Visual Map of the Field

This week’s posting will show my personal visual map or representation of the field. Since I am interested in studying writing that takes place outside of the corporate setting, I have a strong influence from the cultural studies perspective. However, I believe that cultural studies and the political economy are in constant dialogue as labor changes and cycle changes within a given field are a direct response to the demands of capitalism and should be understood as such.

You will also notice that I have only positioned my map within the field of technical communication and for several reasons. First, since I have a technical communication background, that is what is most familiar to me. Second, I would also like to divulge that I am still struggling to define myself within english studies (broadly speaking) or professional writing (more specifically) so this is likely the reason why I have not placed it on my map. Third and most important, since I am interested in writing that takes place outside the walls of the organization, in my mind, the type of writing to which I am referring is not professional writing - it is social writing.

I am defining social writing by its location (outside the walls of a corporation) and by its purpose (true UCD in the sense that writers are translators of consumer interest instead of corporate values and meaning). How does the act or practice of translation differ now that it has shifted? What does labor consist of and how is it articulated? How is labor managed? And finally, as if authorship and ownership were not already blurred enough, how are these issue handled by these new writers? I am still working on a formal name for this group of writers, but I have come up with the following: non-professional technical writers, new media technical writers, and social technical writers.

Deliverable: Field Map

March 3rd, 2009 in Visual Rhetoric/Doc Design

Cynthia PengillyOnline teaching, dissertation work, and other academic stuff

Visual Map of the Field

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