun 2025
    Presenting and Making Relevant: Analyzing Teaching Assistant Perceptions of Writing in Statistics Using Semantic Frames ↗
    Ben Markey
    rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis graduate education teacher development assessment technical communication professional writing
  3. Technical Communication Quarterly Apr 2025
    Communicating Global Governmentality: The United Nations Global Compact, BP, and the Implicit Violence of Human Rights Discourse ↗
    Michael T. MacDonald
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis technical communication qualitative research
  4. Communication Design Quarterly Dec 2024
    Review of "Amplifying Voices in UX: Balancing Design and User Needs in Technical Communication by Amber L. Lancaster and Carie S.T. King (Eds.)," Lancaster, A. L., & King, C. S. T. (Eds.). (2024). Amplifying voices in UX: Balancing design and user needs in technical communication. SUNY Press. ↗
    Yingying Tang
    discourse analysis writing pedagogy technical communication race and writing book reviews
  5. Technical Communication Quarterly Oct 2024
    Social Justice and “Harmful Tech”: Dis-Orienting Militarized Research ↗
    Calvin Pollak; Sanvi Bhardwaj
    rhetorical criticism discourse analysis writing pedagogy teacher development technical communication scientific writing race and writing disability studies editorial matter