From Monologue to Dialog to Chorus: The Place of Instrumental Discourse in English Studies and Technical Communication

Patrick Moore University of Arkansas at Little Rock

Abstract

One way to resolve some of the conflict in English studies and technical communication over their diminishing cultural capital is to recognize the place of instrumental discourse in communication studies. Instrumental discourse is individually verified social agreements to coordinate and control physical actions. One purpose of literary works is to voice new concerns about social inequities. A purpose of rhetoric is to persuade others of the validity of those concerns. Instrumental discourse registers agreements about those concerns and brings them to temporary closure in laws, instructions, contracts, and constitutions. Instrumental discourse is the culmination of a process that often begins with a literary monolog, is continued in many rhetorical dialogs, and ends, for a while, in a chorus of approval. Each phase of this communication process—monolog, dialog, and chorus—has a place in English studies. If more English studies faculty would recognize the need to study the communications that promote dissensus and consensus, then they might contribute more to global discussions about social justice, cooperation, and sustainability, and they might gain more cultural capital and social influence.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2006-10-01
DOI
10.2190/4480-0652-hl37-77g7
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
Closed
Topics
Export

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (4)

  1. Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

References (66) · 5 in this index

  1. Rhetorics, Poetics, and Cultures
  2. The Employment of English
  3. Who Killed Shakespeare?
  4. Manifesto of a Tenured Radical
  5. Refiguring the Ph.D. in English Studies
Show all 66 →
  1. The Rise and Fall of English
  2. 10.2307/4140710
  3. 10.2307/379009
  4. Profession 2003
  5. Beyond English, Inc.
  6. 10.4324/9781410603739
  7. Central Works in Technical Communication
  8. 10.1007/978-1-137-07810-0_1
  9. The Complete Poems of Emily Dickinson
  10. The Norton Anthology of English Literature
  11. The Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man
  12. Criticism: The Major Texts
  13. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  14. Technical Communication Quarterly
  15. College Composition and Communication
  16. Common Ground: Dialogue, Understanding, and the Teaching of Composition
  17. Power and Legitimacy in Technical Communication
  18. Collision Course: Conflict, Negotiation, and Learning in College Composition
  19. Pedagogy
  20. A Field of Dreams
  21. A Pragmatic Theory of Rhetoric
  22. 10.7208/chicago/9780226321158.001.0001
  23. An Introduction to Reasoning
  24. The Cambridge Encyclopedia of the English Language
  25. Moving a Mountain
  26. Rhetoric and Poetics
  27. 10.2307/358836
  28. 10.2307/375964
  29. Personal Knowledge
  30. Studies in the Way of Words
  31. Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny
  32. 10.9783/9780812200935.1
  33. Technical Communication Quarterly
  34. Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste
  35. Journal of Advanced Composition
  36. Journal of Advanced Composition
  37. 10.1632/074069502X24461
  38. The Fourth Great Awakening & The Future of Egalitarianism
  39. Capitalism and Freedom
  40. 10.2307/358354
  41. Lysenko and the Tragedy of Soviet Science
  42. Computers and Technical Communication: Pedagogical and Programmatic Perspectives
  43. 10.1632/003081202X61359
  44. As If Learning Mattered
  45. A Field of Dreams
  46. The Art of Political Manipulation
  47. Schell E. E. and Stock P. L., Moving a Mountain, National Council of Teachers of English, Urbana, Illinois, p…
  48. A Field of Dreams
  49. Beyond English, Inc.
  50. Moving a Mountain
  51. 10.7208/chicago/9780226310015.001.0001
  52. Menand L., College: The End of the Golden Age, The New York Review of Books, pp. 44–47, October 18, 2001.
  53. ADE Ad Hoc Committee on the English Major, The Undergraduate English Major, ADE Bulletin, pp. 68–91, Spring-F…
  54. High Noon: Twenty Global Problems, Twenty Years to Solve Them
  55. The Third Way: The Renewal of Social Democracy
  56. Technical Communication
  57. Market Matters: Applied Rhetoric Studies and Free Market Competition
  58. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  59. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  60. Moore Patrick, Evolving Paradigms of Communication Analysis: A Defense of Teaching Software Programs in Techn…
  61. Technical Communication