Practical experience teaches the difficulty and the messiness of democratic public policy processes. A discourse analytic perspective on rhetorical action in the institutional settings of policy work reveals the dynamics of effective agency. By simulating practical experience and by developing a discourse analytic perspective, academic instruction in professional and technical communication can show students what elected officials, governmental staff, and non‐profit non‐governmental organizations (NGOs) do to make or to implement policy.

Jay L. Robinson, Catherine F. Smith, Response to John Schilb, Review of Conversations on the Written Word: Essays on Language and Literacy, College Composition and Communication, Vol. 42, No. 4 (Dec., 1991), pp. 499-500