Graduate Thesis Or Dissertation
 

Negotiating between conflicting discourse communities : scientists writing technical marketing copy

Public Deposited

Downloadable Content

Download PDF
https://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/concern/graduate_thesis_or_dissertations/rr1721058

Descriptions

Attribute NameValues
Creator
Abstract
  • This case study investigates how scientists who write technical marketing copy experience and resolve the tension that results from the conflicting demands of their local (company) and global (research science) discourse communities. Twelve scientists, who are currently technical marketing writers at a small biotechnology company, were interviewed by e-mail over the course of three months, and they were also asked to submit writing samples. The results of this study challenge the theory that a writer's perception of audience, which is also linked to philosophical orientation (positivist/constructivist), is the primary factor that determines whether they will write persuasively or informatively. Killingsworth's concepts of local and global discourse communities were applied to help develop a comprehensive picture of the tension experienced by these authors. Although all of the positivists in this study did choose a strictly informative writing style, there appeared to be a number of factors affecting whether the constructivists wrote persuasively or informatively. These factors included the strength of a writer's professional identification with the local (company) or global (research science) discourse community, the level of tension created by the conflicting demands of the local and global discourse communities, and the extent of a writer's perception of audience.
License
Resource Type
Date Available
Date Issued
Degree Level
Degree Name
Degree Field
Degree Grantor
Commencement Year
Advisor
Academic Affiliation
Non-Academic Affiliation
Subject
Rights Statement
Publisher
Peer Reviewed
Language
Digitization Specifications
  • File scanned at 300 ppi (Monochrome) using ScandAll PRO 1.8.1 on a Fi-6670 in PDF format. CVista PdfCompressor 4.0 was used for pdf compression and textual OCR.
Replaces

Relationships

Parents:

This work has no parents.

In Collection:

Items

Thumbnail Title Date Uploaded Visibility Actions
file details BrattenJoAnneLynn2002.pdf 2017-08-08 Public Download