Forming Constructs of Audience: Convention, Conflict, and Conversation

JOSEPH S. BOCCHI

doi:10.1177/1050651991005002002

Journal of Business and Technical Communication Apr 1991

Forming Constructs of Audience: Convention, Conflict, and Conversation

JOSEPH S. BOCCHI

Abstract

This research report examines the roles of convention, conflict, and conversation in the formation of audience constructs. One group of construction engineers and another group of design architects and engineers, both working in a bureaucratic setting, relied on disciplinary and institutional conventions while constructing, addressing, and invoking audiences. Incongruities among contextual conventions restricting audience analysis resulted in inappropriate textual features and necessitated conversation during corporate training. This conversation focused on redefining problems of audience analysis and accommodation. The problem solving associated with analyzing situational audiences during the composing process was possible only when writers understood the problem-posing conventions of their discourse communities.

Journal: Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published: 1991-04-01
DOI: 10.1177/1050651991005002002
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Open Access: Closed
Topics: discourse analysis disability studies
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Citation Context

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Forming Constructs of Audience: Convention, Conflict, and Conversation

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

References (31) · 2 in this index

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