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Abstract
Technical communication's attempt to prioritize theories of scholarship and pedagogy has resulted in several authors contributing a three-dimensional framework to approach technology: the instrumental perspective, the critical humanist perspective, and the user-centered perspective [1–3]. This article traces connections between this framework for technical communication and the philosophies of Michel de Certeau [4] and Andrew Feenberg [5], suggesting that the primary connection is a turn toward “rhetoric” as a mediator between scientific and philosophical communication. The article concludes that the current paradigm for understanding technology can be best understood by exploring three conjoined, yet competing, mentalities between a scientific, philosophical, and rhetorical worldview. While this three-dimensional approach provides a strong foundation for technical communication pedagogy and scholarship, it should continue to be re-examined for potential anomalies as the field continues to develop an identity.
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Other Articles on Communication by This Author
Section:
| Garrison, K. , Designing and Implementing a Low-Cost Usability Testing Laboratory: Theoretical Justifications and Practical Considerations, Technical Communication, 60, pp. 175–189, 2013. Google Scholar | ISI | |
| Garrison, K. , Effects Alternative Theory of Technology: Anticipating the Fourth Mileu of Virtuality, Explorations in Media Ecology, 11, pp. 55–70, 2012. Google Scholar | Crossref | |
| Garrison, K. , Perpetuating the Technological Ideology: An Ellulian Critique of Feenberg's Democratized Rationalization, Bulletin of Science, Technology, and Society, 30(3), pp. 195–204, 2010. Google Scholar | SAGE Journals | |
| Garrison, K. , Using Text to Speech Software to Devise First-Year College Students Essays, Computer and Composition, 20, pp. 288–301, 2009. Google Scholar | Crossref |
