Literacy and Technical Communication

Literacy has traditionally been the defined as the ability to read and write, but 21st century technical communicators must have skills which extend beyond these basic skills. They must be able to write rhetorically; read analytically and evaluatively; read and critique social situations, especially in the organization in which they work and act upon their critiques; analyze visual information and also create rhetorically effective visual or graphic information; and use and critique the technologies with which they produce their work and, often, which they write about. These extended literacies build from the basic skills traditionally taught to technical communication students, and they mirror skills identified and considered essential in recent studies of workplace literacies, including Dept of Education’s SCANS report and the NCTE’s own report on skills (Garay and Bernhardt). In this response, I will examine these extended skills and discuss what these new literacies privilege and what they reject. I will also consider how the field might better provide students with foundations in these skills and how such a focus on these foundations may change the field.

Cargile Cook, Kelli. Texas Tech University (1999). Articles>TC>Literacy