Situations

ENG302 : The Class : Rhetoric : Situations : Situations
Overview of Topic 2, Situations in Technical Communication

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Situations in technical Writing

Every piece of writing that happens in a technical setting happens for a reason. In essence, the reason is that one person wants to influence another person and chooses writing as a way to accomplish that influence. Let’s look at a simple but common situation:

The board of directors of a local bank is considering a loan application from a person who wants to open a Mexican Restaurant in town.

The Board is going to have to make a decision and they are going to have to transmit that decision to the company in writing.

What are the key elements of this situation? I would like to identify three:

1. The Board (This is the "author")

2. The Company (This is the "audience")

3. The Decision "yes" or "no" (This is the "purpose")

I will represent these graphically as follows:

1. Now, here are some more situations. Please identify the Author, the Audience, and the Purpose for each one. Each answer is worth 20 points, and will be graded on the basis of the 4 Cs.

The National Park Service has received a request from a Boy Scout group to go on a 70-mile hiking and camping trip in the Grand Canyon.

2. A rancher in southeastern Arizona is seeing more and more of his cattle eaten as the Mexican wolf is reintroduced in his area.

3. An office manager is noticing that the company’s monthly phone bill is going up quite drastically each month, even though their list of clients is still the same as always.

4. Why does the writer always want to have a clear grasp of his or her audience, purpose, and stance before beginning to write?

5. What will happen if he or she fails to take the time and effort to achieve and record his or her understanding of audience, purpose, and stance?

6. If you have a question for me, ask:

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E-mail Greg Larkin at Gregory.Larkin@nau.edu
or call (520) 523-4911

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