Slack Summary

In their article The Technical Communicator as Author: Meaning, Power, Authority, Slack, Miller, and Doak discuss how meaning, power, and authority are constructed in the process of technical communication. They identify three models (or views) of communication that impact the treatment of meaning, power, and authority: transmission view, translation view, and articulation view.

According to the transmission view, communication is the transportation of messages, and the meaning is decoded by sender and decoded by receiver. Technical communicator, being just the purveyor of meanings, is the neutral vehicle that facilitates the exercise of power by the sender over receiver. In the process of communication, sender constructs meaning, retains authority, and aims to impact receiver’s behavior. Technical communicator is not present in the communication as an author – his or her goal is to effectively convey the message.

The translation view of communication treats that communication is a practice where meanings are produced and power is negotiated through the interaction between sender and receiver. Both sender and receiver exercise power by encoding and decoding meanings. Technical writer is the mediator of meanings who works to create symmetry of power between sender and receiver. While technical communicator is granted a more important role of the mediator of meanings, he or she still is not an author.

The articulation view considers communication as an ongoing effort to articulate and rearticulate some fixed meanings. Contributing to the process of communication are the sender, receiver, other individuals, technologies, and media. Technical writer plays the role of author participating in an ongoing articulation and rearticulation of meanings and relations of power. He is as important for the construction of meanings as sender and receiver.

Out of the three views of communication, it is through the lens of the articulation model that technical communicator is considered as fully articulating the meanings and being empowered as author. The implication of the articulation view of communication is that technical communicators, as equally important contributors to the process of articulating meanings, must assume the ethical responsibility for the technical writing and communication products they produce.

With greater responsibility comes a greater level of recognition. I will use the arguments put forth by Slack, Miller, and Doak to argue for a pay increase and for granting me more authority as a technical writer in the organization.