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"Different discourse communities have different styles, & to write
successfully in these discourse communities you must know what these
different styles are & how to use them to your advantage" (Dan Jones,
Technical Writing Style, 259. This is the text we use in
eng502: Advanced Technical Writing).
Writing is not simply writing. Context dictates how we write. Writing for self-expression is not the
same as writing to meet audience or reader needs in the workplace. This
course will help you recognize & define contexts, audiences, &
“discourse communities.”
Even though it may not be a conscious recognition, you have
in mind a context or an audience when you write a document. You
write to your instructor or to peers in a journal submission or to an
unknown official at an agency. In each case, the context or situation
influences your document design, style, organization, & rhetorical
strategy. Becoming more conscious of this audience analysis process can
make your documents more effective or successful.
A discourse community is simply a group of people who
communicate with each other, often in an institutional setting or in a
profession. In this course, we are interested in professional or
employment situations where everyone speaks & writes English, has
recourse to the same dictionaries & grammar, & produce
professional or workplace documents. To succeed in any profession, you must be accepted
as one of the group. You are accepted as a community member when you can
perform the techniques (Foucault) or methods that
characterize
the group. You become a community member when you know the jargon & methods of communication & when
you are familiar with the the paradigm (Kuhn) that
provides meaning, identity, & purpose for the group.
In this course we wish to explore how rhetorical strategies are
properties of discourse communities & how they influence writers &
readers. You address an audience with whom you share values, methods,
and experiences. Providing an occasion for you to write, a discourse
community acts as a kind of co-author. The organization of a community
determines:
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- who speaks (or writes)
- when they speak
- how they speak
(casually, formally, etc.)
- what tone they use
- how long they speak
- to whom they speak
- what they can say
- why they speak
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Because little of this is explicitly defined, it is important to
recognize & analyze discourse communities in order to navigate among
them & to write effective documents in both your professional community
& in addressing those in a different community. You will read theory
(mostly by Michel Foucault), work through case studies on a team, & read
about how communities rhetorically define themselves & set rules for the
struggle to gain & retain power.
I am
aware that many students find Foucault difficult to read. Nonetheless,
Foucault is undoubtedly the most influential rhetorician of the last
century & the postmodern methods he illustrates have transformed the
understanding & practice of virtually every profession, including tech
writing.
Course Structure & Texts:
The course has three components or focal concerns:
1. Theory:
Michel
Foucault is one of the prominent thinkers who defined the theory of
the social construction of reality.
The Archeology of Knowledge presents his theoretical
understanding of how writing and communication are shaped by discourse
community contexts or environments.
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"Hey, are
you talking to
me?"
Do
you remember Robert Deniro in
Taxi Driver? Deniro's character was
a loner, someone isolated even though he
drives a New York City taxi. He studies
his passengers in the rear-view
mirror. In his bare room the taxi driver
pathetically performs social rituals
before the mirror. They are pathetic
because his speech & body language have
no audience. Because they are not
addressed to another person, they cannot
serve to involve the taxi driver in a
community. Speech is always directed to
someone. It anticipates or expects a
response.
Speaking addresses someone. Even
to talk to yourself, you imagine that you are two people. To talk
to your dog, you
imagine that he understands at least
your tone. What I say depends on
responses I can anticipate. To speak, I
have to be involved in communication
with people I know because I have spoken
with them. They do not have to be close
friends, but I must broadly know how they
are likely to
act in the discourse community or
business or profession that we share.
Communication is never one-way
or simply self-expression in a vacuum.
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 Speaking
not only anticipates a response, it is shaped by an anticipated
response.
This is not to say that I know exactly what someone will say
in response to what I say. But I have to be able to expect
a range of possibilities or responses to carry on a dialogue. For example, I can expect
my respondent to maintain the thread or to talk about the same
subject. I have some expectations about the length of response & about
what data might be relevant. To compose my message, I have to be somehow
inside the mind of the other person in advance of her speaking, and she
must be inside my mind or to care about the subject we are discussing. To formulate communication, I must have another
person already in mind. We know these things from years of
communication in various discourse communities. Prof/tech writing crosses
a lot of discourse community boundaries. This is why audience analysis
is a major concern in professional & technical writing. Too often,
tech writing offers a "data dump" without a recognition of what the data
means for those who read our reports.
The practical implications for effective communications are significant.
Speakers & writers frequently ignore the interactive nature of
communication, relying on their institutional authority to create reader
interest. The institutional authority possessed by your boss insures
that you will read her memo, but it does not insure that the memo is
well written, intelligible, or effective.
2. Case Studies:
The book, Communicating
in Organizations,
is a collection of case studies. You will analyze some of these cases as
a member of a team. As the responsibility for making reports rotates
among members of the team, you will have an opportunity to make a report
on behalf of your team.
