RE: Reader responsibility

Subject: RE: Reader responsibility
From: "Lisa Wright" <liwright -at- earthlink -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 17 Apr 2003 08:57:00 -0700


{*shudder* Flashbacks to college literature courses!)

Anthony, I think that's an excellent observation. The reader is *always*
bringing something to the table, and as Rebecca and I have both pointed
out, neither audience analysis nor anything else can completely
eliminate that.

I like the way you phrase that: "minimizing the number of blanks that
the reader can fill." Yes, I think that is a good goal for technical
writers.

Lisa

-----Original Message-----
From: Anthony Kelly [mailto:alkelly71 -at- hotmail -dot- com]
Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2003 12:51 AM
To: liwright -at- earthlink -dot- net; techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Subject: Re: Reader responsibility


Hi,

This argument reminds me of the work of Stanley Fish and Wolfgang Iser,
who
deal primarily with phenomenology and hermeneutics. Iser suggests that a

piece of writing contains a series of blanks, that we as a reader fill
in.
This reader-response forms the basis of our reaction to the work, and
gives
it meaning.

Of course, in Tech writing perhaps we should be minimizing the number of

blanks that the reader can fill ;)

The other extreme of this argument is Barthes theory about the death of
the
author; once the author has finished the piece it is out of their hands,

thus the entire interpretation is based on the reader. Needless to say I

disagree with him.


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Re: Reader responsibility: From: Anthony Kelly

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