Annotation by Erin Trauth
Beck, Charles E. "Rhetoric and the Collaborative Nature of Technical Communication." Technical Communication. 40.4 (1993): 781-85.
In his 1993 article, Beck argues for technical communication as a distinct subset of rhetoric. He outlines technical communication’s distinguishing characteristics by identifying a sequence of six principles for creating a rhetoric of technical communication, “identifying as distinctive the organizational and collaborative nature of the field” (781). After providing a definition of what he deems as rhetoric, Beck establishes that technical communication is: “…inherent in creating technology…differs from a rhetoric of science…focuses on the user’s perspective…[and] is inherently organizational and collaborative” (782). He then provides support for each of these characteristics whilst adding to previous definitions of technical communication. Beck’s final definition of technical communication, “…the process of orchestrating linguistic, visual, and auditory codes to accommodate information to the user" (783), leads into an argument that technical communicators will better interact with users and experts if they understand a dichotomy of metaphors for human thought processes: logic and narration, or “list and story” (784).
Beck’s argument offers a frame for defining technical communication through underlying principles. Though the article is a bit dated, the ideologies Beck highlights for outlining and defining technical communication remain true. Further, his explanation for better understanding human thought processes is integral for all communicators, especially those working with information of technical nature.
It seems that the process Beck went through in order to arrive at his final definition of technical communication only reinforces how difficult it is to neatly package a definition of what it means to be a technical communicator. His emphasis on human thought processes was very forward thinking, however, especially considering how globalization is affecting how technical communicators function.
ReplyDeleteI like this idea of defining technical communication through the frame of rhetoric, mostly the aspect of keeping the audience always in mind. However, I do agree with Linda that problems still arise when trying to place an overall definition to technical communications, especially within the global frame. Still, understanding the human thought process for communicating in a technical manner is essential to begin to define technical communication as a field and the work that technical communicators do. This sounds like an interesting article indeed!
ReplyDeleteAs you have rendered it, I think I like what Beck brings to the discussion of defining TC. Something that I always encountered when teaching comp was that my students were far more visually literate than textually so. Some of my most successful assignments were ones where I asked them to question their assumptions about visual media and analyze it according to purpose, intended audience, etc; basically, an exercise in visual rhetoric. Beck's definition seems to encompass this visual literacy element better than other definitions we have encountered. I think this is an important element to consider (we are TC and not T writing), especially for anyone who has seen textless instructions (Ikea, ipod instructions), which seem to be follow a trend away from the vagaries of language and towards the vagaries of symbols and their meanings (interculturally speaking).
ReplyDeleteI hope I managed to say something intelligible in that last paragraph.