Diverging Interests: Claims to Legitimacy in Technical Communication
http://www.hu.mtu.edu/hu_dept/tc@mtu/papers/diverge.htm

Anderson, Ginger
Michigan Tech University
1998

Abstract:

As technical communication becomes more firmly established as a field, those in the discipline of technical communication and those in the profession are finding, sometimes to their surprise, that their interests differ. This difference is reflected in the varying claims to legitimacy made by those in professional practice and those in academia. These claims to legitimacy not only differ, but at times seem to be at odds with one another. My interest in these diverging legitimacy claims rests in my dual existence as a professional technical writer and as a graduate student in rhetoric and technical communication. I come to technical communication theory both as a technical communicator who wants to teach technical communication and as a technical communication consultant who wonders how theory can inform her own practice. Having read Technical Communication for years as a practitioner, I was initially surprised to see the difference between technical communication practice and scholarship, as reflected in the types of research that constitute the current conversation in academic technical communication.