Legitimizing Technical Communication in English Departments: Carolyn Miller's “Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing”

Abstract

Carolyn Miller's oft-cited “Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing,” published in 1979, tries to give technical communication faculty more cultural capital in English departments controlled by literature professors. Miller replaces a positivistic emphasis in technical communication pedagogy with rhetoric. She shows how technical knowledge is produced by individual activity and social affirmation and not by objective descriptions of sensory impressions. Her “Rationale” is an attempt to change institutional and discursive structures by persuading literature professors that technical communication can have as much distinction in the academy as literature.