Chapter 3: Mapping Technical Communication as a Field: A Co-Citation Network Analysis of Graduate-Level Syllabi

Abstract

Echoing their earlier 2001 commentary, Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber (2004) wrote in the introduction of Central Works in Technical Communication that technical communication must develop “a coherent body of disciplinary knowledge” in order to become a mature discipline and profession (p. xxvii). We revisit the question of the field’s coherence and maturity, providing an update on Elizabeth Overman Smith’s (2000a, 2004) citation analyses of the field in which she provided a set of “points of reference.” We might look to such an identifiable body of core texts as an argument for coherence, as core texts are essential to defining a discipline. This chapter provides a co-citation network analysis of texts assigned in 60 graduate syllabi for courses on the foundations of technical communication. We use social network and citation analysis tools to identify 82 core texts that we argue constitute “a coherent body of disciplinary knowledge” and signal adequate maturity in our field to move past our disciplinary anxiety of inadequacy and underdevelopment.