Abstract

Technical writing explains and, in contrast to other kinds of writing, insists on the visual. Explanation and visualization are mutually dependent, because explanation combines “description,” the observable facts, and “diagram,” the graphic paradigm of the relations that obtain among these facts. The technical writer's principal task, then, is to make explicit, by using appropriate spatial, temporal, and logical signals, one of three diagrams—schematic, flowchart, tree—that define the basic modes of explanation—object, process, and logical hierarchy. Where the novelist submerges the diagram in metaphoric layers, the technical writer strips them away and surfaces the diagram.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
1984-07-01
DOI
10.2190/8ean-j605-ql07-pech
Topics

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

  1. Journal of Business and Technical Communication
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication

Cites in this index (0)

No references match articles in this index.

Also cites 1 work outside this index ↓
  1. 10.2307/374228
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