| There is a growing recognition that one of the key limitations for all writing-based knowledge work, whether in schools, workplaces, or communities, is how to productively handle information overload imposed by information technologies as research and writing tools. Rather than conceptualizing information load in terms of data storage---a move that severely curtails a focus on memory in contemporary study of rhetoric---this study builds on the idea that stored information or memories are only useful when they are employed in support of rhetorical practices---that is, when they can be retrieved and used in specific situations to solve problems and meet audience needs. Therefore, I reason that a productive way to research memory-in-use is by paying close attention to specific 'scenes' of memory work in which writers retrieve and use stored knowledges in rhetorical situations using all the affordances perceptible to them in their embodied contexts, much as ancient orators used spatial structure as a mnemonic to recall the points of a speech. To accomplish this, I studied the memory practices of a team of technical communicators in a medium-sized software firm over a six-month period. The data from this research, including recorded observations and interviews supplemented by collected artifacts and field journals, were analyzed to identify the role of embodied contexts in writers' memory work in five scenes of composing. The results of this analysis contribute a new theoretical and methodological foundation for studying memory work as rhetorical practice. |
