The New Historicism and Studies in the History of Business and Technical Writing

Abstract

This article argues that researchers can benefit as scholars and teachers by conducting studies in the history of business and technical writing within the framework of the new historicism. It discusses the problems and features of the historical studies literature, explains the legitimizing effects of treating studies as the new historicism, and advocates teaching students to conduct new historical analyses of business and technical texts.

A Bibliography of Works Published in the History of Professional Communication from 1994–2009: Part 1

“…Drawing on reader response theory, Paul, Charney, and Kendall in "Moving Beyond the Moment" (2001) [16] call for a more sophisticated use of reader response or reception studies to understand the significance of scientific publications from the past. In "The New Historicism and Studies in the History of Business and Technical Writing" (1997) [17], W. Terry Dillon argues that scholars conducting research into historical issues would benefit from using the methods of the New Historicists, and Bernadette Longo in "An Approach for Applying Cultural Study Theory to Technical Writing Research" (1998) [18] argues for using a cultural approach to illuminate issues of knowledge and power that other methods of analysis mask. Mark Zachry, in "Communicative Practices in the Workplace" (2000) [19], argues for the importance of genre as an inter-textual methodology for historical studies.…”

The Double Occupancy of Hispanics

“…Critical literary analysts focus especially on examining, understanding, critiquing, and generating knowledge about symbol systems, human expressions, and texts and their interpretations. Dillon (1997) defined new historicism for technical communicators as a framework for understanding our present by examining texts as reflections of tensions between culture and power, including the “social, cultural, psychological, and phenomenological forces” that give those texts “shape and purpose.” Such analyses “foreground the self-constituting nature of any act of textual analysis” (p. 65). The way we interpret texts constitutes the way we interpret ourselves.…”

Teaching the History of Technical Communication: A Lesson with Franklin and Hoover

“…. should help us show our students that their study of writing, and the writing they will do in their professional careers, is the continuation of a rich, complex, and very old cultural tradition" [1, p. 294]; and Dillon goes further, urging us to help our students critique that tradition: "The study of the history of business and technical writing should help us teach our students to read as new historicists-to recognize that their writing continues a rich, complex, and very old cultural tradition, yes, but also to enable them to frame more usefully the writing they produce and receive in terms of power, authority, culture, and economic necessity" [8]. Although the tradition itself is "very old," the specific culture is not: most of us live in America teaching American students; to help them understand and critique the ethical, contextual, and economic aspects of the tradition in our culture-and then to see their place in doing so-we should expose them to technical communication from our country.…”

“…Although the tradition itself is "very old," the specific culture is not: most of us live in America teaching American students; to help them understand and critique the ethical, contextual, and economic aspects of the tradition in our culture-and then to see their place in doing so-we should expose them to technical communication from our country. The trend in historical scholarship further supports this focus; since 1995, we see a growing emphasis on American writers and practices: Confederate General Beauregard [29], inventor William Stillman [27], how-to writer Victor W. Page [30], AT&T's Frank Aydelotte [31], employment laws affecting women [8], and the growth of technology since World War II [26], plus Longo's chapters about American engineers and corporate practice [3], several essays in Kynell and Moran [4], and Brockmann's book, which is devoted entirely to the American tradition [2].…”

“…In an article concerned with medical texts, Jennifer J. Connor offers a five-step approach to conduct historical research [7]. A 1997 essay by W. Tracy Dillon advances new historicism as a means to study older texts in context and then understand them in relation to current practices [8].…”