- Oct 2016
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techwritingf16.robinwharton.net techwritingf16.robinwharton.netLD_Unit2.pdf10
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Technical writing has a close relationship to technology. Technical writing per se, must have some logical relationship to technology. We have tended to employ a very narrow view of technology, and to conflate the term with computer technology. But as Wajcman points out, technology is more than just the latest computer hardware or software on the market. Technology refers equally to knowledge, actions, and tools: it is (for example) a network of constructed waterways, the knowledge of when and how to irrigate fields, and the entire set of human actions that comprise this method for farming. Inventions, as Stanley argues, therefore include innovations such as the prepaid health care plan (Jeanne Mance), social services in hospitals (Dr. Marie Zakrzewska), and flextime (Christel Kammerer)
I think this is the most important point of this article. We need to respect the technical achievements of the " private sphere" which has mainly been confined to women, and by doing that we will realize that women have played a very important role in the history of technology.
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Technical writing exists within government and industry, as well as in theintersection between private and public spheres.
I like that they use the word intersection. That word alone makes the statement much more inclusive in my opinion.
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. The cultural link between science, technology, and masculinity combined with a bias that fails to find significance in productive activities that occur within the household and lack associated cash value has, I believe, resulted in an interpretation of "technical writing" that works to exclude the significant contributions of women.
I like that this paragraph mentions how what is considered "significant" is often tied to what makes money. I think it ties problems with materialism in our culture. Also of course if money equals power and women get paid less than men than it follows that women have less power.Here's an article on the gender pay gap that goes into it in a lot of interesting detail: http://www.aauw.org/research/the-simple-truth-about-the-gender-pay-gap/
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wW fo m e n are largely absent from our recorded disciplinary past, whether as technical writers, as scientists, or as inventors or users of technology
This is interesting because I heard somewhere before that there are more female technical writers than male technical writers. The most support for this claim I could find was the abstract from this article: http://jbt.sagepub.com/content/7/3/312.abstract So I think articles like this one are really important, because just because there may be more women in a field does not mean they do not still get disenfranchised in the field. For example, I like that this article talks about the ways that women have been ignored in the history of technical communication and technology in general.
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there is a need to establish significance, which usually involves prerequisite location within the public sphere (allocated to men) rather than the private sphere (the realm of women).
I love this, because we as a society still sometimes devalue work done in the private sphere (when compared to the public sphere), like cooking and cleaning when in reality that work is vital and not easy.
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Even when well-known women patent such "real" inventions of significance, they may not receive credit: screen actress Hedy Lamarr invented a secret communications system during World War II (and patented it, with composer George Antheil) yet "has never received either recompense . . . or due recognition," even though one of its key features — frequency hopping—"is the main anti-jamming technology used in today's billion-dollar defense systems" (Stanley, Mothers 383).
Actually i just learned about her! She was featured on the front page of a google doodle. It is sad that I had to learn about her by chance this late in life. I think this is proof that we do not learn about enough famous women in technology in school.
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Stanley contends that women's technological achievements have been routinely under-reported, at least in part, because "our sex-role stereotypes seek to confine that [feminine] creativity to such 'acceptable' areas as art, music, dance, writing, and cooking
I think this statement ignores the fact that women have also been denied access to a lot of these areas as well. For example, a lot of female writers have used male pen names so people would not know they were women. Here's an article that talks about this a little bit: http://mashable.com/2015/03/01/female-authors-pen-names/#hjZgir4d8kqk
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Catherine Greene and the cotton gin
interesting. I still remember being taught in elementary school that Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. I looked up Catherine Green: Here's an article if you want to know more about her involvement with the invention of the cotton gin: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/features/profiles/l/catharine-littlefield-greene.html
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his-story
I never noticed that and I love it as a funny way to segue into sexism in history.
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my own article on document design innovations in home sewing patterns ("Patterns for Success").
I love the name of this article, also I think this will tie in to when the author goes over cultural blinders, defining what counts as technical writing will probably be one of them. Perhaps for a long time sewing manuals might not have been considered " technical" because sewing was associated with women.
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