“Ourselves among others”: A new metaphor for business and technical writing
- 1 June 1992
- journal article
- research article
- Published by Taylor & Francis in Technical Communication Quarterly
- Vol. 1 (3) , 23-36
- https://doi.org/10.1080/10572259209359504
Abstract
Business and technical writing grows out of a need to “build bridges” between ourselves and others. With today's diversifying readerships and increasingly global marketplace, business and industry face a new challenge that is reshaping our conception of business/technical writing and the metaphors of the genre. The metaphors of “selling” and “reader‐centeredness” demand especially to be recast and subordinated to a new metaphor of interculturalism/ internationalism—"ourselves among others.” Grounded in a social theory of language and communication, this new metaphor signifies that “bridge‐building” across differences will be the key in contexts becoming at once more heterogeneous and global.Keywords
This publication has 1 reference indexed in Scilit:
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