Thinking Globally, Composing Locally.
An Interview with Kirk St. Amant & Rich Rice, by Gustav Verhulsdonck
Future Work: What do you have planned as your own next steps for engaging with or examining this topic?
"I'm soon going to spend significant time in China working with a school to develop a new program in technical communication. I am looking forward to the experience because technical communication, in particular, as workplace writing preparation, is highly contextual."
-Rich Rice
RICH:
When I studied abroad as an undergraduate student I learned an important principle that I apply to my writing all the time now; namely, that in order to understand one's own perspective and approach it's useful to step outside the comfort zone and look at one's own values through others' eyes. I've had the opportunity to teach and lecture and work with scholars in other countries, and I'm soon going to spend significant time in China working with a school to develop a new program in technical communication.
"We prepare our students to enter a variety of types of workplaces that each use a variety of specific genre and toolsets to accomplish specific goals and objectives. In another culture all of that changes: the genre, the tools, the goals, the objectives."
I am looking forward to the experience because technical communication, in particular, as workplace writing preparation, is highly contextual. We prepare our students to enter a variety of types of workplaces that each use a variety of specific genre and toolsets to accomplish specific goals and objectives. In another culture all of that changes: the genre, the tools, the goals, the objectives. Principles of effective communication may remain, basically, the same, in a general way, but the specifics are highly localized. The book we have is called Thinking Globally, Composing Locally, and I believe my experience in China will help me strengthen my understanding of effective communication generally through seeing those principles work in different ways in a context largely foreign to me.
Top of Page Author Bios
—webtext & interview by Gustav Verhulsdonck 2017
