Documentation for new technologies can often save time and money for users and developers. Technical writers who specialize in writing documentation must often consider the needs of their audience. This report overviews how rhetoricians, instructors, and working technical writers view the relationship between users and writers. Current rhetoricians and instructors suggest theories of audience that are very user-centered but too simplistic in comparison to those used in practice. Both rhetoricians and instructors tend to ignore the user's cultural context, writer's temporal and monetary constraints, user resistance, established company tools and guidelines, the writer's educational and professional background, and the division of labor in the technical writing process.

• This report represents the work of one or more WPI undergraduate students submitted to the faculty as evidence of completion of a degree requirement. WPI routinely publishes these reports on its website without editorial or peer review.

Creator

• Klebanov, Anatoly

Publisher

• Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Identifier

• E-project-042809-111813

Advisor

• Higgins, Lorraine D.

Year

• 2009

Date created

• 2009-04-28

Resource type

• Major Qualifying Project

Major

• Scientific and Professional Communication, Technical

Rights statement

• In Copyright

Last modified

• 2020-11-24