#5

Short, sweet, and informal mostly about the research section of Critical Power Tools!

I’m really caught on this idea that Slack, Miller and Doak mention within their article, “The Technical Communicator as Author”. They describe a shift from technical writers being seen as “‘inadequate surrogates’ [that] manage the processes of encoding and transmission poorly and take responsibility for miscommunication” to being seen as experts who can contribute something unique to various fields (31). I wonder how this might translate in our struggles, as course constructors, when thinking about wanting to expose our students to the theoretical practices regarding usability and different cultures, ages, sexes, religions, and sexualities, while also wanting them to feel as though they’re sufficiently prepared for the job market. I guess what I’m trying to get at here is how do we balance this idea of the technical writer as producer versus the technical writer as an author within our 402 classrooms? Which assignments emphasize either role? Is it possible to be both simultaneously? Would we want to be both? I hope these questions make sense to people who are outside of my brain.

Regarding Digler—how might his discussion about placing objects within their cultural and historic contexts be applied to our discussions about cookbooks?

Moses and Katz explain that in email, “almost anything goes” (72). How might this be detrimental or helpful to communicating across cultural differences?