Writing Cinematically

Authors have long understood how to shift their focus to capture both landscape and character.

Clark, Roy Peter. Poynter Online (2004). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

The Writing Consultant as Cultural Interpreter: Bridging Cultural Perspectives on the Genre of the Periodic Engineering Report      

The periodic engineering report can become a source of conflict and frustration when North American engineers collaborate with colleagues abroad. To overcome such difficulties, technical companies may hire writing consultants, who then take on the additional role of cultural interpreters, helping the partners bridge differences in both the practice of engineering and the language and culture of each country. As such a writing consultant, I worked with a Canadian engineering company, its Russian contractors, and a Russian translator to analyze the sources of difficulties in their reports. The language of the reports was English, but differences in tone as well as reader expectations about organization, format, and appropriate content caused misunderstandings among the collaborators. Contrastive rhetorical analysis helped to identify problems in both the conception of the report as a document and the translation of particular text.

Artemeva, Natasha. Technical Communication Quarterly (1998). Articles>Rhetoric>Reports

Writing for Decisionmakers: Using Evidence and Structure to Persuade  

In approaching a writing task, we often write from the standpoint of writers, which is, of course, what we are. But if we want our writing to result in some kind of action on the part of our readers, we need to remember that how we present and structure the evidence that we have has a great deal to do with how persuasive our argument is— and what action, if any, results from it. The more oriented toward the reader our writing is, the more powerful it will be.

Fruitman, Michael P. STC Proceedings (2003). Articles>Writing>Proposals>Rhetoric

Writing for Non-Readers  

This paper shows how drawings, images and icons can be effectively used to help technical writers reach those readers who are often reluctant to read written instructions. It also describes some of the positive results of effective visual communications on documents undergoing translation. Finally, it gives background information on the importance of visual communication and lists some basic rules for producing effective instructional pictures.

Zanon, Michela. STC Proceedings (2002). Articles>Rhetoric>Visual>Visual Rhetoric

Writing for Results  

All writing elicits some action or reaction—some result—from the reader. These results need not be arbitrary. You, as author, can greatly influence how your reader acts. Effective writing achieves your desired results. You can increase your chances of success by following the ten steps outlined in Writing for Results. Through these steps, you tailor your message so that it appeals to your reader’s needs and interests, thus enabling action that helps you get exactly what you want. This process works for both long and short communiqués.

Maggiani, Rich and Allison Brochu. STC Proceedings (1999). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric

Writing in a Culture of Simulation: Ethos Online    

The MUD Bot Julia and the Turing test can help us understand some things about writing in new technological environments. These environments belong to what Sherry Turkle has called our “culture of simulation” (Turkle, 1997). She takes the term simulation from postmodern theorist Jean Baudrillard, who maintains that the proliferation of signs in contemporary society has “imploded” the distinction between the real and the simulated: the world of signs has become “hyperreal,” overwhelming the physical world and replacing it as our primary experience.

Miller, Carolyn R. North Carolina State University (2002). Articles>Rhetoric>Online

Writing Processes

Our Writing Guides help you locate information quickly on specific topics. These guides focus on a range of composing processes as well as issues related to the situations in which writers find themselves.

Colorado State University. Articles>Style Guides>Writing>Rhetoric

Writing Reader-Friendly Documents  

The traditional way of writing government documents has not worked well. Too often, complicated and jargon filled documents have resulted in frustration, lawsuits, and a lack of trust between citizens and their government. To overcome this legacy, we have a great responsibility to communicate clearly.

PlainLanguage.gov (1995). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric>Minimalism

Writing, Editing and Designing: a Unified Process

What's in it for me? That's what magazine readers must see at first glance, or they will flip on by. Winning their attention requires thoughtful blending of words and design from the beginning of the publication process.

