Frames in Reports and in Reporting: How Framing Affects Global Warming Information in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's “Summary for Policymakers” and in Documents Written about the Report

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 2009

Frames in Reports and in Reporting: How Framing Affects Global Warming Information in the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's “Summary for Policymakers” and in Documents Written about the Report

Bryan Tutt

Abstract

Although much has been written about the use of rhetoric in technical communication, the framing of technical documents often is overlooked. Framing differs from rhetoric chiefly in that it involves the use of content selection and structure to place information in a particular context. In this article, I will analyze the techniques used to frame a technical report, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's “Summary for Policymakers,” and compare them to the techniques used to frame corporate news releases and newspaper articles written about the report. This framing analysis shows that writers of technical documents, news releases, and news articles frame their documents chiefly by choosing which facts to include or exclude, and by the positioning of information within the document.

Journal: Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published: 2009-01-01
DOI: 10.2190/tw.39.1.d
Open Access: Closed
Topics: technical communication multilingual writers affect and writing

Citation Context

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Grabill et al. (1998)

Toward a critical rhetoric of risk communication: Producing citizens and the ro…

Technical Communication Quarterly

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