Dave Clark
ABSTRACT
In this paper, I detail what Bill Hart-Davidson describes as the "anxiety" that many technical communicators have about implementations of single source documentation. Specifically, I briefly explore what I see as some of the key potential rhetorical problems with single sourcing, in part by drawing on real-world examples gathered from conversations with and shadowing of technical communicators in their workplaces. I address the following potential objections that we need to handle in pragmatic and/or theoretical terms in order to claim for ourselves the kind of theoretical approach that will best suit our professional goals as well as those of our user populations:
Single Sourcing Can Privilege Organizational Needs Over Enduser Needs
Single Sourcing Can Limit Perceptions and Potential of Technical Communicators
Single Sourcing Can Contribute to Under-Theorizing
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Index Terms
- Rhetoric of present single-sourcing methodologies
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