Connections with the Liberal Arts and Industry: Attempts to Legitimize the Profession of Teaching Technical Writing.

Because technical writing is a subject that exists in two separate contexts (a combination of practical and liberal arts), teachers of the subject must legitimize their profession by appealing to different authorities. Those attempting to strengthen the connections with the industrial world do so by (1) showing that technical writing is needed, (2) studying the way it is practiced in the real world and making present practice definitive, (3) creating courses that simulate real-life writing, and (4) emphasizing the need for teachers to have practical experience in the profession. Other writers argue that teaching technical writing is more than mere training, that writing is more than a set of techniques. Their articles can be seen as pieces of rhetoric aimed at their colleagues in the liberal arts tradition, focusing on such topics as the use of communication/rhetorical theory to evaluate present practice, the application of theory to the subject of technical writing, the definition of technical writing, and the argument that English teachers can and should teach technical writing. From a rhetorical perspective, these articles are performing a valuable service. Since their immediate audience is the community of technical writing teachers, they can be seen as epideictic discourse that reinforces the faithful and continues to shape the community's view of what the discipline is. Thirty-one references are listed. (HOD)