2006

The Shift from Prediscursive to Written Technical Communication in the 19th Century American Iron Industry

The change from homespun to industrial technology in the 19th century was an immense shift in human history and it required new methods of technical communication: that which had previously been communicated by close physical contact and spoken words became so complex that it had to be contained in written language. This shift from a fluid, prediscursive form of technology transfer to the creation of written texts took place gradually as each new genre was negotiated. This paper will examine the evolution of the discourse community surrounding the iron industry between 1760 and 1860 in North America. It suggests that, prior to industrialization, technical communication took place in a prediscursive setting, an oral and physical world that we can just manage to glimpse as we watch it recede. Handwritten furnace journals and letters illustrate the prediscursive methods of technical communication. By the 1860s, a flood of governmental, professional, and commercial publications appeared, each signifying the disappearance of this prediscursive world. This transition from prediscursive to discursive methods of technical communication may mark one of the largest changes in the history of technology.

By tracing the patterns of technical communication within a single industry over time, you can see how our methods of communication changed, how our texts changed, and how our technology changed. Using forgotten texts from dusty libraries, I have unearthed one example of how written technical communication emerged and evolved.

This paper was read at the ATTW (Association of Teachers of Technical Writing) Conference in Chicago, March 22, 2006. Click here for slides.