Toward Technical Authorship

Abstract

Recent theory views technical communication not as a “transmission” of a message from sender to receiver but as a complex process involving an articulation of meanings, in which the technical communicator serves as a mediator. Ethnographies composed by practicing technical communicators demonstrate ways in which this mediation takes place. As such, the mediation casts the work of technical communicators in new light, allowing us to understand their work as “authorship.” This article draws upon practitioner research to present some of the facets of such authorship.