Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jul 2009

The Rhetorical Situations of Web Résumés

John B. Killoran Long Island University

Abstract

This article questions how professional communication genres already well established in print form have been changing as they are transplanted into digital media like the Web. Whereas some technology-oriented genre research has sought how a new medium provides genres with new technological features, this article argues that a more insightful approach would seek how a new medium, together with its users, provides genres with new rhetorical situations. To operationally define rhetorical situations, I adapt Lloyd Bitzer's three situational dimensions of exigence, audience, and constraints. Then, to illustrate how the new rhetorical situations of the Web can influence a genre, I explore the genre of the résumé. Drawing on a survey of 100 Web résumé authors and an analysis of their sites, I show that as each of the three dimensions of the résumé's traditional rhetorical situation has opened itself to greater diversity on the Web, the Web version of the résumé genre has correspondingly reoriented itself. Hence, genres change in response not just to the new medium's technology per se but to the new rhetorical situations that the medium hosts.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2009-07-01
DOI
10.2190/tw.39.3.d
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Open Access
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Topics
modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory professional writing race and writing
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

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    A Framework for Résumé Decisions: Comparing Applicants’ and Employers’ Reasons
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    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication
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    Technical Communication Quarterly

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