Critical Power Tools

by Scott, J. Blake; Longo, Bernadette; Wills, Katherine V.

• ISBN13: 9780791467763
• ISBN10: 0791467767
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2007-06-01
• Publisher: STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK PRESS

Summary

The first book to focus on the intersection of cultural studies and technical communication, Critical Power Tools draws on various traditions of cultural studies to develop new or expanded theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical approaches to technical communication. Offered as a sourcebook for the field, the book is organized into three parts. The first section, emphasizing theory building, reconceptualizes key concepts or practices, such as usability, through a cultural studies lens. The second section illustrates alternative research methods through several case studies. The third section offers critical and productive pedagogical approaches, including specific assignments, applicable to both undergraduate and graduate courses. Book jacket.

Table of Contents

Foreword	p. ix
Introduction: Why Cultural Studies? Expanding Technical Communication's Critical Toolbox	p. 1
Theory
The Technical Communicator as Author: Meaning, Power, Authority	p. 25
Extreme Usability and Technical Communication	p. 47
The Phantom Machine: The Invisible Ideology of Email (A Cultural Critique)	p. 71
Research
An Approach for Applying Cultural Study Theory to Technical Writing Research	p. 111
The Rhetorical Work of Institutions	p. 133
The Study of Writing in the Social Factory: Methodology and Rhetorical Agency	p. 151
Living Documents: Liability versus the Need to Archive, or, Why (Sometimes) History Should Be Expunged	p. 171
Pedagogy
Writing Workplace Cultures-Technically Speaking	p. 199
Rhetoric as Productive Technology: Cultural Studies in/as Technical Communication Methodology	p. 219
Extending Service-Learning's Critical Reflection and Action: Contributions of Cultural Studies	p. 241
Designing Students: Teaching Technical Writing with Cultural Studies Approaches	p. 259
Afterword	p. 271
Contributors	p. 275
Index	p. 279
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