Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 2000

Burkean Invention in Technical Communication

Jeff Todd West Texas A&M University

Abstract

This article supplements existing rhetorical scholarship by returning to the notion of invention as general preparation of the communicator. Although much scholarship about invention in technical communication exists, it consists mainly of heuristics, checklists, ethical considerations, and audience awareness. Part of invention is using basic strategies to prepare the communicator to assess any communication situation and its context and to generate the appropriate discourse. Rhetorician Kenneth Burke's theories of dialectic and rhetoric are a twentieth-century version of this; this article explains important Burkean strategies such as etymological extension, limits of agreement with the thesis, finding the complex in the simple, expanding the circumference, translation or alembication, the four master tropes, and the pentad, and it shows how to apply these in technical communication. The article closes with a classroom assignment that uses Burkean invention strategies.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
2000-01-01
DOI
10.2190/krbk-6v0r-k4c3-38k5
Open Access
Closed
Topics
rhetorical theory technical communication

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (5)

  1. Boedy (2017)
    From Deliberation to Responsibility: Ethics, Invention, and Bonhoeffer in Techn…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  2. Zhang et al. (2015)
    Influences on Creativity in Technical Communication: Invention, Motivation, and…
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Todd (2014)
    Avoiding Litigation for Product Instructions and Warnings
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Todd (2008)
    Breaking Professional Boundaries: What the MacCrate Report on Lawyering Skills …
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. Todd (2003)
    Teaching the History of Technical Communication: A Lesson with Franklin and Hoover
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

Cites in this index (10)

  1. Regli (1999)
    Whose Ideas?: The Technical Writer's Expertise in Inventio
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Tietge (1998)
    The Role of Burke's Four Master Tropes in Scientific Expression
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. WINSOR (1998)
    Rhetorical Practices in Technical Work
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  4. Todd (1998)
    A Longinian concept and methodology for technical communication
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  5. WINSOR (1994)
    Invention and Writing in Technical Work
    Written Communication
Show all 10 →
  1. RICHARDSON et al. (1993)
    Power Relations, Technical Writing Theory, and Workplace Writing
    Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Reynolds (1992)
    Classical rhetoric and the teaching of technical writing
    Technical Communication Quarterly
  3. Winterowd (1985)
    Kenneth Burke: An annotated glossary of his terministic screen and a “statistic…
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  4. Keith (1979)
    Burkeian invention, from pentad to dialectic
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
  5. Kneupper (1979)
    Dramatistic invention: The pentad as a heuristic procedure
    Rhetoric Society Quarterly
Also cites 7 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.2307/375964
     ↗
  2. 10.1177/108056998104400407
     ↗
  3. 10.1177/002194368502200102
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  4. 10.2190/SGC
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  5. 10.1080/00335639009383932
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  6. 10.1525/9780520341715
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  7. 10.1525/9780520353237
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CrossRef global citation count: 6 View in citation network →

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