Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Oct 2008

Stasis Theory as a Strategy for Workplace Teaming and Decision Making

H. Allen Brizee Purdue University West Lafayette

Abstract

Current scholarship tells us that skills in teaming are essential for students and practitioners of professional communication. Writers must be able to cooperate with subject-matter experts and team members to make effective decisions and complete projects. Scholarship also suggests that rapid changes in technology and changes in teaming processes challenge workplace communication and cooperation. Professional writers must be able to use complex software for projects that are often completed by multidisciplinary teams working remotely. Moreover, as technical writers shift from content developers to project managers, our responsibilities now include user-advocacy and supervision, further invigorating the need for successful communication. This article offers a different vision of an ancient heuristic—stasis theory—as a solution for the teaming challenges facing today's professional writers. Stasis theory, used as a generative heuristic rather than an eristic weapon, can help foster teaming and effective decision making in contemporary pedagogical and workplace contexts.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2008-10-01
DOI
10.2190/tw.38.4.d
Open Access
Closed
Topics
professional writing multilingual writers argument

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (12)

  1. Willers (2025)
    Lessons from a “Scholar on Fire” for a World on Fire: A Framework to Position T…
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Lindgren (2024)
    A Stasis Network Methodology to Reckon with the Rhetorical Process of Data: How…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Riddick (2022)
    Students’ Social Media Disclosures: Reconsidering the Rhetorics of Whistleblowing
    Rhetoric Review
  4. Weech (2022)
    Changing Climate, Changing Terrain: The Stasis Metaphor and the Climate Crisis
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. Carter (2021)
    The Construction of Value in Science Research Articles: A Quantitative Study of…
    Written Communication
Show all 12 →
  1. Tomlinson (2020)
    Stasis in the <i>Shark Tank</i>: Persuading an Audience of Funders to Act on Be…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Durá et al. (2019)
    Positive Deviance as Design Thinking: Challenging Notions of Stasis in Technica…
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  3. Malone et al. (2018)
    “To Promote That Demand”
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. Vealey (2016)
    The Shape of Problems to Come
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. Weber (2016)
    Stasis in Space! Viewing Definitional Conflicts Surrounding the James Webb Spac…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  6. Brizee (2015)
    Using Isocrates to Teach Technical Communication and Civic Engagement
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  7. Hoppmann (2014)
    A Modern Theory of Stasis
    Philosophy & Rhetoric

Cites in this index (5)

  1. Jones (2005)
    From Writers to Information Coordinators
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Brady (2004)
    Rhetorical Research: Toward a User-Centered Approach
    Rhetoric Review
  3. Regli (1999)
    Whose Ideas?: The Technical Writer's Expertise in Inventio
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. FAHNESTOCK et al. (1988)
    The Stases in Scientific and Literary Argument
    Written Communication
  5. Carter (1988)
    <i>Stasis</i>and<i>kairos</i>: Principles of social construction in classical r…
    Rhetoric Review
Also cites 5 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.1016/S0090-2616(00)00012-7
     ↗
  2. Braet A. C., Aristotle's Almost Unnoticed Contribution to the Doctrine of Stasis, Mnemosyne, LII, Fasc. 4, pp…
     ↗
  3. Heath M., Hermogenes On Issues: Strategies of Arguments in Later Greek Rhetoric, Clarendon Press, Cambridge, …
     ↗
  4. 10.2307/357698
     ↗
  5. 10.1353/par.2003.0004
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 17 View in citation network →

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