Whoever has emerged victorious participates to this day in the triumphal procession in which the present rulers step over those who are lying prostrate…There is no document of civilization which is not at the same time a document of barbarism. And just as such a document is not free from barbarism, barbarism taints also the manner in which it was transmitted from one owner to another. (Theses, as cited in Longo, 2000, p. 15)
All’s fair in love and war, and if writing is something you love then you can bet its going to be war to survive in a society where what is most easily accessible and looks appealing gets labeled as valid knowledge. From all of our readings over the semester, it is obvious that the world is a potentially nasty and controlling place. And so it is left for us writers to walk the fine line of catering to expectations to the extent that they get us hired and pay the bills while not losing our grip on our ethics and passions. Our portfolios then become a door into this journey. A well crafted portfolio wields style and content to at once identify its author with the masses while also demonstrating the author’s unique talent and capabilities.
As we have discussed many times throughout the course of the semester, an effective portfolio can be distinguished by the attention it pays to audience and purpose. Just as understanding a work place can help you win acceptance with employers and employees, understanding the audience of our portfolios will enable us to design documents that will gain us similar acceptance. If we have this goal in mind, our documents’ formatting will serve to usher our readers into the content of the work. After the audience has been drawn in, having written documents that clearly communicate our purpose becomes extremely important. Needless to say, if our documents look acceptable on the outside but are confusing on the inside, we have failed.
If you want to be a writer, cover all your bases. It’s war out there. People are barbarians. To the victor go the spoils.
The idea of spoils of war applied to technical writing or discourse in general is interesting. I suppose the victor is the speaker that is heard and believed the most. And, I suppose the spoils are the shaping of public knowledge and ethics. In this win or lose analogy though, what is the purpose of technical writing? Is the goal of discourse control?
ReplyDeleteAnna,
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with your statement, "From all of our readings over the semester, it is obvious that the world is a potentially nasty and controlling place. And so it is left for us writers to walk the fine line of catering to expectations to the extent that they get us hired and pay the bills while not losing our grip on our ethics and passions." After this class I feel that I have a duty to my self and the technical world to make sure I fight against the way the world wants me to think and stay true to myself. Thank you for your last line as well because I think it is something we all need to remember!
Katherine