What’s Practical About Technical Communication? || Carolyn Miller
The Meaning of Practical
·
“Practical” is associated with action. Miller writes that practical
rhetoric is concerned with discourse—(1) for its potential to get things
done—and at the same time (2) its ability to utilize a “how-to” method of
instruction. Technical writing makes use
of both of these dimensions.
o
Early Greek rhetoric also involved these 2 dimensions, which Bernstein
has categorized into “low” and “high” aspects of the practical. The low sense
involves day-to-day, mundane tasks; the high involves human conduct and
community well-being. Technical writing was considered “the world of work” in
commerce and production, and was often associated with the low aspects of “the
practical”.
A Conceptual Contradiction
·
Miller is critical of the “low” categorization of rhetoric. She
introduces a contradiction within the self-justifying discourse of tech writing
pedagogy: “the attempt to hold both that nonacademic rhetorical practices are
inadequate (and therefore need to be improved via instruction) and that they
serve as authoritative models (and therefore define instruction)”.
o
So where does good writing come from? Academia or industry?
·
One side of the contradiction justifies teaching technical writing in
school because when students begin in industry, they are bad writers. The other
side justifies studying industry to gain knowledge about what/how to teach tech
writing. So academia is both fueling and being fueled by industry.
Practice as Descriptive or Prescriptive
·
The basis of practice in tech writing is problematic, which results in
confusing “what is” (description)
with “what ought to be” (prescription).
o
However, we need to learn the difference between what is good practice
and what is bad practice, which Miller says the critics do not offer.
o
Dobrin suggests reform at both the academic and industrial levels, and
that teachers need to help their students work better with others.
·
Important questions that arise from this debate: Whose interests does a practice serve? How do we decide whose interests
should be served?
Practice and Higher Education
·
The relationship between nonacademic practice and academic instruction
is reflects a bigger picture argument: what is the appropriate relationship
between job prep and cultural awareness?
o
In the late 19th c, Cornell’s president chose a pluralistic
curriculum that prepared students for many kinds of lives. This spurred college curriculums to
include heavy vocational training for students.
o
Modernly, “industry-university collaboration” is most often seen
through applied research and development, as well as internships, advisory
councils, certification programs, etc.
§ These professional programs
have set the precedent for making technical communication practical: library
science, public relations, information science, business, journalism, &
careers in training and development.
·
This discourse assumes that “what is common practice is useful and what
is useful is good” à the good that is sought is
that of an existing industry or profession (normally tied to private interests).
o
Miller writes that regular contact between the university and industry
“makes students more valuable to industry.”
Praxis and Techne
·
Miller writes that the “oppositions” that are found in the discourse of
higher education are pretty much unresolvable (see pg. 21), but they do form
creative tension.
·
Techne- defined by Aristotle as “a
productive state that is truly reasoned” which requires both knowing how and
knowing that. Aristotle joins these ideas by “deriving knowing how from knowing
that” (getting prescription from description).
o
However, some critics say that Aristotle isn’t making the connection
between rhetoric and productive knowledge, and is instead treating rhetoric as
theory.
o
The reasoning related to production à techne. The reasoning
related to performance/conduct à phronesis (prudence).
Techne is concerned with the useful, and prudence with the good.
·
Miller concludes that understanding practical rhetoric as conduct
rather than production should change the way we teach technical writing: there
is more room for conceptualization and questioning, as well as improving
ourselves with economic (Marx) and political (Aristotle) responsibility.
Part II: The Composing Process
·
Basically highlights the importance teaching students how to work
collaboratively, as is most common in industry.
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