Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jul 2019

Finding Our Missing Pieces—Women Technical Writers in Ancient Mesopotamia

Kathryn R. Raign

Abstract

Contrary to current scholarship in technical communication, which places the first women technical writers in the period of 1641–1700 AD, the first technical documents were written by women in 2400 BCE—eight centuries earlier. Enheduanna—the first woman writer and the first nonanonymous author ever identified—wrote many of the period’s great poems, including A Hymn to Inanna. Her work calls into question our discipline’s belief that persuasive writing began with Homer and was conceptualized largely by men. This fact has the potential to completely revise the history of both technical and persuasive writing, and women’s role in that history.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2019-07-01
DOI
10.1177/0047281618793406
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
technical communication gender and writing
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Raign (2023)
    Decentering the History of the Writing Center: A Case for the Mesopotamian Edub…
    College Composition and Communication
  2. Raign (2022)
    The Art of Ancient Mesopotamian Technical Manuals and Letters: The Origins of I…
    Technical Communication Quarterly

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