E-raamat: Exploding Technical Communication: Workplace Literacy Hierarchies and Their Implications for Literacy Sponsorship [Taylor & Francis e-raamat]

Within the theoretical framework of the New Literacy Studies and sponsorship of literacy, Remley provides a detailed case study of how technical communication practices at a specific workplace illustrate the value of using a variety of multiple modes of representation to communicate, and the value of esteeming all modes, and of recognizing the important of developing multiple literacies. He applies existing theory about multimodality and multiliteracies, but also illustrates how ineffective multimodal rhetoric reflected in the accident contributes to the understanding of technical communication and multimodal rhetoric today. Of particular interest is the difference between the language of training and the language of the work. The case study is a March 1943 explosion at a US arsenal that involved over 2,000 clusters of fragmentation bombs and killed 11 people, most of them incinerated by the blast. Annotation ©2014 Ringgold, Inc., Portland, OR (protoview.com)

Within the framework of New Literacy Studies, Dirk Remley presents a historical study of how technical communication practices at a World War II arsenal sponsored literacy within the community in which it operated from 1940 to 1960 and contemporary implications of similar forms of sponsorship. The Training within Industry (TWI) methods developed by the U.S. government and industry at that time included multimodal literate practices, particularly combinations of visual, oral, experiential, and print-linguistic text. Analyses reveal a hierarchy in which print-linguistic literacies were generally esteemed at the workplace and in the community. This literacy hierarchy contributed to a catastrophic accident that killed 11 people, prompting changes in the approach to designing certain training documents. This book links technical communication, especially the multimodal forms of representation commonly found in technical communication and instructional materials, to the concept of literacy sponsorship. The TWI methods used in training and system improvement during World War II are currently applied in business and industry as part of the "lean operating" and "continuous improvement" philosophies. These methods have also become part of the experiential learning philosophy favored in academia. Remley includes examples of current applications of multimodal forms of technical communication similar to those used at the arsenal as well as new media-related applications related to training and instruction. He also discusses their implications for literacy sponsorship. This book provides useful information for technical communication and literacy scholars and educators as well as practical case studies for business leaders, consultants, and practitioners. Intended Audience: Scholars in technical communication and literacy/writing studies; scholars in business (especially management and organizational analysis) and business communication consultants; scholars in history and sociology.