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- Title
Inform or Persuade? An Analysis of Technical Communication Textbooks.
- Authors
Joswiak, Regan; Duncan, Mike
- Abstract
Purpose: We examined how 10 best-selling technical communication textbooks delineated "informative" and "persuasive" purposes in discourse and, in response, suggest a more effective pedagogical alternative to this typical division that instead consistently emphasizes the rhetorical nature of all communication. Method: We conducted a semantic analysis of 10 best-selling technical communication textbooks and present findings regarding the appearance of terms related to "informative" and "persuasive" concepts in three types of documents or genres: general discussions, reports, and presentations. To demonstrate the problematic findings in these books, we also examine and summarize recent literature in rhetoric and technical communication. Results: Overall, a delineation of some sort between "informative" and "persuasive" communication was typically present, which--as literature in rhetoric and technical communication shows--contradicts practitioners' roles as persuasive communicators. While some of the examined textbooks emphasized persuasion in their general discussions, this emphasis became inconsistent when they discussed oral presentations, and the genre of report-writing in particular lacked discussion about its persuasive elements. Conclusion: We recommend a more complex, rhetorical, and consistent understanding of discourse that rejects an artificial divide between "informative" and "persuasive" in future technical communication textbooks and editions, especially in regard to all workplace communication.
- Publication
Technical Communication, 2020, Vol 67, Issue 2, p29
- ISSN
0049-3155
- Publication type
Article