Two Centuries of Progress in Technical Communication

Bradford R. Connatser

doi:10.2190/y2t7-4672-8u65-u85t

Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2007

Two Centuries of Progress in Technical Communication

Bradford R. Connatser

Abstract

A common aphorism in the halls of education is that the writing skills of Americans decline over time. Compared to the “golden age of letters,” so the argument goes, each subsequent generation of writers is worse than the last. Although contemporary readers and educators commiserate over encounters with bad writing, a fair comparison of 18th century American exemplars to modern American exemplars reveals a significant advance in clarity, an advance that technical communicators can be proud of. To demonstrate the advances in expository writing over the past two centuries, the author compares what the authors of the U.S. Constitution did with their limited resources to what modern professional communicators do with their abundance of resources. Many of the communication problems that were pervasive when the U.S. Constitution was created have since been remedied by insights emerging from the fields of linguistics, human factors, and cognitive psychology, among others.

Journal: Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published: 2007-04-01
DOI: 10.2190/y2t7-4672-8u65-u85t
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Open Access: Closed
Topics: writing pedagogy technical communication
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

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Two Centuries of Progress in Technical Communication

Abstract

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

References (26) · 4 in this index

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