chad garrett writing in the trenches mediatory discourse in corporate document production
TRANSCRIPT
Chad Garrett
Technical Communicators
Many people believe that technical communicators– Sit outcast in their cubes.– Write alone.– Read silently.– Know stuff.
Chad Garrett
Windowpane Theory
Many early technical writing textbooks instructed students to have no noticeable writing style at all. Rather, the books said that writing should serve as a “windowpane,” something readers could “see through” to the integral information conveyed in the document.
Chad Garrett
STC Bridge Theory
For many years, the STC description of a technical writer’s responsibilities featured a picture of a large suspension-style bridge, and began with a sentence that said something to the effect of “I am the bridge between the people who create ideas and the people who use them.” In the 1990s, after significant debate, this metaphor was scrapped.
--Karen Kuralt
Chad Garrett
My Disconnect
This was not my experience.– I wriggled within a power structure.– I worked with people.– I spoke.– I did not know everything.
Chad Garrett
My Resolution
Even the words I wrote represented a legacy of thought, knowledge, and language amassed by multiple minds over many years. Yes, I typed them, tweaked them, edited them; nevertheless, the fact became obvious that I did not own them. No one did. Rather, the knowledge, message, and text were all formed through the interactions of team members/coworkers, mandates from management, and legacy documents.
Chad Garrett
My Support
“Moreover, the actual documents may not represent the writer’s expert judgment in every sentence. Real-world documents are compromises.”--Janice “Ginny” Redish & Susan Rosen
Chad Garrett
Thus, the Thesis
My thesis idea resulted from how I really worked:– Within a power structure– Within a collaborative team
And, from other interests:– In filmmaking– In collaborative writing
Chad Garrett
The Role of PowerWithout power, companies would have little direction and accomplish few goals. In short, most companies would spiral into a vortex of “analysis paralysis” if no one had the power to make or guide decisions. I will not attempt to negate this fact. Instead, I will readily acknowledge the existence and value of power in collaboration. I posit that teams work within the power structure using negotiation, which represents the give-and-take between what power figures dictate from the top down and what teams interpret and deliver.
Chad Garrett
Power (Negotiation)Level 1
Management
Level 3 Management
Level 2 Management
Level 4 Management
The Collaborative Team
Chad Garrett
The Role of Collaboration
Traditional rhetoric seemed inadequate:–Forensic–Deliberative
Mediatory rhetoric fit:“Whatever other purposes rhetoric may serve, it is, fundamentally, a means of achieving social cooperation: The writer’s goal is to engage in some sort of cooperative activity with the reader.”
--Young, Becker, & Pike
Chad Garrett
Mediation
• A type of collaboration that takes place within teams among members of relatively the same “power class.”
• “Writing and speaking are the principal means that man has developed for promoting social cooperation and, hence, for maintaining and improving a civilized community.” --Young, Becker, & Pike
• Key tool is Rogerian Argument
Chad Garrett
Rogerian Argument
“Rogerian argument rests on the assumption that out of a need to preserve the stability of his image, a person will refuse to consider alternatives that he feels are threatening, and hence, that changing a person’s image depends on eliminating this sense of threat.” [original emphasis]
--Young, Becker, & Pike