Writing that Works (2003). Articles>Writing>Editing>Visual Rhetoric

Writing, Literacy and Technology: Toward a Cyborg Writing  

Like Jacques Derrida, Luce Irigaray, Lyotard, and others, Haraway calls for a conception of writing (“cyborg writing,” in her terms) that resists authoritative, phallogocentric writing practices, that foregrounds the writer’s own situatedness in history and in his or her writing practice, and that makes visible the very “apparatus of the production of authority” that all writers tend to submerge in their discourse. This is not to say that writers must “eschew” authority, but that in a truly ethical and postmodern stance they must reveal how authority is implicated in discourse. And because writing is inseparable both from its own embodied situatedness and from systems of liberation and domination, “literacy” should be a central concern of us all.

Olson, Gary A. JAC (1996). Articles>Rhetoric>Technology

XML and the New Design Regime: Disputes Between Designers, Application Developers, Authors and Readers in Changing Technological Conditions and Perceptions of Social and Professional Need    

This study attempts to: (a) to specify a theory that explains the historical character of change or transition in the production of written artifacts, and (b) use that theory to cast light on a particular instance of change or transition in the production of written artifacts, that of the Web, principally, the issue of structured markup and discussions about precisely what a structured Web should look like, the work it should do, and so forth. It attempts to identify, describe, and analyze, are the norms and conventions that govern the production of written discourse.

Wilkes, Gilbert Vanburen IV. Journal of Computer Documentation (2002). Articles>Information Design>User Centered Design>Rhetoric

"You're a Guaranteed Winner": Composing "You" in a Consumer Culture    

This article explores the functional elegance of direct mail as it constructs its target audience. More specifically, it examines direct mailings included in a nationally publicized court case involving Publishers' Clearing House and articulates how the use of particular genre-based, rhetorical and linguistic strategies in these mailings construct reader identity. It argues that the documents use you-attitude to construct the identity of the reader as winner, implied reader devices to reinforce the reader's identity as winner and to establish the reader's identity as the writer's friend, and linguistic politeness strategies to build feelings of solidarity of the reader toward the writer. It concludes with the observation that the direct mail in our study, rather than being "junk," is really a skillfully written set of documents, successfully interweaving various discourse strategies and raising both ethical and professional issues in the process.

Ewald, Helen Rothschild and Roberta Vann. JBC (2003). Articles>Business Communication>Marketing>Rhetoric

Your Reader

It is critically important to consider the needs of your reader when writing. If you can do this well, everything else follows naturally.

Young, V.L. and K.J. Sampson. Ohio University (2004). Articles>Rhetoric>Writing>Technical Writing

О Риторическом Контексте Проблемы Истины

Прежде всего, о чем мы ведем речь, говоря об истине? Не стоит ли договориться о различении "истины" и "истинности". Обычно под истиной понимается любое истинное суждение. Сказать о некотором суждении, что оно истинно, или сказать, что данное суждение есть истина, не одно ли это и то же? Но это как раз тот случай, когда предположение синонимии свидетельствует о неполноте наших знаний о мире. Синонимия, предполагающая тождество смыслов, является насилием над живым языком и по отношению к естественному языку применима лишь в очевидно ограниченном смысле - как характеристика семантической близости слов. Тождество слов в живом языке такая же немыслимая вещь, как и тождество живых существ в природе.

Migunov, A.I. Argumentation (2002). (Russian) Articles>Rhetoric>Theory

Особенности понимания естественно-языковых аргументов в научном тексте

Аргументацию можно рассматривать как социальную знаковую подсистему (если принять, что системой является язык), которая, как и всякое человеческое знание, создана, по Канту, силой человеческого разума (Kant 1929). Согласно Канту, человеческое знание основано на производимых мышлением операциях структурирования, которые трансформируют ощущения в чувственные образы. Знание есть конструкт человеческого мышления и возникает в результате взаимодействия "узнаваемого" ("knowable") с мыслительными возможностями познающего субъекта. Конструктивные знакообразующие потенции познающих субъектов считаются общими для всех людей. Это не означает, что все познающие субъекты создают идентичные познавательные конструкты; но разнообразие конструктов на некотором абстрактном уровне является отражением категорий, управляющих этим процессом - например, логических (Collins 1954; Kneupper 1977) Всякая социальная реальность становится межсубъектной посредством коммуникации. Важным фактором в становлении или изменении знаковых подсистем является, соответственно, принятие или отвержение структуры знания. Если старая структура знания отвергается или оказывается непригодной для описания или объяснения некоторого объекта, ее место заполняется новой или модифицированной. Поэтому можно говорить о сосуществовании конкурирующих структур знания, каждая из которых, являясь продуктом человеческого разума и человеческого взаимодействия, не может претендовать на абсолютную истину. Следовательно, можно говорить о том, что и аргументативные теории могут быть поразному пригодны для разных целей.