Teams:
"I hate teams!" Me too. Academic
scholarship remains an individual competition. The reason we want some
experience with teams in this course is that:
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Team production is the norm in industry. Unless you write
for a mom/pop small business where you are the only
tech writer/editor, professional & technical writers
invariably work on teams even when you offer your
services as a consultant or free-lance writer.
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The team process gives you a feel for working
on corporate documents that are not exclusively under
your control (single-author documents), which is also
the norm in industry. As a prof/tech writer, documents
are not yours; you are paid to work on documents that
belong to the company or agency.
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Collaboration via the Net with people you have never
physically met is also a common industry practice.
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When the
team gels to become a real team, it can be the best part of the class.
In any case, we are involved with teams in the course to gain experience in team methods.
The
expectation in industry includes the expectation to produce superior
products partly through beta testing by team members.
3. Application:
Understanding
Digital Literacies:
This book is something of a reference that offers definitions &
explanations of many online or electronic media terms, practices, &
culture. It is, however, written as a text addressed to undergraduate &
graduate students (so it says on the back cover). The "Activities" in
the book invite our critical thinking & response.
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The
course paper
should assess
the writing of a specific discourse
community. This will probably be a
Website. Your analysis will identify
professional values, characteristic
rhetorical patterns, & institutional
behavior & expectations. Do not simply
describe what you find on Web pages. The
easiest places to look for such
documents are institutions you are
already involved with (schools,
hospitals, etc.). However,
this can also be a bad choice if you are an advocate for the
goals of the
community. Zealots typically have no
rhetorical distance or sensitivity for
an audience who doesn't share your
ardor. Look
for such things as mission statements,
objectives, standards or methods,
disclaimers, product support, manuals,
FAQs, and even such documents as forms
to be filled in. |
The framework or critical stance for
this study is internal to the
organization. You are primarily
assessing coherence &/or tacit messages
(subtexts) of the discourse community
rather than critiquing its stated goals
or methods. Your primary concern is
how rhetorical processes are
performed. Do not repeat the
message or simply describe the Website
structure. Do not
advocate for the community or agency.
Do not simply focus on an agency's goal
statements.
An analysis should determine:
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The purpose of the page
(document).
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How the material
seeks to accomplish the
purpose.
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What's wrong with it
(how it could be better
done).
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The paper is due with unit 07.
For more on the paper, see this
page.
For
example,
visit
The Nature Conservancy.
Read through the site looking for a unifying or overarching metaphor,
message, &/or image. When I did this, I identified 2 things: an emphasis
on quantifying things (money, acres of land, members, etc.) & an
unexpected non-confrontational invitation to ranchers, the timber
industry, & others who are usually branded as the enemies of
naturalists. Their money is as good as anyone else's & they tend to have
more of it. Once I have identified such features, I would further
analyze the site to see how these are unpacked or used on
various pages. What I am looking for is how a rhetorical strategy is
developed. Obviously The Nature Conservancy is not interested in
selling virtue or virtuous identity like
The Sierra Club. The Conservancy focuses on quantifiable results
(money to buy land). In contrast, the Sierra Club focuses on the message
that buying a membership or embarking on one of their pricey
pilgrimages makes you virtuous. The Club (a suggestive name) also
focuses on political action. It always provides email addresses for the
politicians it frequently talks about. Instead of religion, The Nature
Conservancy models itself on a business model. It takes money to do
their business rather than virtue or even political power. Consequently
they court an affluent business audience. Note the emphasis on estate
bequests rather than $25/yr. memberships.
Consider
how a community defines itself
negatively by implying (or occasionally explicitly identifying)
counter-communities that it opposes. How central is such negative
definition to the community you study? How precisely does the community
identify its enemy or opposite? What methods do they use or
traits do they focus on to make a contrast? How effective are these?
You
should ask why they say what they say as often as examining
how they say it or illustrate it.
This is a analytic paper, not a descriptive exercise. The scale for the
paper is 5-6 pages (1,250-1,500 words), exclusive of illustrative
material, which may be offered as links or urls.
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Assignments:
Each lesson assignment has several
components. Click on COURSE LESSONS from
the course homepage or Learning Modules
from the nav bar on the left. Follow the
sequence, beginning with Unit 01 (or the
current lesson number). You should see a
page that says "What to do" for each
unit. Follow the directions on the page
to complete the assignments for the
lessons. If anything isn't clear, email
me to ask for clarification. There are
10 lessons in the course. Use the
calendar tool to find specific dates for
assignments. |
Grades:
Your final letter grade will be calculated from the percentage you
scored of the total of all points available from all assignments in the
course using this scale:
A: 90% or above
B: 80% -- 89%
C: 65% --79%
Submission Deadlines:
This is not a self-paced course, nor a tutorial. You should be
involved in each unit discussion when it is scheduled. Watch the calendar.
I will not accept material from lessons
two units prior to the one we are studying. If the calendar says we are
working on unit 5, I will accept late work from units 4, but not
earlier. The grade for work submitted a week late is reduced by 10%.
Work submitted more than two weeks late is not accepted.
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