Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 1991

The Speech Community in Technical Communication

Isabelle Thompson Auburn University

Abstract

One approach to exploring context in technical communication is through the speech community. Composed of people who share the means and the need to communicate with each other, the speech community is essentially a social entity, its boundaries determined by feelings of commonality among the community's members. In considering the communication that occurs in a speech community, this article asks two general questions. First, what is the relationship among language, culture, and thought? Second, what knowledge is needed for effective communication? Answering the first question requires an exploration of the Whorfian hypothesis as it may apply to technical communication, while answering the second requires an expansion of Chomsky's grammatical competence to include language function and use and a broadening of Flower and Hayes's investigations of cognitive structures beyond the isolated experimental situation into the community.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
1991-01-01
DOI
10.2190/5312-e89c-t669-t4f0
Open Access
Closed
Topics
technical communication

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

Cites in this index (5)

  1. Cooper (1986)
    The Ecology of Writing
    College English
  2. BRANDT (1986)
    Toward an Understanding of Context in Composition
    Written Communication
  3. DOHENY-FARINA (1986)
    Writing in an Emerging Organization
    Written Communication
  4. Thompson (1986)
    Readability beyond the Sentence: Global Coherence and Ease of Comprehension
    Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  5. MYERS (1985)
    The Social Construction of Two Biologists' Proposals
    Written Communication
Also cites 4 works outside this index ↓
  1. 10.2307/357716
     ↗
  2. 10.4324/9780203011430
     ↗
  3. 10.2307/357815
     ↗
  4. 10.2307/375768
     ↗
CrossRef global citation count: 1 View in citation network →

Related Articles

  1. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2026
    Developing Intercultural Socioemotional Communication Skills: A Hybrid Student Exchange Project Between Kenya, Ireland, and Germany ↗
    Belinda Oechsler; Yvonne Cleary; Sissi Closs
    multimodality technical communication
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2026
    What Video Games Can Tell Us About Interactive Technical Communication ↗
    Emily Kuzneski Johnson
    multimodality technical communication multilingual writers
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2026
    “Is This Ethical?” New Data on the Ethical Principles and Practices of Document Design ↗
    Leslie Seawright; Amy Hodges; Timothy Ponce
    multimodality technical communication disability studies multilingual writers
  4. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Apr 2026
    How to Write With GenAI: A Framework for Using Generative AI to Automate Writing Tasks in Technical Communication ↗
    Guiseppe Getto; Susan Kelley; Bremen Vance
    artificial intelligence technical communication multilingual writers
  5. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Mar 2026
    “It's Hard to Show ROI When You’re Preventing Things from Happening”: How Impact Storytelling Frames Community Health Initiatives for Executive Audiences ↗
    Margaret Hsiao
    qualitative research multimodality technical communication professional writing multilingual writers