Vasilev, L.G. Argumentation (2002). (Russian) Articles>Scientific Communication>Rhetoric

Письма в Редакцию в Английской Газете: Анализ Аргументации

Предметом данного исследования является анализ построения аргументации в функциональном газетном стиле речи (в рубрике Letters to the Editor). Целью исследования является изучение функционирования аргументации в функциональном газетном стиле и выявление взаимовлияния логического и языкового аспекта аргументации.

Golubev, V.U. and K.V. Gudkova. Argumentation (2002). (Russian) Articles>Rhetoric>Editing

Язык как Форма Жизни

Поворот от сознания к языку обычно расценивают как исток неклассической философии. Он состоит в понимание языка не как нейтрального средства выражения мысли, а как продуктивного медиума, определяющего онтологию бытия и сознания. Однако постановка и решение центральной проблемы значения еще долгое время опирались на классическое понимание истины как соответствия высказывания и реальности. Язык считался средством выражения мыслей и чувств и обозначения предметов. Парадокс состоял в том, что теория значения в семантике выдвигалась для преодоления затруднений классической теории истины и вместе с тем опиралась на нее при анализе и проверке значения. Принцип лингвистической относительности устраняет данный парадокс. Согласно Сепиру и Уорфу, каждый национальный язык содержит свою собственную онтологию. Признание этого тезиса означало, что ни в мысли, ни в действительности не существует чего-то такого, что обусловливает единство языков и дает возможность их понимания и перевода на основе универсальной логической или онтологической структуры. Язык не принимает каких-либо внешних ориентиров, и только в его рамках определяется, что такое "истина", "мир" и "значение". Соответственно, помимо языка не существует независимых масштабов оценки моральности, красоты, блага, рациональности и т.п. Но такая радикальная программа кажется заведомо бесперспективной, ибо обрекает на солипсизм и релятивизм. Если все "языковые миры" признаются изолированными, несоизмеримыми и равноправными, то непонятно, как возможно общение между представителями различными языковых систем. Ведь в современном мультикультурном мире взаимодействуют различные дискурсы и системы взглядов. В связи с этим возникает вопрос о том, что или кто, если не разум, является медиумом, обеспечивающим взаимопонимание и перевод разных языков.

Markov, B.V. Argumentation (2000). Articles>Language>Rhetoric

Review: What Excellence Looks Like

Comments on the magnificent Envisioning Information by Edward R. Tufte.

West, Mike. MBWest.com (2006). Articles>Reviews>Visual Rhetoric>Information Design

Theories of the Middle Range in Historical Studies of Writing Practice    

Recent historical examinations of nonliterary, nontheoretical texts within their activity settings have aimed to identify the historically developed communicative and rhetorical resources currently available to writers and to reveal the dynamics of the formation,use,and evolution of those resources. These studies, in examining communal literate practices, combine theoretical, empirical, and practical concerns by building theories of the middle range. This methodological article elaborates how theories of the middle range can guide research through identifying interrelated levels of research questions (originating, specifying, and site specific) and identifying strategic research sites. This article further elaborates methods of finding, selecting, and analyzing relevant texts and placing them within appropriate social and historical contexts.

