Journal of Technical Writing and Communication Jan 1982

Defensive Aesthetics for the Technical Writer

Daniel Marder University of Tulsa ; Dorothy Margaret Guinn Arizona State University

Abstract

Requirements of accuracy in technical writing overwhelm considerations of stylistic grace. Analysis of the resulting technical style, however, often reveals a discrepancy between technical and verbal accuracy. The object of verbal form is an accommodation between grace and accuracy. Several avenues to achieve this accommodation are presented from Martin Buber's I and Thou to psycholinguist theorists such as George Miller and Walter Kintsch. Linguistic theory and literacy analysis can also provide means of reestablishing grace, not as replacement, but in contention with technical accuracy. The aims of technical discourse, like that of all other discourse, should include the gracefulness of one human being speaking to another.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
1982-01-01
DOI
10.2190/7u5h-5wnk-blaa-aw6w
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Topics
discourse analysis technical communication literacy studies disability studies
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