The Structure of Technical Communications Revolutions
http://www.astcnsw.org.au/activities/Brock.htm

Brockmann, R. John
ASTC
1995

Abstract:

Professions change their ways of doing business when their paradigms -- their ways of seeing -- change. Technical communication went through one such paradigm change when the engineer-as-writer-and-reader became the technical-writer-as-writer and the user-as-reader in the early 1950's. In the 1990's, the technical communication paradigm is again changing, and this change will mean: the form of computer documantation will become more plastic; the concept of readability will become more of a design issue with the rise of document prototyping; audience analysis will become much less haphazard and dependent upon stereotypes; and the role of the technical writer will increase in visibility, responsibilities, and opportunities. John Carroll's new book on minimalist documentation, The Nurnberg Funnel and Edward Tufte's Envisioning Information are harbingers of this new paradigm change.