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>But, then again, some
>of the people on this list who have degrees may have taken classes in Technical
>Writing History and Rhetoric should know how long it has really
>been around ;-)
>
Depends on what you want to call technical writing. I would start with
Hesiod (8th Century BC) and his poetic advice on farming _Works and Days_.
I just happen to have in front of me a brochure for Elizabeth Tebeaux's _The
Emergence of a Tradition: Technical Writing in the English Renaissance,
1475-1640_ for folks with a taste for a scholarly examination. The blurb
states that the books she examines on medicine, farming, silkworm
production, military science, and navigation "show that their writers were
aware of the importance of shaping content to the technical needs and
literacy levels of the intended readers" (as if that weren't a commonplace
since Aristotle). Brace yourself for the usual academic claptrap, however.
Here's the title of Chapter 6: "For [surely they must mean 'From'?] Orality
to Textality: Technical Description and the Emergence of Visual and Verbal
Presentation." The end of the period under consideration coincides with the
death of the greatest technical writer of them all, Robert Burton, whose
_Anatomy of Melancholy_ is the only work of technical writing that is
*deliberately* funny.
--Wayne
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Wayne Douglass phone: 408-542-2139
Verity, Inc. FAX: 408-542-2040
894 Ross Road mailto: wayned -at- verity -dot- com
Sunnyvale, CA 94089 http://www.verity.com
"Connecting People With Information"
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