Bazerman, Charles. Written Communication. Articles>Writing>History>Rhetoric

Could You Mind Your Language? An Investigation of Communicators' Ability to Inhibit Linguistic Bias    

Three experiments that examine communicators' ability to inhibit linguistic bias are reported. Research has shown that communicators use more abstract language (e.g., "Jamie is affectionate" vs. "Jamie kisses Rose") to describe more expected behavior. Recent research has shown that this bias may be overwhelmed by goals to put a "spin" on actions or to manipulate audiences' impressions of actors. Similarly, the present experiments show that people who wish to communicate without bias may often be able to do so. Inhibition occurred when participants selected descriptions from a list of alternatives and when they freely described both expected and unexpected behaviors. However, inhibition failed when participants were asked to freely describe either expected or unexpected behaviors alone.

Douglas, Karen M., Robbie M. Sutton and Katie Wilkin. Journal of Language and Social Psychology (2008). Articles>Language>Professionalism>Rhetoric

The Evolution of Visual Information Retrieval    

This paper seeks to provide a brief overview of those developments which have taken the theory and practice of image and video retrieval into the digital age. Drawing on a voluminous literature, the context in which visual information retrieval takes place is followed by a consideration of the conceptual and practical challenges posed by the representation and recovery of visual material on the basis of its semantic content. An historical account of research endeavours in content-based retrieval, directed towards the automation of these operations in digital image scenarios, provides the main thrust of the paper. Finally, a look forwards locates visual information retrieval research within the wider context of content-based multimedia retrieval.

Enser, Peter. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Content Management>Visual Rhetoric>Search

An Analysis of Failed Queries for Web Image Retrieval    

This paper examines a large number of failed queries submitted to a web image search engine, including real users' search terms and written requests. The results show that failed image queries have a much higher specificity than successful queries because users often employ various refined types to specify their queries. The study explores the refined types further, and finds that failed queries consist of far more conceptual than perceptual refined types. The widely used content-based image retrieval technique, CBIR, can only deal with a small proportion of failed queries; hence, appropriate integration of concept-based techniques is desirable. Based on using the concepts of uniqueness and refinement for categorization, the study also provides a useful discussion on the gaps between image queries and retrieval techniques. The initial results enhance the understanding of failed queries and suggest possible ways to improve image retrieval systems.

Pu, Hsiao-Tieh. Journal of Information Science (2008). Articles>Web Design>Visual Rhetoric>Search

Sustaining the Readers' Interest

Sometimes, we come across articles on technical subjects that are hard to put down. They even make us ruminate over their content, and talk about them. Though these articles are just for our information, they end up staying in our heart by chance or by design. It is not possible to get so far a reach through the technical coverage alone. The authors have presented them so nicely that we even resist any demand to stop in the middle while reading them. We find such articles mostly in news papers and magazines. As an editor, I have my own reasons for that 'Coup de grâce'! We, the technical writers, can surely pick up some of the clues from our brethren - the journalists.

Shankar, Kiruba. Indus (2008). Articles>Writing>Technical Writing>Rhetoric

Police Reform, Task Force Rhetoric, and Traces of Dissent: Rethinking Consensus-as-Outcome in Collaborative Writing Situations    

Pedagogical and scholarly representations of collaborative writing and knowledge construction in technical communication have traditionally recognized consensus as the logical outcome of collaborative work, even as scholars and teachers have acknowledged the value of conflict and "dissensus" in the process of collaborative knowledge building. However, the conflict-laden work product of a Denver task force charged with recommending changes to the city police department's use-of-force policy and proposing a process for police oversight retains the collaborative group's dissensus and in doing so, illustrates an alternative method of collaborative reporting that challenges convention. Such an approach demonstrates a dissensus-based method of reporting that has the potential to open new rhetorical spaces for collaborative stakeholders by gainfully extending collaborative conversations and creating new opportunities for ethos development, thus offering scholars, teachers, and practitioners a way of reimagining the trajectory and outcome of collaborative work.

Knievel, Michael. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication (2008). Articles>TC>Collaboration>Rhetoric

The Magic of Metaphor

Metaphor teaches. Metaphor influences. Are you drawing on its power? Perhaps not, because many major works on writing for interactive products make little mention of it. To help encourage better use of metaphor, this column describes both the usefulness of shallow metaphors and the potential of deep metaphors, while offering tips and examples.

Jones, Colleen. UXmatters (2008). Articles>Writing>Rhetoric