Culture and Rhetorical Expectations: A Perspective for Technical Communicators
In this article, I discuss how individuals who communicate about technical and scientific topics (i.e., technical communicators) can apply ideas from the theory of rhetoric to communicate more effectively with individuals from other cultures. In so doing, I present a question-based strategy technical communicators can use for planning how they will develop different communication products (e.g., written reports, instructions, websites, etc.) for audiences from cultures other than their own.
The writing consultant as cultural interpreter: Bridging cultural perspectives on the genre of the periodic engineering report
The periodic engineering report can become a source of conflict and frustration when North American engineers collaborate with colleagues abroad. To overcome such difficulties, technical companies may hire writing consultants, who then take on the additional role of cultural interpreters, helping the partners bridge differences in both the practice of engineering and the language and culture of each country. As such a writing consultant, I worked with a Canadian engineering company, its Russian contractors, and a Russian translator to analyze the sources of difficulties in their reports. The language of the reports was English, but differences in tone as well as reader expectations about organization, format, and appropriate content caused misunderstandings among the collaborators. Contrastive rhetorical analysis helped to identify problems in both the conception of the report as a document and the translation of particular text.
Communicating in multinational organizations
PART ONE: THEORETICAL AND RESEARCH FOUNDATIONS Communication in Multinational Organizations - Robert Shuter and Richard L Wiseman Conceptual, Theoretical, and Practical Issues Intercultural Organizational Communication Research in Multinational Organizations - J C Bruno Teboul, Ling Chen and Lynn M Fritz Minimizing Threats to the Validity of Cross-Cultural Organizational Research - Jeffrey C Ady PART TWO: CULTURAL BASES FOR COMMUNICATION IN MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS Communication in Japanese Multinational Organizations - Alan Goldman Communication in Latin American Multinational Organizations - Lecia Archer and Kristine L Fitch Communication in Multinational Organizations in the United States and Western Europe - Donald P Cushman and Sarah Sanderson King PART THREE: DIVERSITY AND ADJUSTMENT IN MULTINATIONAL ORGANIZATIONS Intercultural Challenges and Personal Adjustments - Young Yun Kim and Sheryl Paulk A Qualitative Analysis of the Experiences of American and Japanese Co-Workers Co-Cultural Communication Within the Organization - Devorah A Lieberman and Ellene Gurtov Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Training in Multinational Organizations - Rosita Daskal Albert