RE: What Are Writing Skills?

["Walden Miller" <wmiller -at- vidiom -dot- com>]

I have been lurking for awhile, so ..... I like DFD's. I like communication
topographies.  I like many analysis tools,  that said...

Tony,
One of the most fundamental issues with learning about writing and its
techniques is that communication is a wicked problem.

Bonnie is right when she says to look to rhetoric.  But you will not find a
specific process to follow each time.  What you will find is a few thousand
years of attempting to tame wicked problems.

A wicked problem (from Rittel and Webber--do the google now) has the
following characteristics:

1. There is no definitive formulation of a wicked problem. 
2. Wicked problems have no stopping rule. 
3. Solutions to wicked problems are not true-or-false, but good-or-bad. 
4. There is no immediate and no ultimate test of a solution to a wicked
problem. 
5. Every solution to a wicked problem is a "one-shot operation"; because
there is no opportunity to learn by trial-and-error, every attempt counts
significantly. 
6. Wicked problems do not have an enumerable (or an exhaustively
describable) set of potential solutions, nor is there a well-described set
of permissible operations that may be incorporated into the plan. 
7. Every wicked problem is essentially unique. 
8. Every wicked problem can be considered to be a symptom of another
problem. 
9. The existence of a discrepancy in representing a wicked problem can be
explained in numerous ways. The choice of explanation determines the nature
of the problem's resolution. 
10. The planner (designer) has no right to be wrong.

While I would imagine most TW have not heard of the term wicked problem,
most recognize the problem.  There is no one way to solve the problem of
communication.  Depending on the statement of the problem there is a
different solution. In fact, the statement of the problem is the statement
of the solution (or vise versa).

Aside: The term originated in social planning and then into Arch design and
now is firmly discussed in software design as well as other arenas.  I first
ran into it in Visual Rhetoric in grad school. One of my favorite professors
had a background in Design.  He brought it to my attention. This led to
hermeneutical design processes (Snodgrass and coyne), etc.  have fun
researching and reading on these topics.  And now back to the real thread.

In architecture design, it may be that the only interesting problem is a
wicked problem.  This may be equally true in communication as well.  

As on old prof of mine use to say (poorly quoted here--apologies), if I
order a hot dog from a vendor, there is usually no problem understanding
that I want a hot dog.  This would be viewed as an extremely tame problem.

Tame problems lend themselves to analytical tools.  Tame problems can be
extremely complex, but still tame.  Wicked (interesting) problems do not
lend themselves to single tool analysis. Perhaps this is the root of a lot
of the pushback on your DFD's.   While I am sure every writer would benefit
from understanding DFD's, I am equally sure every writer would benefit
understanding "visual rhetoric"  and "organizational theory" and
"minimalism" and "design theory" and and ...

Rhetoric is the art of communication and consequently, much of rhetoric is
dedicated to (though not explicitly) the art of understanding and proposing
how one might resolve wicked problems. In and of itself, rhetoric does not
state here are the x number of steps to solve a communication problem. In
fact, saying something like "Rhetoric defines..." is problematic.  The body
of rhetorical knowledge is somewhat like the body of philosophical
knowledge.  It grows with each rhetorician :).

walden






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