Critical Power Tools

The first sourcebook for rethinking technical communication theory, practice, pedagogy, and research through a cultural studies lens.

Winner of the 2007 National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) Award for Best Collection of Essays on Technical and Scientific Communication

The first book to focus on the intersection of cultural studies and technical communication, Critical Power Tools draws on various traditions of cultural studies to develop new or expanded theoretical, methodological, and pedagogical approaches to technical communication. Offered as a sourcebook for the field, the book is organized into three parts. The first section, emphasizing theory building, reconceptualizes key concepts or practices, such as usability, through a cultural studies lens. The second section illustrates alternative research methods through several case studies. The third section offers critical and productive pedagogical approaches, including specific assignments, applicable to both undergraduate and graduate courses.

J. Blake Scott is Associate Professor of English at the University of Central Florida, the author of Risky Rhetoric: AIDS and the Cultural Practices of HIV Testing, and coauthor (with Melody Bowdon) of Service Learning in Technical and Professional Communication. Bernadette Longo is Assistant Professor of Rhetoric at the University of Minnesota and the author of Spurious Coin: A History of Science, Management, and Technical Writing, also published by SUNY Press. Katherine V. Wills is Assistant Professor of English at Indiana University–Purdue University at Columbus and coeditor (with Marc Bousquet) of the eBook The Politics of Information: Electronic Mediation of Social Change.