Defining Technical Communication: Is It a Goal or a Sisyphean Task?
http://orange.eserver.org/issues/3-2/thayer.html

Thayer, Alexander
Orange Journal, The
2002

Abstract:

Defining the field of technical communication is a potentially impossible task. In some respects, the process of defining this profession is similar to Sisyphus' eternally futile task: Just as one theory is proposed within the technical communication discourse community, another article is published and the previous theory suddenly collapses. Unlike Sisyphus, however, the members of the discourse community should be able to successfully create a definition of the field based upon the best ideas from previous theories and writings.