Week 2 Elluminate Meeting

May 25th 2011

Session objectives

• Further clarify definitions of technical communication, functions of language, etc.

• Preview and discuss the readings for remainder of the week

•Discuss/explain the first paper assignment and begin inventing for first draft

Questions and Comments about Readings Completed So Far

• Various theories of language

•Various models of technical communication and roles of technical communicators

• Symbolic-analytic work and the information economy

Preview of the Reading for the Rest of the Week

• Instrumental Discourse and its purposes/benefits/shortcomings

•Choosing an article for Friday reading

First Paper: Towards a Working Definition of Technical Communication

Remember that whatever definition you come up with need not and cannot be “finals.” Instead, I will be be looking for an exploratory argument based on

the class readings and discussions so far. The only kind of definition I will not “like” is the one that limits

technical and professional communication to “descriptions” of reality, i.e products or processes.

Those kinds of writing need not be excluded from the definition, but, as you know now, there is much

more to tech. Communication that that.