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Technical writing in America: A historical perspectiveThe standard distinction between poetic and referential language, the gulf between science and the humanities, and the distress many teachers of English feel when faced for the first time with the prospect of teaching technical writing are discussed. In the introduction of many technical writing textbooks. Technical communication is divorced from other forms of linguistic experience by making language limiting and reductive rather than creative and expansive. The emphasis on technical/scientific writing as radically different had blinded people to those traits it has in common with all species of composition and has led to a neglect of research, on fundamental rhetorical issues. A complete rhetorical theory of technical discourse should include information about the attitudes and motives of writers, the situations which motivate (or coerce) them to write, definitive features of technical style and form, interrelationship of expression and creativity, and functions of communication in shaping and preserving scientific networds and institutions. The previous areas should be explored with respect to contemporary practice and within an historical perspective.
Document ID
19820007089
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Connaughton, M. E.
(Pittsburgh State Univ. KS, United States)
Date Acquired
August 10, 2013
Publication Date
December 1, 1981
Publication Information
Publication: NASA. Langley Research Center Tech. Commun. Pt. 1
Subject Category
Documentation And Information Science
Accession Number
82N14962
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Work of the US Gov. Public Use Permitted.

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