The service paradigm in technical communication: Theory, pedagogy, practice

Technical communication is defined by a paradigm of service. Simply put, technical communicators accept and sustain the attitude that their profession and its activities are less important than their technological and scientific counterparts. From a broad perspective, the service paradigm is evident in the struggle of technical communicators for professional and disciplinary status, in the low value of technical communication work in organizations, in the attitude that technical communication is a skills-based pedagogical endeavor, and in the drive to anchor all scholarly activities in practical and pedagogical applications.;In the past two decades, a marginailized element of the professional community in technical communication has struggled to redefine technical communication as a communicative activity, not a technological one. Now, technical communicators suffer from an identity crisis. The dominant perspective---that technical communication is a practical activity---is carried by the momentum of tradition. The marginal position---that technical communication is a complex, socially demanding profession---challenges tradition with scholarly rigor. Teresa C. Kynell connects the tension in the professional community to the growth of technical communication: "Although technical writing was born ultimately of need, its potential in a technological society became larger than the need it was originally devised to fulfill" (Writing in a Milieu of Utility 88). That is, traditional models of technical communication are no longer adequate to contemporary demands of the profession.;This dissertation examines the foundation and impact of the service paradigm and the struggles of the technical communication professional community to establish and sustain a healthy sense of identity In contemporary professional contexts. To that end, this dissertation has three overarching goals. (1) To examine the conceptual divisions that sustain the service paradigm in technical communication theory, pedagogy, and practice. (2) To examine the divergence of traditional and revisionary interpretations of authority and responsibility in technical communication. (3) To search for common ground between traditional and revisionary conceptions of technical communication, and to extend both in directions that are both relevant to and critical to the programmatic and professional growth of our whole professional community in the next century. These goals contribute to understanding technical communication as a profession defined by service, and thus to entertaining possibilities for professional, pedagogical, and scholarly independence.