Professional Communication : The Social Perspective

Examines socially-based theory and research, pedagogy and practice in professional communication. This title provides an overview of the social perspective which emphasizes the context of communication, and then distinguish it from positivistic, cognitive and other competing approaches.

I am pleased at the exceptional quality . . . of the articles. . . . Well-crafted, thoroughly researched. . . . Wonderful to assign to graduate students who need an overview of both accepted and cutting-edge thought on the social perspective in professional writing. . . . All of the overview essays were thoroughly intriguing. . . . This collection blends well the theoretical and the practical, points out the ideological nature of rhetoric and writing in professional environments, and presents new research in the field. I believe this is a strong collection for readers (and researchers) new to social constructionism (and collaboration), for example, graduate students or novice teachers. For experts in the field, this collection provides a few outstanding articles. --Technical Communication Quarterly "For anyone interested in the theory and criticism of technical communication, Professional Communication: The Social Perspective is essential reading. Building on articles submitted to the Journal of Business and Technical Communication during their foudning editorship of that instantly successful journal, Nancy Roundy Blyler and Charlotte Thralls have put together a first-rate collection of mediations and studies on the social perspective in technical communication research and theory." --Jimmie Killingsworth, Ph.D.,