Metadata
- Source
- File: Introduction to technical and professional communication by Mussack (2021).pdf
- Zotero: View Item
- Type: Book
- Title: Introduction to technical and professional communication: technical communication through a social justice lens,
- Author: Mussack, Brigitte;
- Year: 2021
Abstract
Tags and Collections
- Keywords: 04 On Hold; Technical Communication; Textbook; UWP104T; Writing
Comments
Annotations
Annotations(1/9/2024, 11:28:11 PM)
“You know what technical communication looks like and that it is audience and goal focused, and that it typicall” (Mussack, 2021, p. 207)
“involves communicating complex information to a non specialized audience.” (Mussack, 2021, p. 208)
“Technical communication often involves technology (though not always).” (Mussack, 2021, p. 209)
“Technical communication might define, instruct, inform, or persuade.” (Mussack, 2021, p. 209)
“readers often interact with technical and professional documents in order to understand or do something very specific, may scan or read documents looking for specific pieces of information” (Mussack, 2021, p. 210)
“Ask yourself: how can I make this document as readable as I can for my intended or imagined audience? How will my audience likely interact with this document?” (Mussack, 2021, p. 210)
“technical communication often relies not only on text, but also on graphics, images, hyperlinks, video, audio, etc.” (Mussack, 2021, p. 212)
“accessibility is always the goal with technical communication” (Mussack, 2021, p. 213)
“Technical communicators will often write for the web, or communicate using a combination of various modes such as text, image, video, sound, etc. We refer to these types of communication as multimodal, which means that a text is using more than one communication mode (such as words plus images).” (Mussack, 2021, p. 218)
“document design and the use of various communication modes should not be secondary to the work of a technical communicator” (Mussack, 2021, p. 219)
“framing of technical communication as always concerned with diversity, equity, and inclusion, in part because it is a communication that is heavily dependent on a relationship between communicator and audience.” (Mussack, 2021, p. 220)
“as technical communicators, “we explain things” (Mussack, 2021, p. 223)
“make decisions about how to best explain something so that it is most accessible for their specific target audience” (Mussack, 2021, p. 224)
“explain things while working within various power structures” (Mussack, 2021, p. 224)
“Or, you can examine that windowpane and recognize that, no matter how clear it is, the 3.3 TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION AND RELAYING INFORMATION | 21” (Mussack, 2021, p. 225)
“windowpane itself changes light that passes through it.” (Mussack, 2021, p. 226)
“language is actually shaping the information” (Mussack, 2021, p. 226)
“Key Takeaway: Language is Never “Neutral” (Mussack, 2021, p. 227)
“language is a tool that not only informs but also persuades, shapes how audiences move through the world, and creates community” (Mussack, 2021, p. 229)
Notes
Technical communication, rhetoric, and social justice
- Language inherently shapes the way people interact with the world.
- Technical communication is rhetorical.
- All technical writing engages in social justice. (Hmmmm… OK?)
Defining the field of technical communication
Even as we define technical communication, this section positions the work of technical communicators as: 1. rhetorical, and 2. always concerned with collective access and social justice.
— p. 191